Oceania Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones - Your opinion

Best movie ever

 

The birth of the Death Star....


I just saw it 2nd time - and with a second viewing, I can see my problem with Yoda's fighting - on the ground, apart from the fact that he was way too short (and so was his lightsaber), he was fine, but the rest of the time he just jumped around way too much. Just didn't click for me.

I'm just getting too old, mesa thinks. I preferred the dramatic sequences to the action ones.


BUT - one thing that did impress me about the battle scenes was the camera work - so to speak - the way the camera zoomed around, picking up ships and troopers and such. That looked great, IMHO. Made it look more realistic, less cg.

Anyway.

 

And how funny was Boba Fett's kiwi accent? HAHAHAHA. Boba Fett's a maouri!! (sp?)

And all stormtroopers are kiwis

The moral of the movie?

All kiwis are evil

 

I personally wasn't expecting the Death Star to rate a mention yet

 

OH and Yoda kicked ass

 

The Death Star thing certainly did surprise me...all the seeds are being sown for the creation of the empire....MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Yoda kicked ass. He so did kick ass!

 

I saw AOTC today and thus will give you my review.

However, for those who haven't seen it I will give a big gap for you to overlook my post.

What I'll do is give a spoiler countdown from 10, then my review starts, and when it is over I'll count to 10 and then it is safe for you to read, so scroll fast without reading until you see that second countdown say 10, and read on, and then you can still see my non-spoiler summary of what I thought of Attack of the Clones.

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AOTC - The Tiel Review
(Clear your mind)

I liked AOTC, but it had some major problems.

Cons

- Too Long.

The film was drawn out, plain and simple. Many people said this with Phantom Menace also, that all it wanted to do was set the stage but took too long to do it, AOTC suffers the same fate.

- Start, Stop. Start, Stop.

In AOTC there were very slow parts, and when action got good it was normally cut short either by cutting to someone else's adventure (ie- Obi Wan on Kamino to Anakin on Naboo etc), or simply because it was in the plot (Yoda fight, Tusken slaughter).

- Bad Directing, acting, story.

When I first saw The Movie Show's review on SBS (15/5/02) AOTC was given two and a half stars out of 5, with calls of bad acting, directing, and scripting.

I naturally assumed critics can overharsh because they are jaded, and a true fan's opinion was worth more ... well reluctantly this time I agree with the critics, Lucas has some bad directorial moments that seriously mess up the flow of the film, if any Star Wars film was in need of a "Phantom Edit" then this may well be the film.

The main problem as I see it is that AOTC originally clocked in at 4 hours, Lucas cut back but it in a seemingly rushed sort of way, much like a comic book works, which is fine for it's realm, but suffers on screen. (examples: cutting to a love story from a mystery namely Obi Wan's mission on Kamino to the sappy love story on Naboo, Anakin's fight with the Tusken's too short, Anakin's dream was remenicent of a TV movie of the week, and some uninteresting shots.)

The acting was not great either, the only actors to give really compelling performances were unused, namely Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee, Ian McDirmind(?) and Samuel L. Jackson, as they had to compete against the central love story and clone war.

This is perhaps the most distressing part of AOTC, as Samuel L. Jackson seems to be reviving his Pulp Fiction role at times to being just a boring guy with no feeling, nothing like the powerfully wise prescence Jackson gave in the Phantom Menace, when every look and gesture worked for him.

The great Christopher Lee was totally wasted and deserved more screen time, he wasn't even shown until the last say hour (a guess) of the film.

Ian McDirmind gave an extraordinary sly and cunning performance in the Phantom Menace, yet his only line in the film that encompasses this same level of acting ability is "As my first act I shall create a grand army of the republic ...", with perhasps the only other being his council to Anakin.

One example of bad acting was when Natalie Portman is lying on the desert ground in pain, then a clone trooper says "are you ok" and she jumps and is fine and says lets rally the troops and fight or something to that affect. Perhaps I should mark that as another directorial blunder by Lucas, he should have given her a bit more time to get up and show some background footage of explosions or similar to motivate Padme, even a simply look across the desert in the direction of battle would have been suffice, but in it's current form, it's unbelievable.

Then there's the story, slow where it counts and fast where it shouldn't, essentially we have a story here that should only take and hour and a half to tell in it's current "comic book format" yet it's drawn out by an extra hour which is composed of parts uneeded and intrusive to the main goal.

- Silliness and slang.

Some stuff was overdone. Namely C-3PO using the slang "what a drag" when R2 w

 

"Crouching Yoda, Hidden Dragon' - Roger Ebert (in his review of E2)

 

i also liked the mind trick scene (did noone else like that?)
i thoght it was great that there was still "star wars" jokes in it.
in the cinema, me, oola and another guy a couple of rows behind were the only people who laughed at alot of the jokes. the only parts anyone else laughed at was the yoda scene (it wasnt that funny) and the "youll be the death of me" line. wat was wrong with the people i saw it with? lol.

 

ok, after a second viewing i still say the CG stuff from the last 1/3rd of the film was crap. Total Crap. Like someone said previously, it was like the odd couple, switching from realistic looking things (actual sets/models) to 100% CG. Really terrible. And the worst thing is, it was all so unnecesary. Things didn't need to be so CG. There was no need for Anakin to ride on all the creatures backs (easily the worst shots of the movie). There was no depth, it's was just like looking at moving matte paintings. I dunno, maybe this could have been fixed by staging the arena battle at nighttime. Compare the CG of FOTR to AOTC. PJ used to CG to compiment the movie, GL used the CG to make the movie. You tell me which was better.

Overall, it felt rushed and in my opinion did little to take us towards the OT. Episode III just has way too much to explain. I guess my overall feeling from the movie is "I wonder how long it's been since GL actually watched to original trilogy????"

 

You're probably in the minority there, Tom. I, and almost everyone else I've spoken to, have said how brilliant the final 1/3rd was- especially the FX. Sure, it didn't look perfect, but it still looked fantastic. Having Jedi in that battle helped too (as opposed to the Gungan/Droid battle which was entirely CG and, thus, looked like a cartoon). I think you're being just a little bit too nitpicky


The only reason FOTR pulled off its FX was because most of those shots were done in darkness. And the fact that, due to the lame and confusing MTV camera technique, you didn't actually get to see half of the FX probably helped. At least Lucas shows everything.

 

The main thing that bugged me about the 1st clone war was those "Helicopter-like" ships that carry the clone troops.

Perhaps George was inspired by Black Hawk Down but Yoda arriving on a chopper just didn't feel right IMHO.

 

Ok, but in all fairness, if you're staging a ground assault in enemy territory runways are hard to find. Most transport ships in Star Wars land vertically anyway, the gunships were pretty cool IMO because they were designed specifically for ground assault: heavy lasers, good shields (I was surprised at the number of hits they took ) and the ability to easily deploy troops. The point I'm making is that it was probably the most effective way of landing troops, short of putting a heavy cruiser down and letting them all file off.

 

Stinrab, ya probably right, i am nitpicking a little. I just feel a lot of the CG was there becaused it 'could' be there, not because it 'needed' to be there. I just get the feeling that they didn't quite have the tech yet to pull of what they were trying, and that this will be glaringly obvious in say 3 years.

Don't get me wrongo, i still LOVED it, and can't wait to see it again, i just think it's a shame that GL is so into computers. I watched the pod race from TPM just before, and to me it looked far more realistic than Anakin on the swoops. AOTC just seemed to have a kinda blurry washed feel to it.

It's still my second favourite though!!!!

P.S - Hayden was aweeeeesome. I just hope Sam Jackson doesn't have a big sabre fight in the next one. He's seems to be ummmmmm kind of unco?

 

Effective? Yes.

In the style of Lucasfilm? No. (IMHO)

 

Well, I've said it before, and I'll say it again - E2 is not "cg" looking, it's "Pulp Scifi" looking.

Lucas is, IMHO, going for the look of the covers of all those old Pulp Scifi magazines that he read as a kid: oil paintings with robot wars and big outer-space monsters and swashbuckling heroes and women in tight clothing...

If you look at it that way, E2 is pretty close to that vision. Sure, not a direct hit, but close enough.


Of course, the problem is, it doesn't fit with the original trilogy, especially ANH, which has a gritty, natural look about it.

And that, IMO, is the problem. Not that e2 looks bad - just that it doesn't look like the original trilogy.


Oh well.

 

Ok after seeing in twice I thought I'd better post here.

After our intial screening I was totally blown away with the effects and all, but now that I've seen it twice and have had time to digest all. I think it was a great movie, not the best, but still great. I don't think anything will beat TESB or ANH they were just way ahead of there times.

There are a few little problems I have with AOTC but they stem from me being too analytical, as I'm sure a number of fans are. I think they over did the C3PO comedy routine a little and there were a few plot holes. Overall I think the sound could have been a bit louder and the music a bit more prominent. We all know why Anakin loves Padmé but why does she love Anakin? George really didn't give her any reason too.

I loved the astroid chase especially the seismic charges, I really thought something was wrong with the sound when they detonated. Loved the look of Kamino wished they'd showed a little more. Thought the whole Coruscant chase was spectacular and the opening scene was fantastic.

I'm now reading the book and am finding some scenes that would have been great if included in the film. Let's see what happens when the DVD is released. I'll definetley be seeing it again and again and ....... after I've finished the book in the next few days.

Somethings I think would have made it more powerful - if Shmi had died before Anakin found her, would have meant he hadn't had a chance to even speak to her let alone save her and if they had showed Anakin hugging Padmé with the artifical arm instead of just hanging by his side. Why didn't Obi-Wan or Anakin use the Force to escape from there bonds in the Arena, I don't think George has the Jedi use the Force enough in the movie.

 

Hey Darth Tom,
I'll agree to dissagree with you on the CGI - with all respect I think you're being awfully subjective and FOTR is actually not a very good example at all. Oh and darkness is an easy way out if it's not already an integral part of the story (as the mines of Moria were). However it's a bit disingenuous when there are sequences like the amazing flying tour of the mines which couldn't possibly be done in 'reality'. Not to mention how 'fake' the cg doubles looked at times.

Which brings me to this whole redundant argument about reality in a fantasy film.

In the 1800s we achieved photographic reality with still cameras. For the last hundred years cinematographers in film have been trying to go further and make their photography look as lyrical as a painting. Now here we are in a new century and can LITERALLY 'paint with light' - why on earth do we want set ourselves BACK a hundred years???

Although consistency is a valid point, the actual criticism of vistas characters and 'reality' of things for which we have no frame of reference seems a little pointless. Did anyone actually think at any time Yoda was NOT a puppet in the original trilogy? Come on. If they had a fight scene with an animatronic puppet or a guy in a suit do you really think it would have looked better (not to mention how it would have hobbled the choice of angles and dynamic shots and even the possibility of that scene in the first place)? Do we live on a planet with an orange sky? Artists are hired on purpose to create colour palettes/keys to set a MOOD, not a nice photo where granny can see how her bottlebrush bush in the background is doing.

Also, I think Darth Tom will find a lot of that Geonosis stuff was comped miniatures and photogrammetry. Not to mention that the supposedly 'real' rocks in the tight shots were hilariously (and endearingly) plaster-y.

So this is my long-winded way of saying - go with it, Tom. one of the the things I loved about the movie is that it exploited the strengths of many techniques to give us things that are both figuratively and literally out of this world.


P.S. That graininess looked to me to be a rushed release print thing. Certain reels were worse than others, so I doubt it was the original footage. In the previous films (TPM & special Eds) they had to match film grain from live elements, but not on this one (except a bit for that film-like 'look'). The worst example of this that I've ever seen was Godzilla's simultaneous release. Not only was the grain unbelievable, but there was so much grot on the prints I'm glad I got my money back. Twice.

P.P.S. Hey, that 'Pulp-Sci-Fi' comment is bang-on, Ozhaggis!

P.P.P.S. In movies they usually mix diluted milk in with rain so it will photograph. Wow - movie reality! Strangely enough, I was talking to one of those guys and they said they didn't do it though for Ep.2. Weird.

 

Hey listen guys, this thread was established to get your opinion of the film, not bag what every one else thinks. I don't appreciate some of you picking on other people specifically, so please, CUT IT OUT!!!

Other than that, I still haven't ahd a chance to see AOTC, but I hopefully will very soon.

It's hard for us busy people to find time for little thinks.

Anyway, just keep in mind what I said about picking on specific people!!

Cheers, Jaina

 

Did you mean me Jaina? I took pains to point out that my opinion was different and not meant to cause offence. It just happened that Darth Tom specifically addressed the topic I was going to post about anyway. I don't think there's anything wrong with airing an opposing view as long as you're not trolling. Isn't that pretty much the point of a forum or debate?

On a sort of related topic (imagery), one thing I was definitely dissapointed in was the soft/blurred projection. I've seen it in 3 different cinemas on 3 different screens and it was a soft picture every time. I'm still trying to find out if this was just the usual crappy presentation we get from most Aussie cinemas, or whether it's actually Lucasfilm's fault (or the lab that did the release prints). I heard that the guys from Hoyts were actually going to return the prints but were told "No it's supposed to look like that". Not sure though if that's true or if it's just anti-digital industry types spreading snide comments.I started getting worried though when I saw the opening crawl and looked at telltale things like the middle of an 'a'. So my opinion of the film was definitely tainted by the presentation. How can you be affected by subtleties if you can't actually see 'em?

P.S. Check out the latest 'making of'. Geonosis arena was a model/set. Just the characters (harder to do traditionally) were cg.

 

Ok well I will sorta post what I thought. It's kinda hard, because I saw it at the midnight session, and was pretty wated by the end. And also, I felt drunk, yet I hadn't consumed alcohol. (What the hell that's about I don't know). But I digress.

First, I basically played spot the Aussie during the film, saw SOOOO many of them, eg Susie Porter, Leanna Walshmann etc that perhaps that took away from my experience.

Temeura Morrison = Jango = Unintentional Comedy. I couldn't take him seriously, I mean, he can't be serious can he? I would preferred Jay La'gaia as Jango.
And as for Boba, "that sex eh bro" and other assorted Kiwi talk absolutely killed me.
Again, Unintentional Comedy 100.

Now for the film.

The first bit was fairly good, but I didn't like the lack of dialogue from Obi-Wan and Anakin, it sorta was one-dimensional. Now I'm a big Obi fan, and I thought Ewan was at his best when he was by himself, he could be his true good actor self. Yet Hayden wasn't bad, just not as good.

The middle felt forced, and dragged in too many spots for my liking. I think the editing process needed to be more stringent.

And as for the end, well that went OFF!!!

Massive tick marks for it, it made the movie quite 'grouse'.

This review is quite sparse, as i can't really make up my mind yet. Needless to say, it was good.


And as for people giving good talk to ANH, I challenge you to go back and watch it without breaking into laughter. Very funny film, if not supposed to be. Some of the lines in THAT were corny, hence the tradition continues.

I'm rambling...

 

Roger Ebert said the same of e2 in his review - looked blurry, out of focus, etc - but then he posted another review of e2 with digital projection and said it was UNBELIEVABLE how much better it was... the images, the sound ...


Shame there are no digital cinemas here.

Or are there?


(The cinema he saw it at had to get a digital projector flown in to show it).

 

No digital theaters in Australia unfortunately.

 

mace windu's
"the party's over"
was pretty cool
and lol i was laughing at at the fetts
"dad he's up from behind ya" (in ochre accent)
"struth he's trackin' us"

 

Just saw it again, earlier today.


Senational doesn't describe how good this movie is. All the quirks I found in the first viewing disappeared.

Acting not as bad, didn't feel too long.

Took my dad, and he said "It's over already??" And I laughed.

Thats the mark of a good film.