The ONLY Official Thread for Attack of the Clones

I was wondering is there a website that gives in detail what will go in episode 3.. not so much the movie... but more like just the story of it all... like i know its the fall and all that and kenobi battles little grown up Ani and the there is Vader and he hnts down Jedi and more on the clone Wars... but is there somewhere that can give more specifics? Thanx all.

 

Actually, I liked it better than ROTJ, too...

 

Yoda made the movie for me, and Hayden Christiansen's performance was a pleasant surprise. The trailers didn't do him justice.

I've deffinately got a new favorite.

-tm

 

Yoda catching DooKoo's lightening and turning it into a ball that disappears. He says the line ... "You still have much to learn."

I thought I was in heaven, man. That was IT.

BTW - a week later and this discussion is on page 5?!


BUMP!

 

For Yoda it looks like they've popped a balloon, motion tracked it, and then applied those movements to the Yoda model. With a bit of keyframe animation thrown in on top of that for his arms and legs etc.

 

First off. I loved Ep 2. Ep 5 is still my favorite. But Ep 2 runs a close second. The art direction was beautiful. The acting from all concerned was WAY top notch. Yoda of course rocked. Threepio was unduly tortured for being an electronic complaining machine, always a plus.

Natalie Portman I've been a fan of since her performance in 'The Professional.' But what really struck me was the similarity between her and Leia's characters. At a guess, I'd say that Miss Portman may have been asked to study some of Carrie Fisher's performances as reference to build believability as Leia's Mother. Hayden Christensen manages to emote a proto-Vader fantastically. More than that considering that all we ever REALLY see of Vader emoting in the later movies is all David Prowse's gesture and James Earl's voice. You can really feel the resentment Vader later expresses on the Death Star in his final duel with Kenobi. His anger is built up believably and WELL acted.

Seeing Slave One in action the way I did was satisfying in the extreme. Yes that missile launch looked lifted straight out of bounty trail only with a better budget and the direction of the shot reversed. But the Temblar Mines ROCKED. And you REALLY got a sense of why it's called a 'Firespray' Patrol Craft. (Ship Class: FireSpray Patrol Craft taken from Star Wars: Alliance - Tech Specs)

Yeah, it was too bad that so much of the other soundtracks got cut and pasted into the BGM. It was as disappointing musically as seeing the same defense cannon or colonial viper library shots over and over in Battlestar Galactica visually. Musically, we deserved better than that. But the new theme, 'Across the Stars' manages to perfectly convey tragic romance, urgency and fiery passion destined for a horrible end. *listens to it immediately* And the music for the Tuskens' murder scene... I love hearing John Williams do scary music. You get so many sappy themes from him for other movies that sometimes you forget he gave us the Jaws theme, the T-Rex Attack Theme from Jurassic Park... It casts the wholesome image of the guy that did the sappy 'Home Alone' Christmas music in a new light when you think on it that way.

Okay. There were things that bothered me about George's storytelling. He paid a lot of attention to details. Don't get me wrong. I live for the little things that he got right. But there's larger issues to do with plot holes that he seems to have left WIDE open.

The biggest plot hole me and my pal that just saw it today noticed was to do with Anakin's mom. Ten years have passed and Anakin's a man now. Umm.. Okay. Padme with the resources of Naboo and the Jedi Council with the resources of the republic at their hand didn't think once in ten years to go back to Tattooine and make Watto an offer he couldn't refuse to buy Shmi Skywalker? Who dropped the ball on that one? How did Anakin forget this one? It kind of completely negates that whole sappy goodbye moment between young Anakin and Shmi where he promises to come back for her. What happened? Did he get off Tattooine and forget all about her? How self centered is that? He's supposed to care enough to turn to the dark side and murder Tuskens when avenging her death. But he couldn't be bothered for 10 whole years til he started having nightmares? Oh yeah. He really wanted to go back.

Which brings me to another thing. Tattooine was supposed to have been 'the butt-end of space' wasn't it? So why do we end up there in 4 out of 5 movies? Oh yeah Luke, nothing ever happens there. Unless you count Jabba's HQ being there. The Emperor's Hand being there. Fett there on a regular basis. Vader's Brother in Law lives there. Vader was born there. His son was raised there. Obi Wan hid there. MUCH heard of Pod Racing tournaments happen there. Gee, for the place farthest from the bright center of the universe, it's pretty jumping. Is it on the Elrood trade route or something?

I can imagine Vader in orbit after he decides the plans must have been in the jettisonned pod. Thinking

 

Well, I finally saw AOTC last night at one of the digital theaters here in NYC (Ziegfeld) and I have to admit, I really liked it! The pacing of things didn't bother me too much. I think the main thing that had me wincing (and everyone else in the theater) was the cheezy romance dialog. A baby in the theater took this very opportunity to emit one resounding "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" in the scene where ani's professing his burning love for amidala....the theater erupted in laughter.

Anyway, here were just a few things that hit me as I was watching. Being more of an audio guy, that's what I tend to pick up on first:

* Is it me or do almost all of the spaceships in this one sound like modified pod racers (ani's to be exact?) They all had that high-pitched whine common with spacecraft but also had that "clug-clug-clug" sound that sounds like something is rattling inside which I've only heard before in ani's pod. Maybe Lucas REALLY liked the sound....hmmm

* The very first scene of the naboo spaceship transporting padme's decoy...someone clue me in why it sounded like an old prop plane...like a multi-propellered transport when I'm looking at huge booster engines. (I'll wager that the sound design guys used an old prop plane as a starting point for this one). Just found it kind of odd. Those crazy Nabooians and their flying machines.

* The last sound issue that threw me off a little bit were those detonators jango was releasing through the asteroid field to nail obi-wan...I never heard a bomb that sounded like a huge distorted guitar-hit before...threw me off for a moment. Maybe that's a good thing. Just struck a weird chord in me...hahah...get it? Guitar? Chord? hahahah....nevermind.

Overall, i thought the CG rocked! There were a few scenes that needed some tweaking. 3D characters riding 3D animals weren't as convincing as I would've liked to have seen but it didn't bother me too much. I thought there were couple problems with lighting a real-life character in front of a matte painting....I forget which scene it is but there's one of mace windu walking in front of a background and it looks less real than most of the other composited shots.

Lastly, The worst scene in the film, and one that also drew snickers from everyone else in the audience was at the end where Padme goes flying off the crashing vessel when they were chasing dooku. She's basically comatose from injury in the sand and a clone trooper comes up to her asks if she's ok and she just pops up on her feet with a "Yes," like she didn't even have a scratch on her. It was just too ridiculous.

I know I'm knit-picking with these comments...these were just the things that caught my attention more than anything else. Regarding the ani-padme romance - i have one half of me saying, what girl in her right mind would fall in love with this kid who shifts gears from being the whiny, brooding "I never get to do what I want" baby to the "I love you I love you I love you" stalker crush romantic?...oh, and he's witty....well supposed to be. I try to justify things by saying, "There's someone for everyone" as the saying goes...and many women fall for the dark menacing type....perhaps she's initially attracted to his turmoil and brooding nature?

I dug it all anyway and felt I got my money's worth. Yoda kicked and got rouses of applause from the audience. Looking forward to Episode III!


--KuyaPete

 

I have to agree with the sound issues. I'm betting that Ben Burtt was on vacation or something during post on EpII. All the ship sounds are recycled pod racers, and the prop plane used for the senate ship in the opening sequence was disturbingly noticable. Zam's pistol sounds like a TIE fighter. The refugee ship that Ani and Padme use to travel to Naboo has the exact same sound as the republic cruiser from TPM. I guess it's just nit-picking, but it kinda caught me off guard when I'm so used to new and creative sounds in each Star Wars movie to hear Ben just basically blowing this one off and using the same old sounds from before.

One thing though, Count Chocula's lightsaber seemed to have a 'throatier' sound than others in the past. Maybe that was a new sound to go with the new look? And I really did like the sound for the seismic charges in the asteroid field, although if you think about it they sound an awful lot like the VGER probe from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Interesting.

SK

 

So I watched it again today, and noticed that the big orb ships that took off at the end where the middle sections of the Droid control ships (as seen in Episode 1)

I never noticed that before...

 

Hey, WinterRose...
I was always under the impression that Vader never knew Padme had their children. He only linked it together when he heard the name Skywalker. He didn't know that he had a daughter, so it's not inconceivable that he didn't know he had a son, also.

 

vADER HAD NO CLUE ABOUT HIS DAUGHTER, SAME AS HE DIDNT KNOW ABOUT HIS SON, HE ONLY PUT IT TOGEATHER AFTER HE HERD ABOUT A BOY CALLED SKYWALKER, THE BOY WHO DESTROYED THE DEATHSTAR (OR THE BALL BALL AS MY NEPHEW CALLS IT)

 

Well I finally got around to seeing AOTC yesterday. It was a pretty good movie, not great, not bad.. about what I expected it to be.

I hated:

The whole C3PO head swapping scene. I kinda like C3PO, but man.. that was just terrible.. so incredibly stupid.. I was almost wishing Jar Jar was back.. (DOH! Did I say that??)

The Sound of Music Scene Was that supposed to be a homage or a joke? It HAD to be intentional.

The one EXTREMEMLY bad cgi scene.. Near the end of the sound of music scene Anakin jumps on top of that oversized grass muching Tick. Man that just looked sooooo fake.. Kinda suprised Lucas left that in there...

The CONSTANT bickering between Anakin and Obi-Wan. If I was hanging out with a teenager who whinned that much I'd have to beat him down to size a couple of times. Obivously Anakin isnt as great as he thinks he is.. He lost 3 sabers (got one back) and lost practically his entire arm!

I loved:

YODA!! I heard a lot of so called "purists" complaining about Yoda's fight scene, so I was a little worried, but let me tell you they handle it perfectly!!

All the rest of the CGI work.

The darth star plans!! (I wasnt expecting that to pop up quite yet)

 

BTW - do you want to know why he left the cowish thingy surfing scene in?

CUZ the effects guys had too much fun with it. Look closely at a bunch of scenes. For instance in the asteroid sequence there is one of the cow things on fire...hehe

 

So how many times have you all seen it?

I have seen it 3 times and am going for a 4th tommorrow!!!

Edit: 2 times on digital

 

2 times on crappy film
1 on godly digital

 

Hmm... Okay. It would make sense that Vader didn't know about the twins. That would suggest that matters happen pretty fast and loose around the time that Anakin turns completely to Vader. Assuming Padme's species of humanoid has a gestation of around 9 months for their fetuses, that would mean that within a 9 month period, Anakin and Padme do the conception thing, Something happens that either takes her from him or causes her to leave him. Then the volcano fight... and then the rest of the story.

One would have to assume that Padme is not offed or killed since Leia has a vague but living memory of her. And if Vader didn't know about the kids, I gotta ask... what do you folks think was responsible for Padme dying while Leia was young? A broken heart? In the movies, it has been known...

So... No answers as to why everyone forgot about Shmi on Tattooine? Let's give it a name. How about the 'Great Galactic Brain Fart'. (GGBF).

-WinterRose

 

"Attachment is forbidden" - Anakin Skywalker

That is why Anakin and the Jedi didn't help her. He couldn't go back, whether he wanted to or not, because the Jedi don't place value on people like that. Think about it, none of them knew their parents so why would this boy's mother be any concern of theirs? Especially since Qui-Gon would probably be the only one who could understand the bond between mother and child as he was the only one to see it, and he's dead.

Padme, that's another story. Yes, she probably could have bought Shmi and put her to work on Naboo or something but, again, Padme is more concerned with her people and her planet than with a woman on a distant planet that she visited once. If she can manage to go 10 years without seeing Anakin or Obi-Wan again, with them living on the same planet, then you can't really expect her to really worry about Shmi or her fate.

It's all about priorities. Anakin is the only one who cares about her and he is forbidden from contact with her because it is probably felt that it will hinder his training.

The better question is how Owen and Beru Lars couldn't remember C3PO when he used to live with them. Different coverings or not, they should remember the voice (which as shown by the use of the silver protocol droid in TPM might be individualized) and they should remember the name. It's understood and, actually, was confirmed by George Lucas in an interview last week that the droids (both of them) are going to have a memory wipe between III and IV but unless someone wiped Owen and Beru's memories........well, we have a contrived plot device.

 

One would have to assume that Padme is not offed or killed since Leia has a vague but living memory of her.

I thought this once, too. But then something about Padme being the mother Leia spoke of in ROTJ just didn't make sense to me. If that woman was Padme, and Bail Organa was her father, then what happened? Did Padme all of a sudden fall in love with a man that looks near twice her age? It'd give some incentive as to why Anakin loses it. But it just doesn't seem right...not at all. I can only figure she was talking about her foster mother.
The only thing that really supports Padme being the mother she spoke of was this line:
"She was kind...but, sad."

The better question is how Owen and Beru Lars couldn't remember C3PO when he used to live with them.

But wasn't Owen rather persistant about having the two droids' memory wiped? and on the same note, Protocol droids, for the most part, all look the same. Sure he'd remember C3PO if someone pointed out to him who he was. But the number might have just skipped his brain altogether. Or even just for the moment. Then later he realizes who those two droids are and pursues as strong as possible to have their memory wiped.
Make sense at all?

 

Oh it's definitely possible and I will take into consideration that George didn't have it planned out yet when making ANH. Owen also didn't spend all that much time with 3PO, it was mostly Luke cleaning him and then the following day they left early to find R2.

It's just one of those things you wish could tie in perfectly and not need an explanatory fix


And the Leia memory could be a false memory but Luke qualified his question with, "your real mother", because he knew she had been adopted. It's also something that could have been imprinted on her at an extremely young age. I like to think of it as Leia remembering the feelings from her mother shortly after birth through the force. She retained them and was able to draw on it when Luke asked. It also almost certainly means that Luke was taken away immediately after birth.

 

Ahh, good point on the Luke thing, yodafett. Forgot he said that.
Blows my theory out of the water!

 

Actually I go rather exhaustively into reasons as to why everyone should have been concerned about Shmi in a thread I started over in the discussion forum set aside for the new movie. You'll want to look for

****The Unofficial 'What About Shmi?' Thread****

Thank you... thank you... I'm here all week.

-WinterRose