PT Share Your Episode II: Attack of the Clones Memories

I saw it twice in the theaters, the first was with my family during the opening weekend. The second time was part of an end of the year party I planned and organized for my High School Astronomy Club. We always liekd to plan something fun, with the first end of the year party being laser tag, and that year we decided on a movie and it had came down to a vote in the club: it was between Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and the Gore Verbinski Time Machine. The vote was a tie, and as club president I broke it...Star Wars won. Plus it had more show times to choose from based on what we saw when we called Movie Phone and looked at the "Now Playing" section of our local news paper. I even still have the flier I printed up for our bulletin board. Using Microsoft Word Art, I was able to format it to look like the opening crawl.



Worth mentioning I broke a similar tie later that year between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Trek: Nemesis. LoTR won.

 

I find that AOTC is sadly often overlooked, even amongst prequel fanatics! But wow. Reading all of your memories & the new articles on StarWars.com remind me of why it is such a special film.

2002 in general is a very nostalgic year for me. This was the year of not only AOTC's release, but other North American millennial pop culture staples such as the release of the first Spider-Man & Avril Lavigne's debut.

I know many of the OT generation sees semblances of the 70s & early 80s in those films, especially Hamill's hair in ANH. Honestly, I see a bit of the early 2000s in AOTC thanks to Hayden's boyish/Timberlake-esque looks in his first foray into the character. This was the teen pop explosion years and I find that Hayden in AOTC & Natalie in TPM captured that in a weird way, albeit unintentionally, as we know Lucas is much more influenced by the past than the current when he is working.

Speaking of those TRL days, one of my favorite memories of this film's era is when in the MTV Movie Awards, they spoofed the Maguire/Dunst Spider-Man kiss with Yoda/the Star Wars theme

The promotional pictures taken for this film were just phenomenal. I love the one were you see the silhouettes of all the Jedi behind the principal characters. I believe it was used in the DVD booklet?

We are still mining this film in the larger Star Wars world, as we just finished seeing Morrison star in his leading series and prepare to see McGregor & Christensen again later this month.

By far the biggest complement I can give the actors in this film, and I've brought this up before - is how buyable it is that they are who they are.

Case in point: in the first few scenes in Padmé's apartment, you truly get the sense that Obi-Wan & Anakin have been a master & padawan duo for over 10 years; sick of each other but also unconditionally loving and respectful ... and this is the first time we see Ewan & Hayden together!

During the Tusken massacre, Hayden joins August for the first time and both go straight into it ... again, the first time we actually see both actors together. I remember the casting director for the film saying Hayden's eyes were a big selling point for why he got the role and it's hard to miss. The warped and consumed look he gives the Sandpeople just out of frame when he decides to unleash his anger - cut to Yoda near tears in his quarters sensing the massacre - great stuff.

Some other great memories I have of the film are the toy line simply designated STAR WARS with the blue & white logo. I still have some figures from it!

 

Competition in 2002. was tough - LOTR, Bourne, Road to Perdition, Spider-Man, Star Trek: Nemesis, Harry Potter, Pianist, Catch me if you can, Minority report... And although AOTC never reached top 5 (or 10) in critics' choice of best movies of the year, it's truly a movie that tops the others for me.
20 years ago we got one SW movie every three years and the hype was more present than in the last seven years when five movies were released and some TV series. That is my fondest memory. Awaiting the next SW movie, speculating about what will George Lucas give us next. And AOTC delivered even more.
It was a movie with very different feel than TPM, a true space opera. Coruscant night chase, Anakin searching for his mother on Tatooine accompanied by Duel of the Fates and the ending were an example of moviemaking we sorely lacked in the latest movies. Lucas' talent fluorished in this one.

And I've seen that content on SW.com. It's really nice they celebrated this anniversary. Seeing Rob Coleman today made me realize how long it's been.

I am glad McGregor and Christensen are returning for Obi-Wan Kenobi, but it still won't be the same. Not without Lucas.

 

For all of my dislike for the film I still find it has some memorable moments....

 

For the longest time as kid, this was my favorite movie. Still is up there. Love it! Will post more later.

 

Because my dad is in advertising, I managed to attend the local charity premieres of Episodes I-III. AOTC actually had its premiere date on May 15th, a day ahead of the U.S.

Some things that stood out from that first screening:

-Obi Wan jumping out of the window to grab onto the fleeing Assassin Droid made me and others gasp.
-I was so happy to see Watto on the big screen a second time.
-The Seismic Charges- the whole audience got to experience sound design history during the Asteroid Chase scene.
It was incredible witnessing the audience getting all excited when Yoda arrived at Dooku's secret hangar and then break out in cheerful applause as he ignited his Lightsaber to duel with Dooku.
-They were giving out free Hasbro Lightsabers. I got both Obi Wan and Dooku's.
-I remember being really amazed by the fact Lucasfilm didn't have to create a single piece of Clone Trooper armor. I was sure they were physical costumes. Still very convincing.

Like with TPM, I ended up watching AOTC five times in cinemas, seven if you count the screenings at Celebration VI in 2007 and the 3D screening at Celebration Europe II in 2013. Let me tell you, they really pushed the 3D effect on AOTC. It looks stunning. The dynamic nature of a shot like Zam's Speeder going against traffic through a tunnel or the sheer vastness of the shot depicting a Clone Trooper Army walking up the ramp of a Republic Assault Ship have to be seen to be believe. I wish those three films had been released before the Disney - Lucasfilm purchase.

 

Wut? There is no hate in my initial post directed at AOTC, and there is no sarcasm. The only sarcasm has come from Bazinga’d.

Here have some context:

 

So that Empire piece was all tongue in cheek, I guess?

 

I still remember as a kid coming home after school and getting on the treadmill to run, just so that I could turn on the TV and play the Geonosis battle while running to circumvent the "no movies on school nights" rule my parents had. Really made AOTC the childhood favorite for me.

 

Not much to be honest…Apart from laughing at Kenobi’s mullet and how awful I thought Anakin was

 

This one is my fave too and for that same reason! I had to have it in my collection.

 

I always found it so wacky that someone would be so embarrassed about originally liking a movie that they would go so far as to delete and replace the original review. Just shows how ridiculous the social pressure to **** on these movies got.

 

That's what I thought as well. In the retrospective, he basically writes "No guys I agree with the loud negative opinion and have the whole time!"

 

That was a pretty gutless editorial decision. I can maybe see publishing an additional review but deleting the one they initially ran and essentially apologizing to the mob is just completely credibility killing in my view.

 

The first time I watched AOTC I was 17 years old. It was 2018. At the time, I was extremely fascinated by the film. When I watched it for the first time I didn’t understand the plot at all. Not because the film has an incomprehensible plot as many Prequel haters say, but simply because when I watched the film for the first time I focused more on visuals, aesthetics and action, and didn’t pay much attention to the plot. For me it was all about "Wow, there are so many lightsabers! Wow, the Clone Army is so cool!! Wow, Naboo is so beautiful! Wow, Padmé is so hot!" but I didn’t pay any attention to the plot. It took me 3 re-watches to fully understand the plot, and now that I understand it, AOTC is my third favorite Star Wars movie after ROTS and ANH. I think Lucas could have arranged some scenes better, but I still love the film. I also created my own fanedit to fix what I think are the flaws of the film, which obviously have nothing to do with the "flaws" that Prequel haters and fake Prequel fans like to talk about.

And that’s it. These are my memories about the film.

 

@The Emotional Jedi
I completely get your movie viewing habits; I tend to watch movies the same way: focus on the visuals, music, sets, FX etc. more than on the plot. I will get into the plot later on (if it's a movie I like), but then only on maybe 2nd or 3rd viewing, or through novelizations.
1st viewings for me are almost always, or at least mostly, more about emotional impact and gut reaction.

 

Two things that brings back a lot of memories:

FT Depot just uploaded a 4K scan of a 35mm celluloid copy for Attack of the Clones "Forbidden Love" Teaser Trailer!

This was the one trailer I don't recall getting a special airing on TV, so I had to watch it online. Unfortunately I didn't have the needed plug-in, so I could only listen to the audio. I imagined the Lars family got attacked by Battle Droids before dawn.

And here is a newly uploaded 4K scan of the German 35mm Attack of the Clones final theatrical trailer, posted on Roobyoo.


I had taped this one off German TV and started sketching a lot of the vehicles and characters during several rewatches. The AT-TE and the Homing Spider Droid really caught my attention. I was sure the duel between Anakin and Dooku would take place on Kamino.

 

I almost bought Anakin AOTC retro figure they had. It reminded me of one I had back in the day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J7QZGljbz6U

Here is Hayden Christensen's memory of being cast for AOTC and ROTS. Great reason to be excited. He nailed the moody Anakin who had both good intentions and issues in AOTC, and he made ROTS a treat as much as Ewan and Ian did.

As for muy personal memories of AOTC, I loved the music the most. Especially when Anakin is racing to attempt to save his mother on Tatooine, and the love theme on Genesis is glorious. I would argue that the love theme is probably John Williams' best work in the prequels. While he's appreciated for his battle music and the Imperial March, Williams always knew how to compose some wondrous and beautiful themes.

 

I want to hold it in a store and shout, “you were my brother Anakin, and I loved you.”

 

"Do it!"

 

Great to see those german trailers. I remember catching them on Pro7 when they were aired exclusively there! Good old times. The Ep II trailers had special feeling with seeing Anakin all grown and powerful, all the characters from Ep I evolved and the first glimpses of the Clone Wars...

...how can you not love this movie?!

 

Nice. I saw TPM at that theater. It had already been out for some weeks at that point, but the place was pretty crowded all the same and that place had a LOT of seats.
I got in to see IMAX 6P Laser showings for most of the new Star Wars films post TFA (that one went up to Jordan's in Boston to see it in IMAX 6P Laser, incredible experience my first ever laser projection and man true 4k to each eye at the exact same time, zero ghosting, perfect 3D, subtle colors, great brightness and black levels, HUGE screen, just amazing and my god when they had that on true IMAX scene with the Falcon chase on Jakku wow! It's a shame there has never been any home release or clip of the true full frame version of that scene. Very few theaters in the world ever showed it that way.) at the AMC Lincoln Square theater (largest screen on the East Coast).