PT Share Your Episode II: Attack of the Clones Memories

"Let us know if you saw it opening night or years later. What were your thoughts then and what are you thoughts now? Did you dress up for the premier? Buy the toys? Any commercials or promotions that stand out? Does this news make you feel as old as it make me feel? Let us know!"


Wow, yeah I have great memories of first seeing it. I saw it on opening afternoon as part of family tradition (back then they didn't yet do the Thursday evening first shows yet, many places had not yet quite started even the midnight showing thing yet either if I recall correctly, I don't think any theaters in my area had when TPM was out, don't think for AOTC yet either but could be wrong, I was never fond of the idea anyway, sometimes get crowds waving lightsabers and flashing lights and it seems like it could get all distracting and rather see it when totally fresh as well- then the midnight showings became routine for big films and then the studios decided hey may as well always add Thursday evenings in as well and for all films so then Thursday evening became opening night for films and now they are sometimes pushing it back with midnight showings on Wed. or a special early access Wed. evening for big films, hahah, pretty soon a Friday opening will be Friday the week before).

I remember we were standing on line waiting for the THX showing at the General Cinema Clifton, NJ. And when the showing before ours got out, man people were just pumped! They were all rushing out giving everyone waiting on line big thumbs up, cheering, laughing, screaming, yelling that you'll love it it's great. Saw it in a totally packed house but managed to get ideal seats. Wow. So much cool stuff. The place erupted into wild cheers at the end. (I.E. do NOT believe all the garbage you read online or that appears in nearly every youtube video on Star Wars, no AOTC was not widely reviled when it came out and yes at many theaters people were pumped and cheering like mad contrary to all the BS the haters spend 24-7, to this day, spreading across the net.)

Nobody was dressed up as far as I can recall. That sort of thing I've mostly seen restricted for midnight showings or the first evening showing of films once they made Thurs night routine. Sometimes I've seen a couple here or there with minor dress up on regular opening day showings, not much. Right after we rushed over to Barnes & Noble and bought the novelization. As a tradition, got a few of the classic Kenner type figures for Christmas later that year.

Nah, the fact that it came out only two years ago is kinda making me feel young TBH.

Anyway, I remember thinking how cool and crazy a place Kamino was and the freaky cloners! We certainly had seen nothing like that before in SW. . Yeah, yeah Padme was kinda.... I remember how beautiful some of the scenery was, especially all the stuff at the lake house that they filmed at Lake Como (incredible place, go if you get the chance!) and some of the stirring new themes by John Williams. As always sat through the end credits just soaking it all in.

The Dooku stuff was pretty intense as was the Anakin/Tusken.

I saw it a bunch more times over the summer. On the giant Manville screen. In digital (although for whatever reason the digital showing for this didn't seem as impressive as the digital showing for TPM had, the latter was really popping off the screen while the digital theatrical for AOTC almost seemed a bit more muted than the 35mm presentations I saw). Oh saw the IMAX edited version too at the New England Aquarium (and that reminds me that is actually a second format I don't own it in, haha, don't own an IMAX copy, never heard of anyone who does.) And I have a copy in every format (except of course for the original theatrical digital, but I do actually have this one even in 35mm after I finally managed to pull off a childhood dream of owning an actual Star Wars film in 35mm).

 

Yeah Ziegfield was a special theatre no doubt about it,i saw Rots a year later and it was amazing to see as well.

 

Kinda what? I found nothing wrong with her to be honest.

Never made it to Lake Como, but I'm sure it's a cool place. I did however make it to another AOTC location, Plaza de España in Seville, Spain, which was that square (half-circle actually) in Theed for a few seconds just after Anakin and Padmé arrived on Naboo. Must have been close to the new queen's palace. AOTC came out in May 2002, so they must have shot there sometime in 2000 or 2001. I was there in December 2000 and then again after the movie came out. Any idea when that short sequence was shot? I might have missed Hayden and Natalie by only a few months or even weeks.

 

....as fine as Lake Como

And yeah I liked the character. (And back in TPM, she was supposed to be all stilted when speaking as the Queen since acting like that helps when you are a young Queen and need to be taken seriously, so I never really got those complaints.)

Ah nice, yeah I've been to Como but never to Plaza de España or the Royal Palace Of Caserta. The latter was actually the queen's palace, but it's actually way closer to Como than Plaza de Espana! Just shows how they mix and match when shooting movies. The same place in a movie is often hundreds of miles away or more from itself hah.

haha, yeah, close, that scene was shot mid September so you missed the filming by just three months plus or minus a couple weeks. (I was in Boston during that whole time period, but never crossed paths when I was at Harvard Square or the times I was on Harvard Campus for seminars or using one of their special libraries (my school had shared library agreement with Harvard and seminars in some departments were also sometimes shared and swapped back and forth between being held at one or the other) or whatnot. A couple years later, far away, I did become friends with someone who it turned out was friends with one of her best friends (hah, starting to sound like that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) but never crossed paths.)

 

wow that's intense

I was very much the opposite camp. See it once in the afternoon of opening day (although ROTJ ended up being at night and a few days later) and let it soak in for a fews days.

(have seen every single SW film ever, well aside from the Clone Wars CGI movie, in May (or December for most of the recent stuff) day 1 with my mom as tradition, really lifelong, I was barely alive when it started and now it's all these years later (sometimes my dad didn't see them until a bit later post OT, but have seen all too, oh actually I think ROTJ got a slight delay and we didn't see it until a few days in for some reason that I no longer recall))

 

I was 5 in 2002; so this was my first introduction to Star Wars not the original trilogy, I remember that I thought Padme was a live action Disney Princess. She was stately, strong and fearless; three years later I was terrified when Anakin started choking her (literally cried) and then later when Darth Vader arrived. But without Padme, I wouldn't be a Star Wars fan because I wouldn't have stayed for Ahsoka Tano.

 

I meant i saw Rots 3 years later that was a long 3 year wait no question lol

 

I saw Attack of the Clones opening night. I was 15, I mainly remember cracking a lot of jokes during the movie, annoying my friends in the process. I’ve slightly warmed up to the movie since then, but I remember being underwhelmed the first time I saw it, but I did like it better than TPM.

 

Just wanted to point out that I found a mint sealed german VHS of Clones on Ebay. For 3 €!!! I had to get it. It now rests on my SW VHS shelf next to my mint sealed Ep I VHS. I own the movie now like 12 times over all formats from VHS to 4K!

 

I remember at the Celebration that year, during the opening ceremonies, they announced that they were going to show a trailer for an upcoming movie. The intro and the style of the spot made us think it would be a Spider-Man trailer. And then we were stunned to get our first look at Yoda leaping around and dueling. The audience roared, then started chanting, "Show it again!" (They didn't, but we all got to see it in full about a month later.)

 

I left the theater thinking it was my new favorite Star Wars film. Fast forward to today and that ranking has held firm.

 

I particularly loved/was impressed by the scenes on the Lars farm because it made me feel a strong connection to ANH.

 

It was nostalgic without hitting you over the head with it.

I do think it's funny that this thread is still open, a full year after the film's 20th anniversary! Speaks to either how fondly remembered it is, or that Cubman/Guidman forgot to lock the thread, lmao

 

I’ve always loved AOTC. The movie is an absolute visual extravaganza.

 

Yeah, pretty much how I experienced it. I went to the movie theater in July 2002 thinking "now finally SW is back", after 20 years. TPM never made that kind of impression... strange. I have tried to "justify" that impact of what I felt to be a true revival of a franchise that had practically disappeared since 1983, in numerous other threads.
Now I won't argue yet again that, despite all the negativity, AOTC is a "masterpiece" of filmmaking in every respect, per se. It never tried or claimed to be that. But neither did ANH, nor ESB, which amazed me as a young teen. And somehow, with AOTC, I almost felt like a kid again. So, I guess Lucas must have done something right after all?

 

It's really jaw dropping isn't it? I particularly love the shot of Yoda looking across the battle from the Gunship.

 

I saw this one four times in the theatre. The part I looked forward to the most? Seismic charges. Obiwan’s ship alarm going off… the creepy silence… booooooom -echoes of theatre walls-… freaking awesome. I’d go see it in the theatre again just for that part. I’m serious. Never gets old.
It’s my fave of the prequels.

 

That creepy silence was totally unexpected. Since 1977 - and of course since Star Trek (as well as Space:1999, which I was into more than ST as a pre-teen) - we "know" that there is sound in space, and that we can always hear (and feel!) any explosion. With AOTC, probably for the first time in film history, explosions are accompanied with complete silence; the following sound effects therefore feeling twice as effective. The first time I saw the movie I actually thought there was something wrong with the theater's audio system.