Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
(2002) dir. George Lucas
viewed: 05/22/05
Ah,…Star Wars.
As a general rule, I won’t watch anything in an “edited-for-television” mode. But with Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) just released and my impending trip to the theater to see it, I was thinking that it would be good to revisit the 2nd …or is it 5th chapter of this saga, because the last and only time I had seen it was in the theater on its initial release and disappointment.
When Fox broadcast this, I realized the opportunity to save myself the trouble of renting the DVD and could watch it in its most plebian format. Then I would feel prepared to head out to the cinema to catch the final installment.
I grew up with this stuff, like many a person of the era. I saw the first film in the theater in 1977, a mere 28 years ago. I was agog over it from the age of 8-14 or so. And I still have a soft spot for it. But significantly, I am not part of this modern zealot phenomenon whose fanatacism is far more proliferated and often even more insane than the cult of Star Trek. Is it all about Science Fiction culture?
Anyways, my first viewing of Attack of the Clones was in the theater and was disappointing. While I thought it was an improvement on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), it was still a huge letdown. Was Lucas really so bad at so many aspects of making a film?
The love story is awful, painfully awful. The cringe-inducing dialogue and the amazingly over-the-top cliche’s of soft-lit romantic backdrops to the lovers’ conversations are truly things for the ages. Interestingly, it seemed as if they cut some of it for the telecast.
Still, the film is more fun than the first, and I am not just talking about when Natalie Portman’s shirt gets ripped to reveal her midriff. Though that still does crack me up like nobody’s business.
It’s amazing how many plot points that I had forgotten in the years since I had seen it. Who was making the clones, why they were making the clones, all about the death of Anakin’s mother, etc., etc. So re-viewing it helped for going to see the new film. And for some reason, I felt less harshly critical of it. Maybe I’m just softening up after all these years.
