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| A poster for George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones |
10 years have gone since the events in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), and Anakin is now a young adult. Obi-Wan Kenobi has taught him as his Jedi apprentice, but Skywalker is rebellious and arrogant. Queen Amidala is now Senator, and assassins try to kill her. Anakin moves her to safety, while Obi-Wan follows the mysterious leads that reveal to him a clone army.
Episode II is the longest Star Wars film (142 minutes) and probably the least liked generally, but for me it is a satisfying space adventure, and Episode III is the weakest in the saga, with Episode I and Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as the strongest.
The biggest hurdles in Episode II and III are writer-director, George Lucas' questionable ability to write romance, and Hayden Christensen, the uncharismatic, dull and minimally talented actor employed for the pivotal part of Anakin Skywalker. He has a much better actress in Natalie Portman (Black Swan (2010)) to play up to, but still they mostly fail in bringing feelings of real romance into the calculated scenes; set in excessively picturesque settings to lure the viewer's attention away from the stony dialog and action.
I have problems connecting the dots between the overly smart, cute Anakin of Episode I with the brooding, dumb Anakin of Episode II. Something has somehow gone terribly wrong in the ten year span: The young man talks continuously about his mother and unfairnesses committed against him; he is almost entirely in his emotions' control. Even the death of his mother (Pernilla August) only inspires him to be an enormous idiot. The character, which I loved in Episode I, is now the dumbest Jedi apprentice ever, in Episode II.
Fortunately, Episode II has many better things to offer, which counter-weigh the issues with Anakin and his stale romance:
Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) is a great Obi-Wan, and I enjoyed his almost detective-like adventure to Kamino and beyond a lot. Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained (2012)) is good as Master Windu, and Christopher Lee (Dracula (1958)) is always a great villain, here as Count Dooku. Behind him, Ian McDiarmid (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)), still lurks around in the villains' wardrobe as the imposing Chancellor Palpatine. All of his scenes are amazing.
Minimizing Jar Jar Binks, who was not treated mildly by many audiences of Episode I, is more R2D2 and C3PO. By theatrical chronology, (IV,V,VI,I,II,III), I think I have had enough of the latter at this stage, but at least he loses his head in this film.
That happens in the droid factory scene, which I quite enjoyed.
A still from the factory scene
The footage for that scene, which was added very late in the process, apparently took just a few hours to film, (everything besides the actors is animated in the sequence.) It works impressively well, and doesn't look rushed.
The film is only the third to be filmed entirely in digital 24 f/ps., and was deciding in the decision to shift to digital for many other big Hollywood films, (and thereby the world in general.)
Other CGI-created marvels of Episode II include the monsters in the gladiatorial arena. Here's a couple of them:
But what many fans will remember as the best of Episode II, - unless they for some reason are grumbling about unsatisfying CGI, - is Yoda's fight scene. I found it highly satisfying and thrilling to finally see him in action. And there's also a really good scene earlier in the film, where Yoda is teaching young Jedi padawans.
What you will, say it; the shit, Yoda is.
The details:
So while Episode II has its problems, I still think that the great Jedi fights and many other great characters weigh up for it. At the end of it, I know I almost couldn't wait to see Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith (2005), when I first saw it more than ten years ago now.
Finally, the Star Wars films are also so exciting because of their masterful sound design and the music, composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Portman is currently involved in two Terrence Malick projects, the first one being Knight of Cups (2014), a film about celebrity. Malick has upped his production pace a lot the last years, but the films also seem to grow worse. Portman is also starring in the troubled Jane Got a Gun (2014), which got its director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)) replaced after accusations of drunk behavior, irresponsible gun handling and missing money was made against her not long ago. Film Excess hopes Ramsay recovers and heads on to something else.
Since Disney acquired the Star Wars-rights not so very long ago for a galactic sum of money, three more movies have been announced. The first one, Episode VII, should come out in 2015. Unfortunately, I don't know any more about it yet, but I pray that the Force will be with director JJ Abrams' on this new space adventure.
Related reviews:
Samuel L. Jackson: The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animated slam-dunk
The 51st State (2001) or, US/UK, drugs and shooting
Amos & Andrew (1993) or, He's Going for the Stereo!
Watch the trailer here
Budget: 115 mil. $
Box office: 649.3 mil. $
= Major blockbuster, but out-grossed by Episode I three years earlier and the first Star Wars film to not be the top-grossing film of the year of release, (3rd in the US, and 4th worldwide; behind Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and worldwide also Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
What do you think of Episode II, and how do you rate the movies individually?
Thoughts and comments on the coming episodes are welcomed
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