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Season 4 Episode 7 |
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Oct 15 2008
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Dom Robinson reviewsStar Wars: Episode II
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"There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic.This separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is returning to the Galactic Senate to vote on the critical issue of creating an Army of the Republic to assist the overwhelmed Jedi..." |
I was prepared to wait for this eventual DVD release given my disappointment of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but a suggestion to see this installment on the big screen was made and while it disappointed, it also didn't disappoint, because I was expecting the disappointment, if you see what I mean.
The democratic Republic is on the verge of becoming the evil Empire we know and love in episodes 4-6 and it's all courtesy of Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), the main baddie this time round and making a decent job of his performance, but you get the feeling that it's not particularly taxing for such an established actor and you yearn for a return to the Dracula films.
Back to the plot though and Dooku wants to start up a war against the good guys, who are awaiting the completion of a clone army apparently ordered by someone on their side who Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) isn't sure whether they died before or after the order was placed.
Also, Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), formerly Queen Amidala, starts the film heading to see the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson), Yoda (Frank Oz) and others to place a vote on what to do next, but security is tighter than September 11th and Padme is escorted back to Naboo with the grown-up Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who is the only actor to have changed since the last film since this one is set ten years on, yet all the rest look identical to the last time round, except for McGregor attempting to look more and more like Kenneth Branagh with each scene.
In Attack of the Clones we're introduced to Jango Fett (Temeura Morrison) and his soon-to-be-bounty hunter son Boba Fett (Daniel Logan), the former zipping around on a cool jet-pack in order to make a monkey out of Obi-Wan.
Still with me?
An overly-complex plot is made worse by the inclusion of an endless romantic plot between Padme and Anakin which just adds to the tedium during the first 90 minutes, because very little happens to keep you interested, even though it is possible to follow the plot if you're an adult. Children, on the other hand, will have no chance and for them there's a lot less of Jar Jar Binks (hooray, say the adults!) so it's less of a kiddie film and the increased violence has garnered the movie the first ever PG-certificate in the series.
On the plus side, there's more of C-3PO and R2-D2 this time round, with a few good one-liners that I won't spoil as they're deftly dropped in. I also spotted an early classic from Obi-Wan to Anakin as the former quips "you'll be the death of me".
However, quite often the film does feel like a lot of unlinked set pieces as they lurch from one location with a long and complex name to another one, with a couple of decent action scenes in the last hour, during which Samuel L Jackson finally gets to wield a lightsaber around, as do Dooku and Yoda in a fight between those two. Given that Yoda immediately before was hobbling around on a stick, how come he can leap about straight after? That just doesn't ring true compared to how we've seen him in the rest of the series to date.
There's some dodgy dialogue along the way, a lot to do with the blossoming romance between the two young lovebirds, plus a few scenes that make for entirely predictable outcomes. I won't divulge who pops their clogs in one particular scene, but they've been gone for a long time and when someone they know goes over in an attempt to rescue them, it's an age-old case of the near-corpse staying barely alive just a few moments more to utter a few words to their potential rescuer just before they shuffle off their mortal coil. I mean, come on George Lucas, just how ridiculous is that?
The film also climaxes with a very unsatisfying feeling because it's gearing up for a major war and... that'll come next time. It's like the story in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back coming to a close, but going the same way because you know the rest of the storyline will continue and the audience must be kept waiting.
To close the review of the film itself, the question begs to be asked - is it worth watching? Well, no. The first 90 minutes drags like there's no tomorrow and the last hour is average and goes a short way to restore the balance from the initial disappointment, despite containing a complete lack of suspense, but as soon as it gets going... it ends.
At the cinema, for most of the paying audience, this was the fifth Star Wars outing they would've seen on the big screen and so they'll have made the trip one way or another if only to see how the story progresses, or rather stagnates for a time on its way to Episode III.
It really didn't need to be 2½ hours long though. Did George think it was his turn to do a James Cameron ?
I dread to think how anyone could watch the fullscreen VHS tape and there doesn't seem to be a widescreen version which indicates that widescreen videos are on their way out (there's hardly any around for other big films either) and, perhaps, VHS in general.
While the anamorphic widescreen transfer of the first film suffered some problems, this one appears to be crystal clear. It's a little soft-focused at times but that's in the film itself. Of course, the ratio is 2.35:1.
At first you'd ask while the cinema saw a Dolby Digital 6.1 Surround EX soundtrack, why do we appear to only have the 5.1 equivalent. Dolby are now saying that they'd prefer to call the cinema version 5.1 Surround EX because of the following reason I'm about to give, hence I presume that the sound format on the DVD is the same.
The advantage for this is that in addition to the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 affair with have an extra centre speaker at the rear, but instead of being a discrete, separate audio channel, it's an amalgamation of the other two rear channels, so not the great extra big deal we expected from having an extra speaker being placed in the cinema, but when big sound is called for in a big room, it's certainly not unwelcome.
Sonically, the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 sound rocks big time in all manner of scenes from John Williams's classic opener, through the rest of the score and all of the sound FX inbetween. The whole thing's a triumph and never lets you down.
Also on disc one is an audio commentary from director Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor and sound designer Ben Burtt, animation supervisor Rob Coleman and visual effects supervisors Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow, as well as a THX audio and video optimiser.
The extras disc is divided into six sections:
There are also twelve TV Spots, eight concentrating on the main characters with one apiece, including a "Clones" one which includes footage that wasn't in Episode II and looks like it'll be in the third, plus four for action scenes, one, "Biggest Action Hero", being a bit of a piss-take on the Spider-Man trailer. All last 30 seconds and are in non-anamorphic 16:9.
State of the Art: The Pre-visualization of Episode II (23 mins) looks at the way the crew could finally get onscreen what they wanted in terms of digital special effects, as storyboards have been replaced with the same thing that a computer can do.
The galleries are split into three sections: Exclusive Production Photos, One-Sheet Posters and International Outdoor Campaign. There's more pictures and posters than you can shake a stick at.
In Dex's Kitchen there's three featurettes: Films Are Not Released: They Escape (26 mins), a look, or rather a listen, about the sounds created for the film; Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown Montage (3½ mins), a look at various scenes before and after the CGI effects were applied; and R2-D2: Beneath the Dome (6 mins), a spoof featurette about the real star of the film.
There's also an easter egg that's easy to find for the Star Wars: Want-Ads: The College Campaign, including links to websites, accessible if you're playing it direct through a DVD-ROM drive.
Those with a DVD-ROM drive can also use the direct weblink to Star Wars.com, although typing it in will have the same effect.
Like the Episode I DVD, a DTS soundtrack was created but has been overshadowed by the new Dolby Digital 5.1.
The film contains a massive 50 chapters, like the first one, the menus are brilliantly animated and scored throughout, with more than one choice available and the subtitles come in English for the hard of hearing.
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Visit the official site: Star Wars.com
The following is a list of all the Star Wars reviews online to date :
1997 Star Wars Trilogy (PAL Laserdisc) 2001 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (DVD) 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Cinema - Dan) 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Cinema - Dom) 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (DVD)
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
