Official Star Wars Episode II thread - (back from the theaters!)

[bahn]

"This party's over..."



Just got back from seeing the movie - twice (more on that later). Despite the fact I enjoyed the movie a lot, I concur with much of the points that were brought up...and for the sake of repetition, I won't bother recyclying the comments that have been addressed more than once.

Before the movie even made its debut, back when I first looked at the trailers, I expected Anakin to be nothing but a whiny teen, and in some respects - he is. It's a time in which he's dealing with an internal conflict...the love for Padme, his loyalty to the Jedi and path to becoming a Jedi Knight. To his credit, Hayden does an exceptional job conveying the shades of agony, ambition, love (lust?) and arrogance...given the template which Lucas has scripted for him.

Padme's role, while in theory is to be fleshed out now that she's a Senator - I must admit that I enjoyed her more in TPM. In the sequel, she seems more like a crutch to Anakin than a siginficant figurehead that graces the Senate. To address the relationship with Anakin and Padme as one of the film's arc...it wasn't quite as I expected, a bit contrived and to make its correlation with the Star Wars legacy as we know it (A New Hope - Return of the Jedi), it just felt a LOT more politically correct, strained in some capacity, and probably turned off more veterans of the franchise than its new generation of fans.

Overall, the story was enjoyable, certainly better than TPM (which I've seen close to a dozen times to date), the pace took some adjustment (my friend hinted at this, and I don't know if I should thank him or be upset since I had the thought in the back of my mine). The true "pay attention" moments unfortunately are doing the last 40-45 minutes of the film, which I guess isn't bad being they had to address the points showing Anakin's gradual path towards the Dark Side and the tension of the two lovebirds (aw...)

I just got into a brief discussion with Matt and he brought up the area of special FX - the asteroid scene. In his opinion, the asteroid scene in Empire Strikes Back was more realistic to him compared to the modern day adaption...I've gotta go back for further examination, but beyond that...there were a few pockets of CG used that literally stand out so much as being CG as the transitions to live action resumed. The Yoda and Dooku sequence is probably the best, along with the battle on Geonosis...but others just immediately screamed "look, this is CG, and it looks SO fake" (least with Spidey, it looked a lot more believable and impressive).

Ah, as for the double feature...the first time around, everything seemed to go by in a blur - yet I was entertained enough that I HAD to see it again. So my friend and I sat in another section of the theatre and actually awaited to be booted. Finally someone did show up...

Usher: We're clearing this area out now for cleaning. You'll have to wait outside...

Bahn: Well, we came late by at least a half hour and they didn't bother to check for our tickets.

Usher: A half hour? That's it...? Let me see your ticket.

Bahn: *waves hand* You don't need to see our ticket

Usher: I don't need to see your ticket.

Bahn: You're going to go back outside and tend to the other customers...

Usher: I am going to go back outside and tend to the other customers *Leaves*




Hehe, seriously...there wasn't much of a hassle. I expect they go through that a lot. I was happy that we caught it in a digital theatre (only two in Manhattan). I couldn't imagine seeing the film in its traditional form.

Well EP3 is due in 2005...and there's so much to explain.
Now they have a great deal of 'splanin to do in order to tie up many loose ends, and I wish them well, or the 'new' trilogy will very end up leaving a bittersweet taste in the hearts of many.

****Spoiler***

(At least they give hint to the Death Star designs planned for development.)

**** End Spoiler ****



"I sense much fear in you..."

[bahn]

Originally posted by BioMechanic
Aren't good directors supposed to be able to bring out the best in their actors? It's not like Portman (The Professional) and McGregor (Trainspotting) are bad actors.

I think the acting sucks because the script and directing suck.

Quite right...they're not...it's really tough for actors to draw something magical out of lines or scenes that are contrived. And this happens ALL the time, especially when it comes to action movies. Batman Forever, X-Men...and even the original Star Wars, actors are generally forced to go the extra mile to prevent a really cheesy line from prompting the audience to gag...


"You actually go out in these things?"

"What would you prefer instead? Yellow spandex?"

:jest:

[bahn]

Originally posted by Klonoa
what were some other trailers you guys saw.

I didn't catch ANY trailers. To date, both when I saw the Special Edition SW films, TPM and now with ATOC....the theatres I've went to IMMEDIATELY jump right into the movie - no trailers. I would've liked to see the new Matrix trailer, but I've already seen MIB II enough to know that I am going to see it anyways, and I don't need to see Adam Sadler or Mike Myers anymore either (yah BAYBEE YAHHHH!!!)

[katieeee]

ep 2 sucked sooooo bad
only good thing about it was the the fact jar jar was only on for 2 mins and Yoda was running around with a light sabre

[MechDeus]

Well, the Matrix teaser is available on the Matrix site www.thematrix.com, and the only other notable trailer was the new Bond one, Die Another Day.

"You still have much to learn."

'Twas also finally nice that Lucas finally had the resources to show us just what the legions upon legions of "Stormtroopers" was actually like, seeing as how there were very few scenes in the original trilogy where you could actually get a sense of a galaxy-wide army (Nothing like the Emperor telling us he sent down a legion of his best troops to attack on Endor, yet there never seems to be more then twelve...).

[Regus]

Originally posted by andyrose
Damn, I wish I had gone to see this movie 3 times, and not Spiderman.

Good lord, I could not imagine myself seeing this movie in the theatre twice, let alone three.

It was a good movie, but not that good.

It was way better than ep 1, and any scenes envolving Jango Fett where pure gold.


And those new clone aliens were cool too.




I wonder, how much of this movie was actually real and not created in a computer. So many things just looked out of place, such as the sand that Queen Amidala was walking around on towards the end, and the entire clone army.



(spoilers)







- Jango's death and Bobba holding his father's head was the best thing in this entire movie.


- Did people in your theatre completly mark out when yoda pulled out his light saber at the end? Because every one went nuts where I saw it.


(/spoiler)

Didactic, heavy-handed plot as in Ep. 1, with plenty of long-winded speeches on Republican politics and diplomacy with no room left for subtlety and no credit to audience intelligence

Agreed, I could not stand these scenes.






Oh, and I am I the only one that cringed as if I were witnessing a murder during ALL of the anakin/amidala love scenes?

[Ranji]

You do kind of get the feeling that Lucas listened to the fan's on this one.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise in the movie was the sense that we're actually immersed in the world (or galaxy) of the Republic, which is to say, we were given a close look at life in the civilization prior to the rise of the Empire. While we were given glimpses in Phantom, now we saw in splendid detail the bustle of Coruscant, the interior of the Jedi Council, the factories where droids are constructed, the labs where clones are raised, the life and politics of a senator, the halls of the archives of the Republic, the sense of the extent and limits of the galactic state, as in the seperatist movement and the worlds beyond the outer rim, ect., the mythology of Star Wars is suddenly richer and more complex than ever before.

[Regus]

Am I the only one that sat through this whole movie, and kept thinking to themselves:

"Well, that's going to be in the video game."


And thought out how Lucas Arts might implement it?


Like the first chase scene, the astaroid scene and the assembly line scene.





Oh and, during the assembly line scene, all I could think about was Oddworld.

[Ranji]

Actually, I was a little dissapointed with Jango Fett: he died a little too easily. But his relationship with his "son" and the clone army was pretty interesting.

Anyway, I don't think Ep. 2 will get any Oscars besides for special effects, but come on now, Spiderman doesn't even deserve that much, so objectively Attack of the Clones is superior.

[LiquidSnake]

Well, I read enough posts and I just want to give my opinion too....
I really liked the movie..It is WAY better than TPM (but I still liked TPM minus all the kiddy shit in it). Yes, I agree, most of the time, Hayden can't act for shit. He can't even whine very well! He did, howvere, in a few scenes, show he can act somewhat. I, one of the few I guess, liked the love scenes (I'm a sentimental fuck, sue me). Yes, they weren't the best, but they were ok an I felt it gave a little more substance to them. The only real negative things I personally can say about it were the following: Hayden's wooden acting..some CG shots of Yoda weren't too great (just a few though, in others, they were superb). Other than that, it was a great film and I was happy the way it came out. I especially love the cinematography in it. Some truly beautiful landscapes in it, from the waterfalls on Naboo, to Coruscant to Kamino..truly beautiful. I feel Lucas did redeem himself (for the most part) from TPM and I think this one is a worthy follow-up in the Star Wars line of films.