Attack of the Clones - My own thoughts

Well, After reading all those posts and comments about ATOC since Wednesday, I was finally able to catch a screening of it last Saturday. I got tickets 2 days before that date, which was a good move, since I didnt want to stay in the line at the last moment trying to get them, and then rush into the theater in hopes of getting good sits. Well, as usually not all the plans are bound to go well. When me, wife, DJ and my friend made it to theater, DJ decided to buy some candy, while friend opted to get some coffee. Which took them both aproximately 15 or so minutes, drastically cutting the time before the show starts, so when we finally made it in to room 11, it was almost packed to the gills, or atleast there werent any 4 sits in the row that would keep as all together. So we eneded up separated in 2s, in 2 subseqents rows. At least we were lucky to sit quite high,so it wasnt as bad, as if we would have sitted in first few rows in front.

Well, I'm a big SW fans, and I love original trilogy, even though I hve some problems with few things that happen in it. Then, 3 years ago Phantom Menace came, which I did anticipated. But nothing perfect in this world, and it left me quite frustrated and dissapointed. I will not go into the details of my hate of EP1 :), and just procede with my thoughts of EP2 :).

Well, What can I say, Lukas did a great job. He improved the dreadful things that made EP1 bad, and added more action and great visuals into the picture. The whole feel of the film, is more closer to original SW than the EP1. Gone most of the child friendly humor, and JarJar clumsiness, big battle scene is much better, when its doesnt involve gunkans(sp?) fighting droinds, and little kids miraculosly flying spaceships. Seeing Jedie in battle was great, and Yoda was indeed a badass :)

Visuals were excellent, from the space flying/battle scenes, many different alien races both in regular scenery and action, and few different alien worlds, like rainy ocean planet, and deserts of Tatooin and Genoa.

I also liked the battle scenes, much more better than clumsy battle of dumb droids versus dumb JarJar relatives. Here it was great to see army of future stormtroopers being commanded by Yoda !, and robots vs humans in combat, were robots once again were incredibly stupid and useless.

I have to honestly say, that I didnt like Anakin in this film though. Well, not Anakin, but the actor who played him. Why are both big May film have 2 simulari looking whiny characters: Anakin and Harry Osborn. Both were quite annoying, in their acting and romantinc scenes. Anakin was good in action scenes, I have to give him that, but dramatic/romance parts sucked. Not a best choice on Lukas part when he cast this guy, but he probably got it for a good looks :)

Obi was much better, both in acting, and action performance. Both his fight against Jango and the alien creature were great, and it was cool to see Jedi do some jump kicking :)

Nataly Portman was as lovely as ever :) I had no problems with her acting, and she was beautiful in every scene :)

Cristopher Lee's Dooku, was a pretty cool villian, both skilled and smart, and it was nice to see Dark Side kicked ass of jedi once again :) It was funny to see him appear in almost simular role as he played in Lord of the Rings, building the great army of droids/orcs :) and being right hand of greater evil emperor :)
Lukas better hurry up though, if he wants Lee to appear in the next SW film, since he is not gettying any yunger. Peter Jakson had a cool idea to film all 3 films at one time, and then just release on each year, maybe Lukas should follow that idea.

Samuel Jackson Mace Windu, was also pretty cool. Great scenes of him in fighting, unique purple saber :), and cool battle with Jango. I wonder if its Anakin who will kill him in EP3.

Jango Fett was great. I always liked Bobba, and seing his daddy in action was a blast. When he did that gun trick after shooting a jedi, was soo cool. Too bad he didnt learn that its not a good idea to stand in the way of running pissed of jedi :) I wish his character lived little longer though.

I liked all those references to future SW films, with Obi speaking about feeling that Anakin will be a "Death of Him", plans for Death Star, Anakin's relatives on Tatooin, and first designs of stormtroopers, stardestroyers and walkers.

Final Good VS Evil battle was great. Dooky easily kicked the ass of both Anakin and Obi-one, with good skills and grace. And thanks god Lukas didnt let it slip into afwul scene, as he did with Darth Maul in PM. When Yoda entered the scene, it was the riot. From his kung-fu stance and intence level of sword fighting, it was probably the best scene in the film. Sure it looked cgi enchanced, but was it fun :)
Too bad Dooky couldnt finish any of them, since they have to be in next episodes.

Well, I had a great time watching it, and wouldnt mind seeing it again, which you cant say I would do with the EP1. You cant force me to watch it again, so its huge improvement on Lukas part and now I'm looking forward seeing EP3.

Few thoughts:

Why bad guys never just finish heroe when they have the frikin chance: In ATOC, when they are captured in collesium, they could have easily finish them off, but ohh well, I guess its not in the script. Even Trade Federaton Vice Roy begs Dooku to "Just Shoot them", but alas main villians never listen to the voice of common wisdom. That part was a great reference to one of Austin Powers films, where Doctor Evil had the simular chance and his son was suggesting the same :)

Battle of Jedi: It was great, but why are they fighting these DAMN DROIDS once again? They were awful in EP1, and they arent better here. The only reason they were winning, its by the sheer number of them, since Jedie could only reflect and dodge small number of shots. Please Lukas, make these droids to go away.

Yoda: One minute he barely walks with the kane, and other he is flipping in the air with light saber? Just seemed too strange, cool but strange :)

Dark Side of the Force: Is it me, or does the Dark Side always stronger, and more usefull than Light. In every SW film, dark side warrior, be it Maul, Dooky or Vader, or even Emperor always kicks ass of the Jedi, and they pretty much win because the screenplay needs to have a happy ending. Idiotic death of Darth Maul (hate Lukas for that), Dooky easily beating up both Jedi in AOTC, Luke constant losses against Vader and Emperor(who was killed by betrayer of Vader, Hooray the good guys :().

Anakin and his mother: He spends 10 years away, never caring aobut her, and then suddenly misses her, runs to save her, and cries that "she ment soo much to him". Right, Couldnt he find time in last 10 years to even remember or visit her?

R2D2: Flying, it was a cool trick, but why he couldnt do it in later SW films?

I will post more thoughts later, as they come to me :)

despair, you just had to be special and create your own thread didn't you?:)

i liked episode 2, but not that much over episode 1. there were a few major changes i would have done, but i'll get into that later.

first though, i want to discuss why you hate episode 1.

Well, I do like to post my impressions in big threads :) Plus what would be chances of my post to be read, if it was on 10th page of other SW thread? ;)

Anyway, Back to EP1.

The whole thing didnt feel right. Starting with JarJar and his relatives. Why would Lukas pus such annoying character in his film, other than attract kids with his silly acting and clumsiness, even though he serves the purpose. At least in EP2, he only briefly appeared, and also was the cause of all the future trouble, thanks for his vote. There was just too much of him in Ep1, for me to be able to handle him, and later when the whole army of his friends appeared, it was just too much.

Droid army wasnt much better. The whole battle of Naboo, between these dumb droids, standing and shooting, and gunkans trowing the bomb ball at them was ridiculos, and not. I wanted both sides to just kill each other, and be done with it.

Next thing is young Anakin. I didnt had problems with him until later in the film, where he got into the spaceship. From there it all went down hill. How lucky for him to press a RIGHT button at the RIGHT time to blow up the only thing that needed to be destroyed. Must be the FORCE.

Good guys are loosing on all 3 fronts. In battle, droids winning over gunkans, in palace Amidala squad is surrounded, and in the Jedi Battle, Darth Maul is kicking their asses royaly. And then what? Kid blows up generator, and they all SUDDENLY win!!!!

Darth Maul was kick ass character. He had skills of both Jedi together, and they couldnt stand up to him. He was smart too, in how he used the environments to his advantage. He killed Qin, and was beating up Obi-on, but than Lukas made him an idiot, because the script and the storyline says soo. Why the fuck was he running around pit looking stupid, while Obi had time to lift up, get his light saber, jump up and kill him !!!! Why, Lukas , WHy? At least give him a good death during the duel, not the fuckin lame one. What he was suddenly out of Force, to push Obi-one into pit with move of his hand, or cut him down with light saber?

These, and few other ones are the points that made EP1 soo unbearable for me too watch. I'm not saying that you guys should hate it too, and if you love it, good for you. But for me its just pain.

Few thoughts:

Why bad guys never just finish heroe when they have the frikin chance: In ATOC, when they are captured in collesium, they could have easily finish them off, but ohh well, I guess its not in the script. Even Trade Federaton Vice Roy begs Dooku to "Just Shoot them", but alas main villians never listen to the voice of common wisdom. That part was a great reference to one of Austin Powers films, where Doctor Evil had the simular chance and his son was suggesting the same :)

Yoda: One minute he barely walks with the kane, and other he is flipping in the air with light saber? Just seemed too strange, cool but strange :)

Dark Side of the Force: Is it me, or does the Dark Side always stronger, and more usefull than Light. In every SW film, dark side warrior, be it Maul, Dooky or Vader, or even Emperor always kicks ass of the Jedi, and they pretty much win because the screenplay needs to have a happy ending. Idiotic death of Darth Maul (hate Lukas for that), Dooky easily beating up both Jedi in AOTC, Luke constant losses against Vader and Emperor(who was killed by betrayer of Vader, Hooray the good guys :().

Anakin and his mother: He spends 10 years away, never caring aobut her, and then suddenly misses her, runs to save her, and cries that "she ment soo much to him". Right, Couldnt he find time in last 10 years to even remember or visit her?

R2D2: Flying, it was a cool trick, but why he couldnt do it in later SW films?

I will post more thoughts later, as they come to me :) [/QUOTE]

1)Well I think Dooku is a Jedi and he has certain codes of honor to uphold. So he felt he had to give them a fighting chance and couldn't stab them in the back. I also think he wanted to test them to see how powerful they were. He was toying with them. Also, he is the typical bad guy you see everywhere-- he thinks "Oh I am so much more powerful, so I can let them go, and fight them later..." Kind of like RPGs where the main bad guy keeps letting you go so you can level up and kill him in the final battle...

2) Yoda: to me there are two reasons for this-- the main surface reason was that Lucas knows we have never seen Yoda fight and he wanted to cause a dramatic event, so Yoda gets crazy and fights Dooku. The other reason I would say is that Yoda represents the true Jedi-- He only fights when he knows Anakin and Obi Wan are defeated and may be harmed. He represents all the elements of a true Jedi-- I think when he walks with the cane he is using patience and restraint. He saves his power for when he really needs it. This may be reading to much into it, but maybe not. It's like the sickly kung fu master. When threatened he fights as if he isn't sick and whoops some serious ass (though most of the times they end up dying, but that's besides the point).

3) The darkside is infinitely more powerful than the light side. I don't think Jedi can tap the true power of the force because it is too powerful and will most likely lead them to the darkside. Only Yoda can harness such power for good because he is a master. I think to use the powers that Dooku has, you have to use anger and hate and what not. But it's easier to go to the darkside and gain immediate power than to earn that power as a good Jedi like Yoda. The fight in EP2 was cool, because Dooku actually held up against three Jedi--one being Yoda. Dooku definitely has a lot of power and experience--so coupled together he makes a powerful enemy. I was actually disappointed that Obi Wan wasn't stronger...

4)These are some good points. I have to agree that I didn't care for Anakin's performance. As to why he didn't visit his mother for years? Well I think that he was constantly under Obi-wan's guidance and as a Jedi, he wasn't allowed to miss his mother. He had to let go of his feelings for her and focus on his training. Yoda says something about this in EP1. So I would guess that this was his first solo mission so he gave in and went to see her. He may have been thinking about her, but Lucas just didn't let us know. He does make mention of having a nightmare about his mother. Maybe he had them before, but Obi-wan refused to let him see her, though I don't know why. Unless it would be giving in to his feelings. It seems like Jedi can't feel anything. Love, anger, etc.--it's all off limits. And yet they work for a senate that is run by a dark lord...it's kind of sad that they can't think more for themselves...maybe this is why they get wiped out and Yoda ends up at the Degobah system...And I can't believe Yoda can't sense that Palpatine is evil...unless he does and doesn't reveal it for some reason...

Or...and this may be totally off the wall but...Maybe Palpatine and company set up that whole event to lure him to the darkside. Think about it. Why would a pack of Tusken's just kidnap his mother and torture her? Wouldn't they either eat her if they were canibals or use her to get items...from my impression they seem more like pirates interested in looting people than just torturing them...so they get the Tuskens to torture her a little, use the darkside to cause him to have this dream...and get him to come to her rescue knowing full well that he will retaliate when she dies. That moment is when you know, even if you hadn't seen the original three, that he is going to the darkside. It's like at that moment he threw away Anakin and became Darth...

A general comment about Anakin--if he had spent 10 years training under Obi Wan, wouldn't he be a little more disciplined? He's whinier than Luke is in the originals.

5) That's a good point about R2. Just one of the many holes that really have no answer, unless someone removed that feature for some reason...

Those are some good points Ssbomberman.

I'm pretty sure that it was Palpatine's plan to trap Anakin's mother and made him commit those murders. Because, she is so conviently dies, right when he gets there, bring to thought of that they kept her alive right for that purpose.

It seems that Light side jedi have way too many rules to obey, and way too many restictions in the way of how to live and use of force. I wonder why even bother, since it would be quite boring to follow the path of Force without rights to do almost anything. No love, no freedom, no feelings or other traits. Plus the obidience to the rules of the master. Not something that would be really attractive to spend your life doing. Dark Side on other hand .... :)

I also understand that Anakin was in training for last 10 years, but still, if the Good jedi prohibit you to even care about people close to you, than how good they really are? 10 years is still quite a long time, and I'm sure he would find the time to visit her at least once. Or write a letter, or send a video or email or something.



And I thought for a while, and here I have a biggest question:

Why is every planet they visit is human friendly and have oxygen. Not not planet in whole 5 films had them using space suits or something like that. What are the chances in the universe that all those different races to breath oxygen, and live in Earth like conditions???
Think about it. From desert Tatooin, to Humid Degobah, to ocean planet in EP2, air is always breatheable.