"Victory? Victory you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun the Clone War has." -Yoda
Star Wars unleashed its mighty power over thirty years ago, at the beginning of the new century we got new films, prequels, and for those who grew up with the original trilogy that had been renamed to episodes 4-6 the prequels were a new hope to explore the vastness of Star Wars potential at ruling the movie-verse.....too bad the vast consensus is that the prequels suck, and Episode II is a prime example.
While the whole movie isn't an utter waste of time, the first half of this movie does trudge along so painfully. With the exception of maybe one action sequence, the first half is about characters walking and talking, sitting and talking, and debating over politics that have been simplified. Now while this can be really interesting and engaging if done right, this film just didn't have the best dialogue, shots, or really anything to really hold your attention for the first half.
This film introduces an older Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, who is showcased as a whiny semi-adult who has trouble showing any kind of emotion other than awkward hatred. If this whole story didn't revolve around him I think this film would have been at least a bit better. I really loved Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his story line was the more fascinating of the two leads. The other Jedi; Yoda, Mace Windu, and Sith; Count Dooku, Sidious, were very good, Hayden just wasn't up to their level and really made it hard to watch and feel for him in his important scenes that start to change who he will become.
Surprisingly, the special effects hold up, even though you can totally tell what's CGI and what is green screen, but for a movie that was heavily CGI and to be made in the very beginning of the 21st century where CGI was just starting to kick up stride, it was very impressive with how much of the movie still looked good and not cheesy/campy. There were some aliens that were still prosthetics and masks.
Obi-Wan Kenobi's hair bugged me throughout the film, not sure why but it just felt too real world cool, than Jedi bad-ass. Padme was channeling so much princess Leia that I thought this film, while advancing the plot where we the audience know it is heading, hinted a bit too much at the later films. It was almost like it was saying "oooh me hey over here! Look at me, remember this from the original??!!"
I thought it was cool how they introduced the clones, and how they will now be important and utilized for the future, but the subtitle of this movie puzzles me. This is called "Attack of the clones" and yet the clones barely had any screen time, in fact the majority of their scenes were the last ten minutes of the film. That and the title suggests that the clones are the bad guys (possibly eluding to Episode III?) when in fact they aligned with the Jedi.
One of the saddest parts of this film, was the music. At times it felt like the music was being drowned out by the diegetic sounds from the film. It could be my sound system (I'm not that knowledgeable in that) but if it was the movie then I weep that that beautiful score wasn't being recognized enough, even if they were 'hint hint nudge nudging' moments in the music (Darth Vader theme for Anakin at one point).
Speaking of Anakin, this movie was so heavy in his development, but I didn't think the actor of Anakin was very good and therefore really didn't get you invested into his story even though his development should have been amazing and sent you gasping "oh shit!" and instead I was going "yeah, I know. You're a bad actor."
Overall, this film is very slow to start your interest, and while the ideas are really cool there are hardly much deliverance from the story. The plot moves along the way you would think, but from being bored by the first half and cringing at Anakin's line delivery, it feels like there should be much more of a pay off than what the last 10-20 minutes gives us.
C+
Star Wars unleashed its mighty power over thirty years ago, at the beginning of the new century we got new films, prequels, and for those who grew up with the original trilogy that had been renamed to episodes 4-6 the prequels were a new hope to explore the vastness of Star Wars potential at ruling the movie-verse.....too bad the vast consensus is that the prequels suck, and Episode II is a prime example.
While the whole movie isn't an utter waste of time, the first half of this movie does trudge along so painfully. With the exception of maybe one action sequence, the first half is about characters walking and talking, sitting and talking, and debating over politics that have been simplified. Now while this can be really interesting and engaging if done right, this film just didn't have the best dialogue, shots, or really anything to really hold your attention for the first half.
This film introduces an older Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, who is showcased as a whiny semi-adult who has trouble showing any kind of emotion other than awkward hatred. If this whole story didn't revolve around him I think this film would have been at least a bit better. I really loved Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his story line was the more fascinating of the two leads. The other Jedi; Yoda, Mace Windu, and Sith; Count Dooku, Sidious, were very good, Hayden just wasn't up to their level and really made it hard to watch and feel for him in his important scenes that start to change who he will become.
Surprisingly, the special effects hold up, even though you can totally tell what's CGI and what is green screen, but for a movie that was heavily CGI and to be made in the very beginning of the 21st century where CGI was just starting to kick up stride, it was very impressive with how much of the movie still looked good and not cheesy/campy. There were some aliens that were still prosthetics and masks.
Obi-Wan Kenobi's hair bugged me throughout the film, not sure why but it just felt too real world cool, than Jedi bad-ass. Padme was channeling so much princess Leia that I thought this film, while advancing the plot where we the audience know it is heading, hinted a bit too much at the later films. It was almost like it was saying "oooh me hey over here! Look at me, remember this from the original??!!"
I thought it was cool how they introduced the clones, and how they will now be important and utilized for the future, but the subtitle of this movie puzzles me. This is called "Attack of the clones" and yet the clones barely had any screen time, in fact the majority of their scenes were the last ten minutes of the film. That and the title suggests that the clones are the bad guys (possibly eluding to Episode III?) when in fact they aligned with the Jedi.
One of the saddest parts of this film, was the music. At times it felt like the music was being drowned out by the diegetic sounds from the film. It could be my sound system (I'm not that knowledgeable in that) but if it was the movie then I weep that that beautiful score wasn't being recognized enough, even if they were 'hint hint nudge nudging' moments in the music (Darth Vader theme for Anakin at one point).
Speaking of Anakin, this movie was so heavy in his development, but I didn't think the actor of Anakin was very good and therefore really didn't get you invested into his story even though his development should have been amazing and sent you gasping "oh shit!" and instead I was going "yeah, I know. You're a bad actor."
Overall, this film is very slow to start your interest, and while the ideas are really cool there are hardly much deliverance from the story. The plot moves along the way you would think, but from being bored by the first half and cringing at Anakin's line delivery, it feels like there should be much more of a pay off than what the last 10-20 minutes gives us.
C+
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