And, of course, I should have remembered there was a second page before posting, now noticing that several other people have commented before me.
I LOVED EP II! With that said, a few comments:
Don’t let Esprix see how hot Temuera Morrison is, or any Maoris in San Diego will have to scamper for cover. 
Don’t let Geoge Lucas’s kids name any more characters. The baby talk names–Gungans, Jar Jar, Dooku–are really annoying. What’s next–Duke Wawa and Baron Me Go Bye Bye??
The Yoda/Dooku fight had the audience and me cheering. Yoda laid some serious smack down, oh yeah!
The romance scenes are necessary, but they could not have been worse acted, directed, or written. I know Natalie Portman can act, so what happened to her performance?
And another thing-
We know Darth Sidious is Senator Palpatine, and they’re both played by the same actor. So why does Sidious have the same decayed skin, rotted teeth, and guttural voice he has as the Emperor in Eps V-VI, yet he looks completely healthy and normal as Palpatine? Could he be a shapeshifter, and is “Palpatine” a disguise for his real self, Darth Sidious?
BWAAHHAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!! :ahem:
where should I send the bill my ruined keyboard?
Here are my thoughts from the midnight showing we attended Thursday morning:
Acting: Serviceable, for the most part. Christopher Lee was so slick in his part, it was great to watch. Ewan did a fine job as young Obi-Wan; you can really see just how adventurous he can be, and why Han Solo admires his gutsiness for volunteering to shut down the Death Star’s tractor beam on his own. Frank Oz did a wonderful job with Yoda’s voice–you can really hear more of the “Empire”-era Yoda, especially with him constantly taking the piss from Obi-Wan. (“Lost a planet, Master Kenobi has. How embarrassing!”) Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan had good chemistry as the Fetts.
As for the two leads . . . not nearly as good as they could have been, not nearly as bad as implied by many. I thought Hayden Christensen managed to bring a little something to Anakin, and when an actor falls short, I blame the director for not getting the performance he wants. My thoughts on the character are that Anakin spent the first nine years of his life as a slave on an ass-backwards desert planet, then the next ten in relative isolation either in the Jedi temple or constantly by the side of his Master. His social skills are probably for shit (“Jedi business-return to your drinks!”) and he has no idea how to relate to women. He acted like a full-of-himself, glowering teenager, and was about this close to getting it really nailed.
Portman is capable of much better work, and while I’m not disappointed, I wish she had tried a little harder. Again, I blame Lucas for not directing her better. She had some good scenes, though.
Dialogue: I think people get hung up on this too much. If I want snappy, juicy dialogue, I watch David Mamet or Kevin Smith movies, or something like Good Will Hunting. Dialogue in SW movies has almost always been perfunctory, serving only to get to the next scene or reveal some small character thing.
Think of the lines that people quote most often from the OT, that have become part of the cultural vernacular. They aren’t profound or particularly well-written, and divorced from their context, they have little intrinsc meaning. “May the Force be with you,” “I am your father!,” “I love you/I know.” Anyone could have written those lines.
So they corny romance dialogue didn’t bother me too much. Nor did all the political talk; this is the second part of a six-part series, and given Lucas’ own comments on the structure, it’s really Scene 2, Act I. I expect a lot of it to be expository. I thought there was some real tension in the dialogue for the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett confrontation on Kamino.
Action: Awwww, yeah. Perhaps the best action of any of the SW movies. Clones vs. droids? So what–it was well choregraphed and exciting to watch, IMO. I wish the Dooku/Anakin battle had gone on longer, though. And Yoda? Damn right, judge him not by his size!
The Owen/C-3PO enigma: I’m not so sure that Owen doesn’t recognize Threepio in ANH (or that Lucas can’t backfit the story for it to be so). Maybe that’s why the questions–to see what Threepio knows and if he remembers the Lars family. He figures, hey, Anakin built this thing, maybe he sent it to spy on us. When he gets answers that indicate Threepio doesn’t remember anything, he figures there’s no harm in taking him home. And he does still tell Luke to take them into town and have their memories wiped. Hearing that Artoo mentioned Obi-Wan probably settled that for Owen–better wipe out anything these two might remember from their past.
I’ve heard someone else say this (I forget who) but it seems logical to me: Senator Palpatine is a clone of Sidious. Think about it, they’re in all cozy with the skinny cloners, he has access to their best work. I would guess that Sidious is very very old for his race, and needed a somewhat younger version to do his political bidding. I also remember a Dark Horse comic in which a sith master (may have been Palpy, come to think of it) who continually cloned himself and then transferred his consciousness to the clone when his previous body got too old. The stress of the transfer and the accelerated growth of the clones made each body very delicate and only good for a few years.
I love this stuff.
Count Dooku mentioned that the Dark Side had clouded their vision. But yeah. I mean, c’mon. The Jedi Council can’t tell that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is a bad guy, but any eight-year-old in the audience is screaming “He’s the emperor! He’s Darth Sidious!”
Of course, those eight-year olds have all the movies and the obvious points Lucas built in to the script. Just about anyone can point out the bad guys in any movie. Thats how they are made today.
If I lived in the Star Wars Universe, and wanted to be a rich, rich man. I’d open up a Second-Hand store ::snicker:: People lose hands left and right (man, they puns keep coming unintentionally! Stop me!) Vader loses his twice! That’s just careless.
That or I’d open up a 50’s diner. Nice to know some things are universal.
Not much to add except this:
I’ve always heard how bad-ass Slave I is. Now I know why - The seismic mines were cool, but the high-speed blasters rocked.
The styling on the clone gunships definately tips it’s hat to HIND helicopters - a cute touch.
I thought the light-saber choreography was phenomenal. To my eye there was a healthy dose of Samurai/Kendo essence in the way Jedis used their blades.
And speaking of which - it was .5 seconds worth of film, but I loved Annakin jumping onto Padme’s bed and killing the centipede things - two swings from a blade, centimeters from her face, executed with such speed and precision… Wow - Nice touch!
Other than that: Acting stiff, didn’t care for Annakin’s character (where’s the tragedy of his fall if you don’t give a shit about his character in the first place?) Action unbelievable, general plot excellent, and the movie does a good job of showing the events that lead to the SW universe as we know it at the beginning of EP IV.
Need to see it a couple more times now.
Saw it last night - lots of fun - two thumbs up. But…
I could have done without Obi Wan going to the New Jersey Space Diner and talking to the short order burger fryer to get info on the dart - kind of destroyed the whole “another galaxy far far away feel” for me - as did the robot NFL on TV in the bar.
I think the scene where Anakin talks about kiiling the Tuskan Raiders would have been better if he’d just said I"I killed them all, not just the men…" and left it at that. Really minor, I know, and in a sea of bad dialogue I don’t know why I picked up on that.
So far, this one seems to hold up under the SDMB’s scrutiny pretty well though.
Asylum, I’m laughing my ass off over here at your use of “kirk” as a verb.
This post is going to have major spoilers in it, but I’m assuming that if you’re reading this thread at all, you have either seen the movie or want to be spoilered.
We went to the 7:15 pm showing last night, and I thought the movie totally RULED. I was expecting another big disappointment like TPM – although I did weakly try to defend TPM right after I’d seen it, mostly based on the action scenes I liked – but was extremely pleased and surprised that this was actually a good movie. Started out kind of slow, could have done without some of the lamer dialogue (although this is Star Wars; what do you really expect?), but picked up about 1/3 of the way in and never let up again.
I loved seeing the Jedis in battle, loved seeing Yoda battle with Count Dooku (stupid name, though), loved every second of Sam Jackson’s bad-ass muthafucka screen time, and loved Yoda showing up with the clone cavalry to save the day in the death arena. One of the reasons I like going to the show on opening weekend is the audience reactions. When Sam Jackson showed up with his purple lightsaber, everyone cheered so loud and long that we almost missed the next line of dialogue. Ditto Yoda busting out his master Jedi swordfighting skills. Biggest laugh of the evening in my theater: Anakin telling Obi-Wan “I came to rescue you!” and Obi-Wan saying, “Great job.”
I’m glad they dropped all mention of midichlorians and quickly dispensed with Jar-Jar. It’s like Lucas woke up from the coma he was in when he wrote TPM and realized, hey, that crap really sucked and I’m not putting it in AOTC. I did appreciate that Jar-Jar actually advanced the plot this time during one of his brief scenes, as opposed to the last film, in which he was solely comic relief. His lack of intelligence and the fact that he is desperate to look smart in the eyes of authority figures led him to make that proposal about Darth Sidious becoming the autocrat of the Senate; it made sense! It really did!
I came out of this movie feeling like the plot is coming together nicely. You can really start to see the beginnings of the Empire and the fall of the Republic now. You see the origin of the stormtroopers (re somebody’s question about whether they’re the same stormtroopers; I think yes, but probably Darth Vader redesigns their uniforms a little), and you see the decline of the Jedi and the rise of the Dark Side. It’s clear how deep and subtle Palpatine’s plans are; he seems to always be able to get other people to put him in a position of greater power, all the time claiming that he neither asked for nor wanted the power in the first place. Palpatine also obviously got a little smarter about picking his sidekick, as this one was not merely good at kicking ass, but was intelligent and evil in his own right (and managed to survive until the next movie; way to go, Christopher Lee!).
Anakin’s acting in the romance scenes WAS stilted and painful, but I chalked that up to his being an awkward adolescent with no experience in these matters. The romance scenes didn’t bug me too much. I thought there was going to be a lot more of that sort of thing, and was pleasantly surprised to find it as understated as it was. Really, there weren’t any big romantic speeches on either side, unless you count the one that they had in the cart on the way out to the death arena. It all made sense, too. Anakin comes back, he and Amidala immediately fall in love at first sight (because that’s what happens in the Star Wars universe), he professes his love, she demurs due to duty and responsibility, and then a traumatic moment in both their lives (almost getting executed) changes her mind, and they wind up married. It makes sense! I swear!
It’s interesting that Anakin falling for Amidala both has the potential to destroy him – because he’s ignoring his Jedi training and developing an emotional attachment to one person – and the potential to save the Jedi, twenty or thirty years in the future when his son Luke finally destroys the Emperor and restores the Jedi to power, sort of. MrWhatsit felt that Darth Vader was really the one who ultimately restored balance to the Force, by recanting in his dying moments and destroying the Dark Side once and for all, but still, that couldn’t have happened without Luke’s influence.
This is way too long already, so I will wrap up by mentioning another one of MrWhatsit’s post-AOTC comments:
“A year ago, if someone had told me that the coolest fight scene of the year would be between an 80-year-old man and a 60-year-old-man, I would have laughed in their face and said, ‘Yeah, the only thing better than that would be, oh, a fight between an 80-year-old man and a PUPPET!’ Shows what I know.”
I just have to say it again: Christopher Lee RULES!
Oops, one more comment from MrWhatsit that I felt I should share:
Oh, just because I have to spew some more or I’ll never be able to get any real work done:
During the scenes on Geneosis where we first see Dooku, and particularly when he’s talking to Obi-Wan, I had a flash of a subplot that could have been really interesting:
Supposing that Dooku, instead of being the Sith Apprentice, really was the disenfranchised jedi he claimed to be? Complete with good intentions, seeing that the Council was being duped, through his own sources was working against a Sith senator, and in general representing a 3rd “force” (note the lower-case “f”)? I think it would have created an interesting drama. Naturally, we’d find out that he, despite the best of intentions, was being manipulated 3rd hand by Palpatine, perhaps through another character who’s turns out to be the apprentice.
That said, though I was crushed that Darth Maul met his demise after so brief an appearance in TPM, Dooku is a much better caliber of apprentice to be aiding Palpatine at this stage. Dooku represents not only the bad-ass dark Jedi, but also the political underling with a good grasp of the Machiavellian maneuvers his master is engaged in. It’s fine when the main baddy is cunning and powerful - it’s cooler when his apprentice isn’t just a (well-trained) thug.
And the Fetts rocked - it was nice to see that character development presented. The Fetts represent an unquantified force in the SW epic: Neither Jedi, nor necessarily good/bad - and the father-son rel-p is neat, particularly in contrast to the horrifically screwed father-son SNAFU that hangs about Annakin throughout.
After reading some of these replies and doing some thinking what if . . .
Yoda really does know that Palpatine is a baddy? But the only way he can see him defeated is through Anakin and Anakin’s children? That even though it sucks to have Annakin become a Sith, the Republic fall, and the Jedi persecuted and all, it’s the best possible way (the only way?) to kill off the Emperor and destroy the Dark Side?
I haven’t read any of the books, so I’m sure someone will tell me that this isn’t canon or something.
It’s gonna take some major backfitting, I think. I’ll have to watch the scene again and see if I can believe it. I think I buy Asylum’s explanation better. That Owen had already left the roost by the time Shmi and 3po showed up, and was home visiting.
As far as recall the only questions he asks are “I suppose you’re programmed for ettiquette and protocol” and “do you speak Bocce?” And if he thought anakin sent it as a spy, why trust anything he says? Couldn’t a mechanical genius like Anakin program 3po to say anything he wants? Why not just leave him with the jawas and catch the next, less risky protocol droid they bring around.
That I believe, but if he recognized 3po, I think he would’ve either not bought him at all, or had their memories wiped right away.
cainxinth, i agree, the tuskin raider scene would have been better as a “beserker” scene. anakin giving into the rage he feels at his mother’s torture and death. a good howl or two. it would have made the remorse scene a bit easier to handle after. you have to let the “inner viking” out after your mom has been tortured for a month.
I enjoyed some parts of this movie immensly. But when it was bad it was horrid. My audience (opening night, college age Star Wars fankids) laughed out loud during the firelight declaration of love. Bad sign. There was 0 to negative chemistry between Anakin and Amidala – I never saw her fall in love with him. What was with his lacivious leering and standing too close? EW! In the Naboo meadow scenes, they appeared to be stuck in a douche commercial. Too cliche for words.
Not to be a voice of dissent but I thought the yoda swordfight scene was very very bad. It kind of made my head want to explode from horror/shame. It looked unreal and ridiculous. On the other hand, when he battles using the force, that was somewhat cool. But it looked too hard for him. When he was protecting Anakin/Obi-wan from the ?falling column? I kept thinking “ohh… you cannot lift your ship!? [cackle]” C’mon, an X-wing is way heavier than some stupid piece of architecture.
I liked how the movie moved the plot forward re: Palatine and the Empire. Obi-Wan was good. I lOVED how they implied without telling you how Bobba Fett looks under his mask! He looks just like his dad! He’s a clone! Subtle! (Lucas… subtle? C’est incroyable). I also liked how Anakin impetuously attacks Dooku and gets his ass kicked.
Hello Again, sounds like we were at the same movie. During the fire scene some folks even started doing that cheesy 70’s porn music. But overall I really liked the movie.
One hting no one else has mentioned. There is a scene on Tatooine where Padme and Anakin are talking and all we see are their shadows on the wall. Anakin’s shadow is decidedly Darth Vader-ish.
I guess Lucas takes fore-shadowing literally. 
I’m still trying to figure out Naboo’s government. Is “queen” just their word for “president”, or does the queen actually have full monarchial powers while she’s in office?