Loved it loved it loved it. I’ll say it again: LOVED IT.
It amuses me that in US cinemas the audience woops and cheers when Yoda gets ready to kick ass, in our rather restrained part of the world the audience simply let out understated gasp.
I’m still psyched about the film, to the point of getting chills while reading some of the stuff in this thread and being reminded. Must see it again. Soon.
Very much so. I was very surprised at the rating, especially given that it seemed to me in TPM that Lucas over-extended himself to avoid showing any living things being killed. It’s an endless parade of droids being destroyed, sure, but they’re just droids. AOTC, however, has living things being chopped in half quite a bit (Tusken raiders, those wasp people). You’d think that the Jango Fett beheading alone would push it into PG-13 territory.
However, the rating a movie gets is strongly influenced by the studio, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that Lucas plus Fox had enough collective pull to encourage a PG rating out of the MPAA.
But look!—it had Jar Jar in it!
francesca, we have to get you to a movie theatr on this side of the pond. not only are there whoops and cheers, people shout out “helpfull” advise, and question the actors.
aaahhhh, behind you!.. no! over there!!!
oh, no he didt!!! he did not just do that!!! did he just do that!!! is he crazy!!! (the person leaps from seat and points to the screen) are you crazy!!!
it really adds ah, i’m not sure what exactly, but “something” is added to the whole presentation. sometimes it can even make a bad movie great.
delphica, i really enjoyed the line: thus, he is called, “farm boy.”
And for those of us that want ATOC wallpapers and suchlike, there’s a whole bunch here.
I particularly recommend Badass Yoda. Yeah baby!
One point I don’t think I’ve seen raised yet–having seen the movie, I have to admit that Attack of the Clones seems to fit better than The Clone Wars (which choice of title was widely criticized before the movie came out). After all, in this episode, we only see the initial assault of the clones (and that only towards the end), nor do we see them attacking the Republic itself yet; the Clone Wars have “only just begun” (and most people, even Obi-Wan Kenobi, don’t even realize that any such thing has in fact begun), and presumably will dominate the next episode, not this one.
I saw it this afternoon (unfortunately waaaay up front at a gigantacreen theatre, so I had to literally whip my head around to see what was going on) and I’m not sure about my feelings. It had good points and bad points, so to try and figure it out I think I’ll ramble like a Larry King column…
Ewan IS Obi-Wan. His ability to mimic Alec Guiness while retaining his own version of the character is really striking. If the film (or all three prequels) were just Obi-Wan I could see them surpassing the first three.
…But unfortunately we have the story of Anikin being what it’s all about. I understand that, and I don’t think that Christiansen did a bad job, but the character is not turning out to be what we were led to believe he would be. Luke-esque in his being immature while coming to terms with his power, but we never seem to get a good emotional connection that we do to Luke. Maybe it’s because we already know what’s going to happen to him, or maybe it’s because he seems to have a new emotion every 30 seconds.
…Jango & Boba: I liked Boba Fett as an important minor character, and the inclusion here just smacks of pandering to fanboys. That said, I thought the scene of Jango (sans armor) & Obi-Wan was one of the better non-action scenes Lucas has done in these first two episodes.
…Was anyone else waiting, during the Coruscant chase near the beginning of the film, for a big blimp with a geisha on the side to invite people to a new life on the off-world colonies? Or, when Anikin was chasing the bounty-hunter, for him to shoot her in the back and have her crash through several panes of glass? Heh, “either you’re jedi, or you’re little people!”
…OK, everyone’s talking about it: the Yoda fight. The fight itself was a lot better than I would have imagined (although it seemed short - no pun intended), but the part where Yoda pulls back his robe and displayed what looked to be a six-pack of abs that John Basedow had wanted all his life made me giggle quite a bit. Oh, did I say “quite a bit”? I meant “I almost spewed Sprite over the nice lady sitting in front of me.” Generally I thought Yoda was something of a distraction during the film because his CGI did not look too hot (again, I had my face pressed up to the screen and that close up everything looked grainy or blurry), and CGI motions for character movement are not where they should be if they are going to be so prominent.
…I read virtually nothing for the past 18 months or so about the film so I didn’t know much about what would go on. I found the plot pretty easy to understand while not dipping into standard Hollywood linearity. Also, because I didn’t read anything I didn’t know if anyone specific was going to die, and spent every scene with Mace Windu holding my breath. Phew! I felt after TPM that Anikin would wind up killing him, and now I expect that in E3.
…Chirstopher Lee was pretty good as Count Dookula, but the other separatist leaders didn’t impress. I thought the leader of the Tecnho-whatevers should have been waving a lightstick and talking about how happy he was. Oh wait, he wasn’t the leader of the Rave system? My bad…
…The use of Threepio as a buffoon that outdoes Jar-Jar in every conceivable way was unnecessary and cruel. It’s bad enough that he’s the prissiest automaton ever to be put on celuloid, but to keep injecting his lame exploit in the middle of a pretty cool battle scene was a piss-poor decision. And I thought the Ewoks weren’t so bad, so I guess this complaint means something (I’m just not sure what).
Ok, looking over this I think I generally enjoyed the film despite the physical discomforts, and I have enough “what ifs” running through my head to be satisfied. Could have been better, could have been worse, but I think the lead-up to E3 is pretty good. Considering all the questions that remain for what needs to be answered in that film I think it might have to be the longest SW film, maybe 3 hours.
I was doing my own rating count during the movie:
3 Decapitations + 2 Prominent Headlights = PG-13, if you ask me.
Saw it last night after briefly skimming this thread, and in the scene where Amadalia leans over to tell Anakin that she loves him (right before the arena fight scene) I had to restrain myself from shouting, “Maximus! Maximus!”
The first thing I thought of when I saw the cloners was Lucas told the CGI guys, “Aw, just take the meccas from A.I. and reskin 'em.”
One thing that annoyed me was the conveyor belt sequence where they’re hopping around the cooling metal. Uh, George, I got news for you, if they were that close to the stuff their clothes would burst into flames!!!
Idle speculation on my part: The reason that episodes IV-VI aren’t on DVD is that Lucas is planning on re-editing them for any inconsistencies that might crop up during the first three movies.
I can well believe that Owen might forget about C-3PO over the years. Owen isn’t the kind of guy who’d pay much attention to or have much affection for droids, so to him they might “all look alike.”
I’m glad I’m not the only who thought of Blade Runner while watching parts of this movie.
I also was surprised at the level of violence in the film. While watching it I was thinking, “And Gladiator got an ‘R’?”
Arden, I damn near pissed myself from laughing about that.
This is also the first movie I’ve seen in a while where the audience applauded at it.
Is it just me, or did Dooku’s clothing look like it was borrowed from Battlestar Galactica? And was the arena sequence a “Fuck You” to Ridley Scott?
Finally, I’m surprised that no one’s picked up the most obvious reason for Anakin going over to the Dark Side. Can you imagine what a bitch it must be, being an angst-ridden teenager, and having people call you, “Annie”? 
Oh, yeah, for got something. I was hoping that we’d get to see what the Tusken Raidiers looked like without their “mummy” wrappings in this one. I wanna know what they look like, dammit!
Michael Jackson
Good film. I saw it a few hours ago. Better than the TPM.
I like a good plot in sci-fi. The themes in a series make or break it for me, even if the action sequences are good. I like Star Wars for its pro-democracy themes – most Hollywood movies portray democracy and politics as “too slow” and all politicians as “too corrupt,” and call out for “leaders who get the job done.” Putting all these words into Annakin Skywalkers mouth – and knowing he’s tumbling his way to the dark side, was for me the movie’s best feature. A good antidote to the silver-screen facism of Stallone and Schwarzenegger.
I’ve always wondered about Star Trek. I mean, we hear the Federation is a democracy, but we never learn the nuts and bolts of it. I always thought it was disturbing how unimportant it seemed.
I’m going to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the Jedi council’s serious moral lapses are meant as a criticism of the council, and not just cluelessness on his part.
Most of my raves and rants besides that have been posted already – I’ve seen porn actors with a better grasp of nuance than Portman in this film. Yoda battle great. Some scenes like a video game.
I think Lucas was stealing large chunks of this from Gundam Wing personally, except not as well-executed. Amidala reminded me of Princess/Queen/President Relena, without the development.
On a completely shallow note, I was disappointed with Christensen. Everyone said he was gorgeous, but his features look out-of-place – like good-looking features were taken from their natural faces and put together in some kind of composite that didn’t work.
Good film. I saw it a few hours ago. Better than the TPM.
I like a good plot in sci-fi. The themes in a series make or break it for me, even if the action sequences are good. I like Star Wars for its pro-democracy themes – most Hollywood movies portray democracy and politics as “too slow” and all politicians as “too corrupt,” and call out for “leaders who get the job done.” Putting all these words into Annakin Skywalkers mouth – and knowing he’s tumbling his way to the dark side, was for me the movie’s best feature. A good antidote to the silver-screen facism of Stallone and Schwarzenegger.
I’ve always wondered about Star Trek. I mean, we hear the Federation is a democracy, but we never learn the nuts and bolts of it. I always thought it was disturbing how unimportant it seemed.
I’m going to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the Jedi council’s serious moral lapses are meant as a criticism of the council, and not just cluelessness on his part.
Most of my raves and rants besides that have been posted already – I’ve seen porn actors with a better grasp of nuance than Portman in this film. Yoda battle great. Some scenes like a video game.
I think Lucas was stealing large chunks of this from Gundam Wing personally, except not as well-executed. Amidala reminded me of Princess/Queen/President Relena, without the development.
On a completely shallow note, I was disappointed with Christensen. Everyone said he was gorgeous, but his features look out-of-place – like good-looking features were taken from their natural faces and put together in some kind of composite that didn’t work.
I saw it again last night, this time in a digitally-projected format. If you have the opportunity to see it that way, I highly recommend it; the difference in image quality and the level of detail are nothing short of amazing.
A few little details I liked:
Here’s some things I would’ve liked changed in AOTC:
The Obi/Dooku and Ani/Dooku saber battles were WAY too short and didn’t really show Dooku’s “fencing” style. I was really looking forward to that, especially the way they discussed it in the book. Jedi’s never use lightsabers for fighting, since there are no Sith anymore. So Dooku had an advantage to offset his 80-year-old age. He was supposed to be relaxed and efficient, while Ani and Obi would do all the flipping and swinging. In the
movie, things went too quick to even tell. Plus a lot of Dooku’s Vader-esque taunting was cut out “Come, come, Master Kenobi, put me out of my misery!”
The entire fireplace scene and the “Sound of Music” field scenes. We don’t know anything about Ani since he was a 9-year-old brat. We know Amidala as a noble queen and senator. Now, I’m supposed to believe that this woman falls for a creepy leering teenager who feeds her preposterous and contemptible lines (“I love you, Padme. I’ve always loved you, Padme. I hate sand, Padme.”) and tells her about his little massacre?
More action with Mace vs Jango. When you read the book, you won’t believe how much they cut that scene down by!!
Same with Ani vs the Tusken Raiders. I know GL wanted to keep it PG, but come on! This is the first time Darth Vader uses the dark side, let’s see a little bit MORE of this, probably the most important event in the entire saga. His whining “I hate them” with Amidala was almost as bad as the Toshi Station line.
Padme getting up after being knocked out of the gunship. Lying on the ground, moaning in pain then getting up and being just fine. Very very odd.
Yoda’s backwards dialect. Great in small doses, but not every time. “Front assembly area, take me.” And bring back the Yoda puppet. At least just for close ups. CGI just isn’t that good yet.
The arena at Geonosis. It was totally full and crowded, like the audience was expecting a big spectacle. And they get 3 people trussed up and totally immobile and defenseless. How exciting would that be? Especially with 3 different large and powerful monsters. They’d saunter up and quickly kill the people chained to the post. Show’s over, go home now. I know they were
trying for a “Gladiator” angle, but I don’t think it would satisfy the crowd’s bloodlust by having someone tied to a post, with the gladiator strolling up and stabbing him.
Tuscen (Tuskan?) Raiders…
Weren’t They “sand people” in Ep. IV?
Yep. They were referred to as both “Tuskan Raiders” and “Sand People” at alternating times in Ep. IV.
Nope, in TESB Han latches onto the Star Destroyer to hide from the Star Destroyer. When the garbage is launched, they go with it, and Boba follows them. That’s how he finds them on Cloud City.
Can I just mention that my clever username doesn’t seem so clever now that there are really large threads about AOTC? Let’s just say I can’t use the Email notification feature anymore. 
I’ve read this whole thread, and here’s a plot problem I had that no one has addressed:
Obi-Wan goes to Kimino and discovers that Jenga Fett is just hanging out there, rent-free, tricking them into making this clone army. So he follows him to Dooku’s place, gets caught, finds out that Fett is his #1 henchman, etc etc. Why did Obi-Wan never say anything to the other Jedi along the lines of “This clone army all looks like Jenga Fett, who happens to be a bad guy and I followed him directly here from that planet, so don’t use that army, they’re evil!” I was totally expecting the clones to suddenly turn on the Jedi and start attacking them side-by-side with the droids.
Also, does it strike you that the Jedi are kinda, um, incompetent? And what about that attrition ratio?
As for my review, like you care, but I thought it was awesome. Of course, I may have been permanently damaged by the # of times I saw Star Wars as a kid - all of these movies are bulletproof to me.
Jenga Fett is of course easy to defeat if you remove the blocks from the bottom first.
