Posted by Jurassosaurus [63.184.7.172 - sdn-ap-001caburbP1950.dialsprint.net] on 18 May 2002 at 03.20.56 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: Send in the clones posted by Ford Prefect on 18 May 2002 at 00.50.50 ZuluTime:

     This is the greatest review of Episode II in the world...tribute :)

     *Non-spoiler version*

This movie is easily better than the Phantom Menace in terms of story and atmosphere. Menace had a rather cheery atmosphere to much of it, with the only dark stuff coming in at the end. Furthermore it suffered from a horrible case of superkid syndrome. Attack of the Clones is so much better. Anakin's an adult now and his Darth side (sorta speak) is starting to show through.

Obi-Ewan (I know it's pronounced "You-in", but I can't help myself) continuously impresses me with how Alec Guiness he can get in his portrayal.

It was also nice to see the return of the 3P0-R2 dynamic. Speaking of which, that little droid's bag of tricks never ceases to amaze me.

Lucas wanted this movie to showcase the jedis in their prime and the tail end of the movie really brings this through. I was especially impressed with Yoda's bit. I'd known of it beforehand and I was afraid it would come out cheesy, but it didn't. In fact, it was actually very cool to see Yoda validate his position as head Jedi Master.

Oh yeah, and Jar Jar holds all of 3 scenes, most of which don't involve talking. So if you haven't seen the movie, go see it.

     Head below for the spoiler laden rundown.
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Okay, first off I finally understand why Lucas didn't want to call it: Episode II: The Clone Wars. The war itself only starts here. I still think he could have come up with a much better name, but at least I can understand why he disposed of the original contender.

The plot was far more interesting this time around. I like the whole hidden conspiracy, twilight of the jedi feel to the movie. I was also happy to see the return of the classic Star Wars 2 in 1 storyline. We have Anakin and Padme's adventure on one end, and Obi-Wan's detective adventure on the other end. I also enjoyed the frugal use of the very toned down Jar Jar Binks, who's amount of scenes in the movie could be counted on Yoda's hand.

The Anakin Obi-Wan dynamic was interesting. More interesting than the love story; that's for sure. I kinda wish Lucas would quit shoving his foreshadowing down everyone's thoats though. After hearing Obi-Wan say: "I swear you're going to be the death of me" I couldn't help but go: "Heh, heh, heeeeh, duh"

Jango was interesting and I agree with Ford Prefect in that the Boba kid was a far better actor than Jake Loyd. Of course the kid also had fewer lines and didn't start off as a little goody goody. I've never understood the interest in the Boba Fett character. I thought he was interesting, but hardly fan fic material. At any rate he's a main character now and one that got a pretty good start.

The clone makers were also interesting. Both for how clean they kept their entire factory and for giving the Close Encounters aliens some extra work :)

Alright, so my main interest in this series has always been the droids R2D2 and C3P0. I was very happy to hear the witty jibing between these two return. R2 rivals James Bond in terms of hidden gadgets. He's more a swiss army knife than an astromech, but then those two might be synonymous anyway. I also see that with the return of this duo, so too came the return of classic 3PO masochism. It would just figure that he'd wind up getting stuck in a droid army. Though I found most of the quips between the two to be of the usual caliber, I could definitely have lived without the gratuitous puns towards the end.

It was neat to meet the future godparents of Luke and Leia as well, though I see that Tatooine senility seems to effect them later in life too. Here they have C3P0 in use on their moisture farm for all these years, and then in episode IV the first thing that goes through his head upon seeing 3P0 again is: "I have no need for a protocol droid." I swear it's like the continuity folks completely forgot about the droid's parts and future relationships in the movie. All I can say is that these two better wind up in the hands of Captain Antilles by the end of Episode III.

Alright, so with that minor quibble aside, what else is there?

Seeing the Jedi in their prime was cool. Lots and lots of light sabre action in this movie. While all the fights in these prequels are far more fast paced and kinetic than the first three, I thought it was rather interesting to note that the most kinetic fight in the movie, the one right on par with Obi-Wan and Darth Maul's duel, was the fight between Yoda and Lord Dooku (Darth Tyrannus if I must use that name). As I stated in the non-spoiler version, I was a little afraid of how corny a CG Yoda battle was going to turn out. Thankfully it didn't turn out bad at all. Sure people were laughing during the beginning, but it was more of a "hah, hah, that is so cool/cute." than a derogatory laugh. When Yoda was battling back and forth (both before and after the duel) I couldn't help but think of him as an old gremlin (Dante's version, not the webmaster :).

Oh yeah, I so didn't need to read the script to see that Anakin was going to lose the same hand as Luke's. With Lucas giving this whole "before they were stars/destiny" treatment to the prequels, I was hardly surprised to see Anakin losing the same appendage as his son (give, or take an arm). In fact, the Death Star plans surprised me more than Anakin's loss.

In the end I found Episode II to be better than Phantom Menace, but with a dumber name.