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Good news Star Wars fan(atic)s, Episode II: Attack of the Clones is everything The Phantom Menace
should have been. And more.
The old order has been restored, the film feels, looks & behaves more like a Star Wars film, the
action is suitably fast paced, the FX stunning (but not corrosive), the story reassuringly dark
(even gothic at times) as it chases back & forth between plot strands, the characterizations
less wooden & all in all Episode II sees the series reliably back on track.
This time around Lucas plays unashamedly to the crowd. Perhaps something to do with the mountain of
mail he woulda received from narked fans after the first episode. He shores up room for cult
figures like Boba Fett & Yoda and teases us with glimpses of the coming universe the first (now latter)
3 films presented to a generation of now quasi-religious sci-fi zealots some 25 years ago. It's subtlely clever stuff too,
the clone army are obvious stormtrooper precursors but not quite as we've come to know them yet, the
implosion of the omnipotent Jedi order has began & there are various nods to the legend like
the introduction of Uncle Owen & Aunt Veruca, odes to Darth speak, Sand People, Jawa's, Mos-Eisley,
the R2/3PO double act plus new improvements like the Sith myth, Vader's first steps, Obi-Wan's battle
with Anakin & the beginnings of Imperial rule.
For the fantasy freaks there's a ton of new worlds, spaceships, monsters, characters & detail to chew
over between games of D&D & frantic masturbation over Lara Croft. Too much for anyone to keep up with
on first viewing. Oh yeh, if I spelt anything wrong - GOOD!
There really is, on first viewing, little else you could ask of Episode II.
I mean, Sam "Cult" Jackson with a purple lightsaber? Yoda in battle? Christopher Lee picking up from
where his legendary sidekick Peter Cushing left off? Not least the first inklings of the mighty
Death Star & a virtual gag on the antics of Jar Jar Binks!
The only fault I noted was the language; it becomes very earthly in parts, with grand speeches about
DEMOCRACY, DICTATORSHIP, TRADE FEDERATIONS, CORPORATE ALLIANCES. You get the feeling Big George is
trying to make some sagacious point - but going about it too bluntly, after all, this is supposed
to be a fairy-tale...the social commentary will be written in later.
Episode II also tends to confuse itself by sticking so closely to the onscreen plot. Count Dooku
- Darth Maul's successor - is the bad guy, a rogue Jedi & Yoda's apprentice (you begin to wonder how the
Jedi have thrived this long when their best teachers seem incapable of rearing loyal followers!?) yet
attempts to lure Obi-Wan to his cause by announcing his opposition to the Sith. A red herring perhaps
but a cumbersome one when you have to be mensa-literate to keep up with the feuding politics of the two sides but
to be fair they form a reputable & deliberately confusing stew of a backstory throttling us toward the rampant chaos from which Star Wars
(episode 3) is born.
You only have to wonder why it took Lucas 2+ hours, the waste of two decent characters (Qui-Gon & Darth
Maul) & countless millions to get back on track...
RATING: (c)Limer 2002
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Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (Cinema: May 2002)
