Rating: Summary: Ughh Review: Natalie Portman single handedly makes this movie unwatchable. Two years of post production and no one bothered to edit out her performance?
Rating: Summary: dvd featurettes are better than the movie Review: As a huge fan of the Stars Wars saga, including the books that have followed up first three, all i can do is wonder what the (expletive deleted) was George Lucas thinking with this batch of films. The original Star Wars films had great character interaction and fantastic (for their time, and still good by todays standards) FX. This prequel trilogy is visually stunning but lacks strongly the sort of story and rich interaction between charaters of the originals. I'm not sure what made Lucas think that needed to write these films such horrid screenplays, but god I wish Timothy Zahn had been tapped for the job. I enjoy this movie on a superficial level. Deep down I just can't feel like these movies rate being a part of the Star Wars Universe. Buy this for your kids, let them love this early (later?) movies and when all three are out, show them the Saga that made us love Luke, Han and Chewbacca. P.s. I never really liked Leia all that much
Rating: Summary: Stunning sound and crystal clear video Review:
- The digital transfer created crystal-clear scenes that are pleasing to your eyes. Details of the clone war can be easily seen on your screen.
- The sequel lacks feature rich cut scenes, compared with the Phanton Menace, unfortunately. Most scenes are story-explaining discussions.
- All trailers and TV spots are located on Disc 2. It also contains discussions of the anamatics team, and how they helped the actors in their performance. Worth watching
- Ideal for testing your living-room equipment, or pleasing one of your hard-core starwars friends.
Rating: Summary: "I hate sand, its coarse and rough, not like you" - Ha Ha! Review: Right. Loved the first films; probably due to the fact that the figures were cool and I was a kid. This one has a long tangled story that just feels thrown together to kill time before the inevitable occurs in Episode 3. Boba Fett's (hideously wooden) father making clones of himself, the most cringeworthy love scenes commited to DVD (frollicking on a hillside with giant hamsters) and a whole host of small pointless characters (those badly dubbed trade federation Asians, Count Dooku, an army from A Bug's Life, long-necked alien cloners who live in an airbrushed world straight from a Yes! album sleeve etc.) The action scenes seem forced too, especially the Gladiator meets Sinbad Colesseum battle with a giant crab, a bull and a Tasmanian Devil. The whole 'robot factory' scene just doesn't look or feel right, when C3-PO gets whisked away by a mechanical arm it just smacks of some late night MTV video for some French disco dance band. Hopefully Lucas will throw Jabba into the next one. Jabba and IG-88, the mental short-circuited killer droid. Lastly, Boba looked cool. Then he got nudged into that Carkoon pit thing. Sheesh, what a stupid way to go. Now in this one, Jango looks as cool, and then stands there like an idiot while someone lops his melon off. I mean, let them go out in a blaze of glory!
Rating: Summary: Send in the Clones Review: In Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones, Yoda is the breakout character once again. He was the breakout character in the second installment of the first trilogy. This time, he is free of the (m)puppet hands of Frank Oz (he provides voice only here) and is put into the hands of glorious cgi. This time it is necessary. The audience finally gets to see him in action as he must fly on spaceships and to see why he is a Jedi Master as he wields a light saber in an unforgettable duel with the evil Jedi Master Count Dooku played by Christopher Lee. The romance between Anakin and the Padme (Christensen & Portman) is a little weak, but the detective work by Obi Wan (McGregor) to find the bounty hunter behind the assasination attempt on Padme is intriguing as he uncovers more than the Jedi Council wants to hear and finds a company developing a Clone Army for the Republic. Again, the special effects and action sequences are top notch and seamless (Hey, R2D2 flies in this movie--COOL!) and there is humor all around. Great to see Christopher Lee in two high profile roles in two great Sci-Fi Fantasy films coming out almost at the same time (the other being Lord of the Rings) and we finally see a bunch of Jedi Knights in light saber action. Great film overall for Star Wars fanatics with a lot of questions from the first trilogy being answered in this film. For all those who keep thrashing this and the previous sequel...keep it up and Lucas will keep everyone hanging and won't finish the trilogy.
Rating: Summary: Yoda, yo-yo-yo-yo-Yoda Review: I'm not gonna go into the plot, Yoda, or clone armies, because there's probably enough people who do that, what I want to say is a bit different. This movie adds something to the Star Wars story as a whole, something that was missing and that I think it needed. After I saw Episode 2 in the theatre I watched the original three again, and I found myself having a completely different reaction at the end of Return of the Jedi (I won't say what scene exactly because I wouldn't want to give anything away in case someone out there hasn't seen it, and those of you who have seen it probably know what I mean). I'll admit it, I cried. The scene itself is the same, of course, and yet it was completely different. Having the story of Episode 2 and what had happened to Anakin completely changed how I feel about Darth Vador and the ending of Return of the Jedi. This makes me wonder if when I watch Return of the Jedi again after Episode 3, will I be completely devestated? I definitely recommend watching Episode 2 and then watching Return of the Jedi again (or, if you've not seen the original movies, watch those first, then episodes 1 and 2, then watch Return of the Jedi again). I know people put the new Star Wars movies (episodes 1 and 2) down for various resons, but I think people fail to remember that the original Star Wars movies are far from perfect. I think people love Star Wars so much that they expect it to be more than it is, and then when it's just Star Wars (wonderful, flawed Star Wars), they're disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Star Wars and I think the originals and both of the new ones are wonderful, but they are, all of them, flawed. Wonderfully so. That sounds strange, I know, but I love Star Wars even for it's flaws. :-)
Rating: Summary: George Lucas is a hack ¿ wack, wack, wack. Review: I thought Star Wars (ca. 1977) was wonderful, as it broke new ground. Empire Strikes Back was even better (for what it's worth, it was scripted and directed by someone other than Lucas), and then Return of the Jedi was kind of lame (it relied way too heavily on Hensen's Muppets). All in all, though, I thought it was a very successful trilogy... and it would be impossible to remove it from my childhood experience. So I was excited when the prequel trilogy started rolling out. Whether you like it or not is beside the point. I just feel as if Lucas - who has NO IDEA how to direct human beings - has duped us. Sure, he's making a killing, but how can he live with himself after producing such utterly directionless crap? As I watched Attack of the Clones - its love scenes like douche commercials and a muddled, robotic plot - I expected to see the little silouehetes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to pop up and start heckling the screen. This is a multimillion-dollar B-film. I'm anxious to see Ewen MacGregor return to some real films after this mess is over and done with. Spend your money on Peter Jackson's brilliant adaptation of Lord of the Rings instead.
Rating: Summary: The Epic Continues... Review: I'm a great fan of Star Wars since the first movie in 1977. Sci-Fi lovers and young viewers -at that time- has become loyal subjects to it! For them, this movie is a wonderful piece of the long galactic epic which they loved since they were young. New comers to Satr Wars might join those loyal subjects if they like the earlier movies. Aside from the visual side, which brings the BEST of visual technology in cinema industry, you may not apprteciate Episode I or Episode II, as it should be, if you haven't first seen and enjoyed the earlier triology. For me as a Star Wars fan, Episode II is a real feast. It provides all what I expected to have in term of story build up, excitements, visuals, actions, and nostalgic link to the original triology.
Rating: Summary: If only Lucas listened to Himself, not the Jar-Jar bashers.. Review: Ever snce I saw Episode I back in 1998, I've been a HARD-CORE Star Wars buff. Especially Jar-Jar Binks--as I had never been a Star Wars person before then, he was the first thing that got me into the movie. I just thought "Whatever the rest of the movie is like, he's cute!" Of course, it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me, considering how much of a fan I am now. I was ecstatic to see Episode II after waiting for two years, but I was not as satisfied as I feel I should have been. For my birthday as an early present this year, I purchased the DVD, hoping that maybe I had just been overly-critical in the theater. Good news or bad news first? I'll start with the good. The good parts of Attack of the Clones are GOOD parts--the arena scene (with all those rockin' Jedi), Kamino and the inhabitants (I love their eyes), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and the Yoda-Count Dooku lightsaber duel,and many others as well. I found that though I loved the puppet Yoda more profusely, the CGI one works just fine with me--he is still Yoda! And the extras on the second DVD are wonderful.Many behind-the-scenes features opened my eyes to really how MUCH work they do for Star Wars. Seeing how much they used blue-screen as well made me appreciate and look up to the actors more--it takes skill to stare at something that isn't there and talk to it and be convincing! The bad: I have to say, also, like countless others before me: The romance was AWFUL. I always admired Padme in Episode I--she was a spectacular leader at only 14-years-old, and she was mature and cool when put in a hard place. But now--instead of maturing as I hoped she would, it seems that Padme Amidala has digressed, becoming childish, reckless and impulsive, more of a spoiled child than a senator. But Anakin is even worse--he disobeyed Obi-Wan at every turn and says such wooden lines as 'It's not fair!" and "Obi-Wan is jealous!". Frankly, I thought, the WORLD is not fair--grow up! He was overly childish and a horrible whiner, and his acting was very wooden in certain spots, entirely hard to believe. Some of the love scenes get entirely painful--the dialogue is just horrible (I've never heard worse proclaimations of love) and their actions make you want to give them a good smack. Another thing--how did Padme suddenly turn into the Britney Spears of the Star Wars galaxy? Almost all of her clothes (except for a few choice lovely ones) are mid-riff bearing, and the black-corset thing!? Let's just say she needed it to cover a little more of her skin. I really looked down on this--whoever designed the wardrobe should have though of the effect it would have on young girls. I think it's really important for Star Wars to stay the way it was, clean and right and with no unnecessary sexual indication. It disappointed me, to say the least, but I still think that the parts that are good are true Star Wars moments. It's quite easy to just fast-foward through the gooey love scenes anyway. ;D
Rating: Summary: dumb and confusing Review: OK, so this is a grown up point of view, adn it may be too much to expect that the producers can satisfy kid AND adults, even adults weaned on star trek. BUT REALLY -- the young actors were very unskilled, Anakin mostly seemed like he was embarrased by his lines (a reasonable response) and to be fair, is probably much too young to carry a transition from good guy to bad guy at all convincingly (he could have used some help from the writers). The plot was probably there before the left most of it on the cutting room floor.The force is hardly ever talked of or used, and Yoda at one point alludes to the diminishing power of the Jedi -- this would have made a great plot element, whay was it not developed? Over all, too many special effects, too little story.
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