Rating: 
Summary: A Slight but Welcome Improvement Over Episode 1
Review: The lack of small children yelling "yippee" every five minutes is a welcome change. So is better, more confident, acting by Ewan MacGregor. Natalie Portman still can't act but she's at least easy on the eyes. Haydyn Christenson has added bitter and petulent to the sullen brattiness Jake Lloyd brought to the part of young Darth. Pathetic. Pretty boy pouty Padawan Skywalker wouldn't frighten a kitten. Hard to believe this twerp is going to grow up to terrorize the entire galaxy. Almost no effort is made to imbue any of the characters with the style and substance of the heroes from the first trilogy. Episode 1 wasn't just a singular bump in the road. The thrill is gone. George Lucas cannot direct or scriptwrite and his Jabba-sized ego won't let him turn either over to a more competent peer. Now we see the tremendous debt he owes Harrison Ford and his original group of special effects wizards. I'm almost looking forward to Episode 3 just to get it out of the way so we can all move on and forget about this "pretrilogy" ever having been made.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not the best... but its still Star Wars
Review: Ok, I was one of many in the theather who saw the film and came out going WOW, THAT WAS SO COOL, but now looking back at it, I dont think it was that great. The big problem with it is ACTING. Anakin and Obi-Wan especially were bad in this area. Its like they were trying to hard or to little. But I dont think they could have picked a better man for anakin. Even thou his character in this film stank, I can see how much he is ganna kick a** in Episode III. I think this got more on track with the story of the OT, from EPI 1. Another thing that is bad, is that there is no buildup to fights. There all just rushed into, and with the dialog as well. To rushed, they never just sat down and gave dialog to much. But, I have seen 100x worse then this film, so I give it 4 *, but I have seen 100X, so thats why only 4, not 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Is this the worst movie ever made?
Review: Has the adult film industry ever made a movie with less plot than this one? With worse dialogue? With worse acting?
Rating:
Summary: amazingly terrible and awful
Review: So it's visually stunning, of course, a positive masterpiece in backdropping: planets, moons, landscapes, waterfalls, canyons, sunsets-all digital-are "I can't believe it's not real!" real. In fact, they pale anything you'll find here on measly earth, or even anything you could find in our comparatively humdrum solar system, the effect of all of which gets you even more sucked into the fantastic world(s) Clones shows you, and hence even further out of your own comparatively dreary existence back in reality where, try as one might, there is no Force, there are no single pilot spaceships for adventures, there are no witty companion droids with British accents, and there certainly aren't any senators who look like the former (elected???) Queen Amidala. But then there aren't any senators who look like Jar Jar Binks either, and thankfully most are more qualified.And speaking of counts, why was Count Doo Doo a count and not a Jedi Master? Am I supposed to care? Who'd placed the order for the clone army again? Was it someone? Isn't the film's title intentionally misleading and therefore insulting? Why doesn't Yoda just use the force to help him get around? Does the force take energy to wield? If so, sadly, Yoda looks like he couldn't wield floss. Oh, maybe none of this matters, but I think it does. Moreover, it must have seemed ground-breaking to make a spaceship go flying and spinning through a bazillion planetary ring fragments with laser bolts darting every which way and a monster red planet dominating the background, but if you're not the animator, and/or you don't have the eyes of an animator, and it's all in motion and a scene like that flashes at you for a whole .85 seconds, your brain goes kind of soupy, and not in a good way. So even though Hayden Christensen has, maybe, 25% of Harrison Ford's charm at best, Natalie Portman's [body] show right through her costume in one whole scene, Ewan McGregor seems to have improved upon his disarming and brave Kenobi, C3PO has three or four mildly funny one-liners, and the Romanesque arena scene is kind of cool (though I still feel bad for the monsters for some reason), the flim ultimately deflates in a kind of military-industrial orgy of colossal toy machines getting blown to chunks while our heroes ride on through like action figures stuck to posts. But it helps you deal with the bloodshed when there's no blood, when light sabers cauterize the stumps they make where limbs used to be, when the twisted faces of the dead and wounded aren't just lost in storm trooper helmets but are moreover the faces of clones. And it helps you feel better about the massacre of Tuskan raider women and children when you're shown how they aren't civilized-in the "Western" sense-but tribal ("They're animals!" Ani sobs it to Ami), when you see the heroine comfort the murderer and you share in that (feeling both forgiving and forgiven), when you imagine how you'd feel were your mother treated like Ani's mom, and when, really, you know, it's just there to explain/build Darth Vader's character. You see? Make no mistake: behind the light jokes and germ-free props, Attack of the Clones, like eps IV-VI and I, is actually a dismal and ugly film (they are titled "wars" after all), but it's a dismal and ugly film that, like the other SW eps and-while I'm at it-a lot of the dreck put out by Hollywood these days, shows a casual irreverence for consequences. Recommended antidote: the first 30 min. of Saving Private Ryan.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: What is wrong with George Lucas and his new creations? The acting is terrible and the FX do not give the film enough power to live up to the Star Wars name. This is a trilogy that will shame the name of Star Wars.
Rating:
Summary: Total Trash
Review: I didn't think things could get worse after episode one. They did! Shame on you, George Lucas!
Rating:
Summary: How do you spell "cringe-worthy"?
Review: Ouch, my stomach still aches when I remember this "film". I couldn't figure out the plotline when I first saw it and I'll never do because I've no intention of watching this a second time. I can't really comment on the content of AOTC, since to me it seemed that it goes nowhere. However, there are a few things I want to say about the performances of all people involved in this project.
First of all, the CGI sucks. Big time. When I put the DVD in my DVD player I thought to myself "Wow, the menus are animated really well". Imagine my surprise when I realised that it was actual footage from the film. The effects are really really flat.
Secondly, the acting, or whatever you want to call this, is beyond good and evil. Seems like Lucas just wanted to get all the dialogue-scenes out of the way, just to be able to work on the action stuff.
Thirdly, John Williams. His scores were really magnificent in his heyday, but these times are over, get it, Lucas? His scores just sound all-the-same these days.
Finally, Mr. Lucas himself. There are so many unintentionally funny scenes in this that you just have to wonder if Lucas was drunk during the two hours in which he scribbled the screenplay on his notepad. My god, there are so many godawful scenes that it's hard to pick out just one, but one of the worst must be the one in which a wacky CGI-Yoda bounces around in the room like a kangaroo on ecstasy. If you like Star Wars, don't touch this one!
Rating:
Summary: Film Is Kind of a Throwback
Review: I disagree with people who say that the new Star Wars films are not as good as the original. When I go back and re-visit Episode IV and try to figure out what's missing from I and II, I find- well, NOTHING really. I think what's changed is the times. The original Star Wars started the idea of FX driven movies. People in the seventies were awed by the sight of an imperial star destroyer, and the light saber battles were the coolest thing since sliced bread. George Lucas comes from an era where special effects alone could drive a film. But the bar has been raised considerably. People eventually grew tired of mindless, effects- laden flms with very little character development. And over the years, Hollywood began to respond. The newer Star Trek films, The Matrix, and more recently The Lord of the Rings saga have raised the bar considerably. Dazzling special effects and wooden acting just don't cut it like they did in the 70s. And that's what Lucas fails to realize. There's great potential for a story in episode II, but its development is just awful. The biggest dissapointment is with Skywalker's charcter. Aniken is just a silly, rebellious teen. We get no sense of the gathering darkness within his soul, or of the future menace that he will become. He's just an impulsive, stupid punk. Ian Mc Gregor tries to carry the show as Obi Wan Kanobe, but he's barely even there. If Lucas were not such a control freak (insisting on directing this film), then maybe it would have been better. He hired a different director with Empire Stikes Back, and he should do it again.
Rating:
Summary: Worst movie ever!! (In the "Trilogy")
Review: Gosh, this movie stinks.
The first movie was bad too, with the "NEW" pod-racing (nerd-racing), and emphisis on an immature nine-year old idiot.
As a child of the 90's, I LOVED the original star wars episodes, expecially the Empire Strikes Back. I would watch that one as well as 4&6 too. But now, we're in the 00's with new "CGI" and the decline of video games and movies. So here, we have Anakin Skywalker (which we feared would be played by Leonardo DeCapriel after the release of The Phantom Meanace), and he is as whiney as ever. Even to the point of cheesy lines such as "I don't like sand, it's gritty and gets into everything!". We sypathised with Han Solo as he was imprisoned into carbon, as now we "try" to have good feelings towards a rebellious teen. Also did the "Romance" in this movie reminds me too much of that of Disney? Also, now, with the title... Why was it called attack of the clones? And why weren't they REAL actors?.Anyway, the title was poorly thought up, as the Clones don't appear until the end of the film. In fact, they had a very small part and U know what? There was no Attack! NO ATTACK. And did that marriage scene at the very end seem very convincing? No way! It's like it just happened. And who was the counslor? Bozo the Clown?
Anyway, George has one last chance to come up with a good movie. If it's just like 1&2, he'll want to start episode 7 for sure. If not, he needs a break. One more strike George, and Vince Lee will be the new director of Star Wars. (I said Vince Lee, because he programmed Rebel Assault. You'll play Rebel Assault instead of Episode 1 racing if you hate these new episodes) Hey, that's a great idea! A movie of Rebel Assault!
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't bear to watch the DVD more than once so far.
Review: And yes I actually bought it and still keeping it out of "loyalty" to this ruined saga. The script is terrible, the dialog terrible, the efx way overdone and too obvious instead of feeling part of the story like the magnificent LOTR efx, and doesn't even approach the dramatic "effect" of the old model efx of the old trilogy..by a long shot. The Yoda scene doesn't even work nearly as well if not taken in context with having watched the ESB. Granted, the prequels worth was to give us moments like these, but the Yoda-dooku fight was oddly the only prequel moment that justifed the very idea of a prequel.(and maybe perhaps Maul in TPM except Maul was a throwaway character ultimately meaningless along with the "m-i-d-i-chlorians". ) Choosing a different director, scriptwriter and art designer would almost guarantee better prequel movies; not making audiences endure 2(and most likely 3 with the dreaded epIII) celluloid "warming up" "practice" films where it almost seems like a certain individual is using the big screen as student presentations trying to convince us the direction, scriptwriting and efx turns professional by the end of epIII. Bring back the real pros like Kurtz, Kasdan, Kershner, McQuarrie, and Dyskstra, or film crew at that level. Unfortantely at this date, only post-production can be affected now. To be fair: ANH ****, ESB ****, ROTJ **, TPM *1/2
|
