While I found some aspects of Phantom Menace to be rather
disappointing, I still looked forward to the arrival of the second
installment of the Star Wars prequel in theaters. The stirrings of
foreboding occurred when I heard that the title would be Attack of the Clones - very B-movie-ish, if you ask me. As it turned out, the flaws I perceived in Phantom Menace
melted away in comparison with its sequel. My brother tells me my
feeble mind is incapable of grasping the intricacies of a plot he claims
is easy to follow. Whatever the case may be, I had a hard time figuring
out what was going on when I watched Attack of the Clones.
The bulk of the film concerns two separate plotlines. In one, Obi-Wan
(Ewan McGregor) endeavors to discover the source of a poison dart used
to kill now-Senator Amidala’s (Natalie Portman) would-be assassin. In
the process, he learns of the existence of a clone army built for the
use of the Republic, while the audience gets a bit of background on the
mysterious Boba Fett. Meanwhile, Anakin (Hayden Christiansen) is left
behind to protect Amidala, on whom he has had a crush since their
meeting during the first film. Though Anakin is now nearly 20, Amidala
still thinks of him as the child she last saw ten years earlier, while
he yearns to be so much more. When she tells him, “Ani, you’ll always be
that little boy I knew on Tattooine,” it’s the last thing he wants to
hear. Tied in with this is Chancellor Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid)
gradual corruption and the threat of Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), a
former Jedi and war-monger. Several other threads run throughout the
movie, and when I finished watching the movie for the first time I
wasn’t very clear on all that had happened. To be precise, my feelings
could best be summed up by the words of C-3PO in one of the film’s few
funny moments: “I’m so confused.”
McGregor continues to do a
solid but ultimately rather boring job as Obi-Wan. Not his fault, they
just don’t give him that much to work with. He does have a few good
moments with Anakin, including a pretty impressive speeder chase through
the multi-level streets of a Las Vegas-style city in Coruscant. Maybe
part of the trouble is that these people are a part of an established
order and they always seem to know what they’re doing. There’s not the
high level of uncertainty and trial and error that Luke, Leia and Han
had.
But as in Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan is still one of
the strongest characters in the film. Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson)
gets more screen time in here, which he deserves, while Jar Jar (Ahmed
Best) gets less, much to the satisfaction of his legions of anti-fans.
There’s far too little of the droids, but they shine in their on-screen
moments, as does Yoda (Frank Oz), who is afforded the chance to display
some humor and get into a memorable light saber duel.
It
should have been interesting to see the origins of Boba Fett (Daniel
Logan), but the film failed to make me care. Or perhaps I was just too
distracted by what was going on with Anakin to be properly moved by that
storyline, which does build to a traumatic finish. Palpatine seems
increasingly sinister and Dooku is appropriately intimidating, but
neither made a huge impression on me. In fact, what I recall most about Attack of the Clones
has nothing to do with the clones at all, but rather concerns the
budding romance between Amidala and Anakin. I find it odd that Darth
Vader is probably the most formidable, memorable character in the
original Star Wars trilogy, and yet in the prequel he always seems to be
the weakest link. I’m beginning to wonder whether an actor can be
faulted for failing to impress when forced to deliver such uninspiring
lines. From where I’m standing, though, it looks like Jake Lloyd was a
lousy kiddie Anakin and Christiansen is a lousy post-adolescent Anakin.
He glowers his way through the movie, his dialogue stilted throughout.
“Now that I’m with you again,” Anakin tells Amidala, “I’m in agony.” So
am I, listening to him talk. What’s worse, Amidala falls for him. She
spends the first third of the movie remembering him fondly as the boy
who helped her out of a jam, the middle being creeped out by his lewd
and very un-Jedi-like glances, and the end declaring her undying love
for him. Where did that come from? Their on-screen chemistry is next to
nil, and their romantic arc is barely believable. It certainly pales in
comparison to the gradual development of Han and Leia’s relationship,
complete with impassioned insults and several life-threatening
situations. It’s bad enough for Anakin to be utterly infatuated with
her, but there’s no reasonable explanation for her declaration, “I
truly, deeply love you.” They haven’t spent enough time together for
that, and most of that time sweet little Ani’s been acting like a creep.
Attack of the Clones is visually impressive, but there
are far fewer beautiful scenes and absurd creatures in this film. Those
that do appear stand out, particularly Dex, a greasy but cuddly cafe
owner with whom Obi-Wan shares a companionable scene. There’s also less
humor. Second installments in trilogies tend to be very dark and
depressing, and aside from that infamous carbonite scene, Attack of the Clones is much more of a downer than Empire Strikes Back. Actually, that’s not strictly true, since we care more about the characters in Empire; Attack
is more “blah” than distressing. Still, it sets a necessary stage for
the third film, which hopefully will be the best of the three, though it
promises a great deal of death and disorder. My favorite moments in Attack all involved Yoda, C-3PO and R2-D2, so Chewbacca’s presence in Revenge of the Sith is a good sign. Let’s just hope they get Anakin some better writers…
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