Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Directed by George Lucas
Following an assassination attempt on Senator Padmé Amidala, Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi investigate a mysterious plot into the heart of the Separatist movement and the beginning of the Clone Wars.
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What critics compared Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones to
A sky city chase, reminiscent of The Fifth Element, is a kick in the pants, as is a fun Coliseum scene involving attacking monsters that reminds me of Gladiator.
And it's not hard to start wondering if the cityscape of the planet Corusant is inspired by or ripped off from movies such as "Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element."
The first act gives us an extended aerial car-chase sequence across Coruscant that’s reminiscent of a similar scene from The Fifth Element, but worth more than that entire movie plus the pod race from Episode I thrown in for good measure.
After dispatching the two lethal centipedes released into Padme's sleeping chamber in a second assassination attempt, Anakin and Obi-Wan give chase in a scene which resembles a low-rent "Blade Runner" crossed with "The Fifth Element."
As with Star Wars , Lucas has stolen from every movie he could lay his hands on (Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Gladiator, even Galaxy Quest, among many others), but he makes it work – the opening chase and, in particular, the final 45 minutes, are among the most exciting action sequences you’ll see all year.
The entire film seems to be stealing from something or another (The Fifth Element, Gladiator, Blade Runner, on and on and on).
(My viewing companion and I debated briefly whether one sun-dappled love scene vista was more reminiscent of The Sound of Music or Heidi.)
Nobody is as irritating as Jar Jar or the child Anakin were in "Phantom Menace," and if Anakin and Amidala are not classic lovers -- if one of their scenes suggests "The Sound of Music" with armadillos -- they're pretty enough to win us over.
At least the digital creatures are endowed with extra limbs or funny shapes, but there's nothing to be done for Anakin and Padme when they dally in a meadow right out of "The Sound of Music," only to exchange turgid observations about democracy vs. totalitarianism.
Thus we’re subjected to an embarrassingly dewy scene, set on a soft-focus hillside straight out of “The Sound of Music,” in which the two roll around playfully together on the grass, each hoping to inadvertently cop a feel.
Long after we’ve stopped caring about why she’s been hunted by an imperious megalomaniac cliché spouting Eddie Redmayne, for she’s hardly phased by it, we’re up to our necks in a burgeoning romance with Channing “Chatum” Tatum’s alien bounty hunter, that fasts resembles that of Padme and Anakin in Attack of the Clones.
The love story between Jupiter and Caine is rushed, giving the Padme/Anakin affair in Attack of the Clones a run for its money as the least convincing sci-fi screen romance in recent memory.
Fans get the slick technical wizardry of Revenge of the Siths and the otherwise ho-hum Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, combined with the lighter tone and occasional humor that made A New Hope , The Empire Strikes Back , and Return of the Jedi so much fun.
And if Abrams and his co-writers Lawrence Kasdan (back for more after “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”) and Michael Arndt have shouldered a near-impossible burden of audience expectations here, it’s hard not to look favorably upon “The Force Awakens” simply for being a massive improvement on “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones” and all but a handful of moments in “Revenge of the Sith” — taken together, a stultifying experiment in brand extension gone awry, in which Lucas’ much-vaunted technical wizardry and visual imagination proved no match for the unholy torpor of his storytelling.
This achievement extends to the film's tonal grace, a balance of levity and humor with pathos and existentialism.Whereas George Lucas' screenplays were the central failing of his prequelsthe romantic interludes between Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala in 2002's " Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones " would make a writer of daytime soaps cringethere are no such issues with "The Force Awakens."
Star Wars nerds may note that these movies are famous for their repeating motifs — Anakin Skywalker loses his right hand in Attack of the Clones , then chops his son Luke’s hand off in The Empire Strikes Back — and for lifting from primal myths that have been told and retold for thousands of years.
Something more urgent than metaphysics is at issue, namely this: paying to watch a new “Star Wars” movie, in the wake of its predecessors—“The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” and “Revenge of the Sith”—is like returning to a restaurant that gave you severe food poisoning on your last three visits.
Tragically, because we’re all rooting for a New Hope, not a Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, or Revenge of the Sith, The Force Awakens misses the landing for its compelling cast characters old and new.
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Stanton's adaptation is not a coherent story of interplanetary heroics but a bewildering $250 million mash-up of "Cleopatra," "The Last Samurai" and "Attack of the Clones."
Haven’t we seen it all before, from the bestiary amphitheater bloodsport of Attack of the Clones to Princess Leia’s metal bikini?
And the CGI battle scenes are just a familiar kind of Attack of the Clones-inspired CGI chaos.
(Why is there a visual reference to Padme and Anakin Skywalker's wedding in Star Wars II?
…the screenplay by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor features some ropey dialogue akin to George Lucas’ prequel trilogy scripts…
…una secuencia en una suerte de coliseo en el que Rotta es obligado a pelear (que, valgan verdades, se siente casi como una referencia a una secuencia similar en “El Ataque de los Clones”, pero menos ambiciosa e interesante).
My favorite Star Wars movies are Attack of the Clones and The Last Jedi.
When Cassian came up on an establishment that looked like a diner, I instantly got excited about the idea of Cassian knowing Dexter Jettster as well.
No shade to Benjamin Bratt, but recasting Bail Organa, who has been consistently played by Jimmy Smits across movies and TV since Attack of the Clones, is jarring and almost disorienting.
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Much like the Star Wars franchise which looked irredeemable after George Lucas sabotaged his own reputation by directing The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, the last film, Revenge of the Sith, was compelling enough to at least bring the saga part of the way back.
Unfortunately, The Last Jedi has almost as much Attack of the Clones as it does The Empire Strikes Back in that it’s overlong, under-edited and has at least one particularly long-winded CGI flurry of a sequence that harkens back to the darkest days of the franchise.
Now: I say this as a critic, and as a civilian, who holds little affection for George Lucas’ second trilogy (“Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”), or for “Return of the Jedi,” for that matter.
It calls to mind the droid factory in Attack of the Clones and the pre-podrace sequence in The Phantom Menace .
The movie-long chase scene (DID YOU KNOW: a star destroyer can be outrun almost indefinitely by a transport), which ends in both awesome and logically maddening fashion, serves primarily as a means to give Finn and Rose (Tran) something to do, but their jaunt to the casino planet of Canto Bight serves little purpose besides introducing Del Toro, updating the cantina scene, and offering up a tired CGI chase scene that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Attack of the Clones.
The longest Star Wars film before Episode VIII was Episode II: Attack of the Clones , which was mired with pacing issues, and Last Jedi is unfortunately no different.