Episode II…………oh Christ.
I won’t beat around the bush here, Attack of the Clones was terrible. And I never in a million years believed I would say this about a film series I grew up loving back in 1997 when George Lucas re-released the original trilogy into cinemas. But sometimes you have to call a spade a spade.
Sure, there are elements which work well within the context of how the Galactic Empire rose to power. And there are a few action scenes which remind me why we love this ongoing space opera in the first place. But those items pale in comparison to the major issues I have with this installment, which I cannot overlook or brush aside.
It’s been ten years since the events of The Phantom Menace, and since then, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Star systems left and right have broken away from the Republic and joined the Separatists movement. Led by rouge Jedi Master-turned Sith Lord Count Dooku (a well-cast Christopher Lee). The Jedi Council find themselves overwhelmed by the growing number of defecting systems and will soon be outmatched.
Meanwhile, the Galactic Senate debates on the issue of creating an army to help assist the Jedi. With Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) being a crucial vote to either issue the motion, or bury it entirely.
I like the setup already: a society being threatened by a new adversarial entity and as a response, the governing body, looking to secure their way of life, begin sacrificing certain principles (separation of powers, due process, etc) to grant one person, or a group of people, certain powers to contain the crisis at hand. Believing said central figure would relinquish this newfound authority once the crisis was contained.
In a better story, this would play out with Anakin and Obi-Wan having strong disagreements on this chain of events. The latter feeling that Palpatine is correct in asking for emergency powers and the creation of a Clone army to bolster the over-matched Jedi. While the latter feeling that this will only bring the two sides to an all-out war that will consume the galaxy as they fulfill their assignment to protect Senator Amidala from Dooku offing her.
This isn’t a better story. Instead, most of Attack of the Clones‘ focus is on an extremely bland, Shakespeare-inspired tale of star-crossed lovers (Anakin and Padme) that we know will end in tragedy. Rather than making the focal point on the early beginnings of a rising of fascism and tyranny sweeping the universe, director and co-writer George Lucas focuses his gaze on the pair trying to keep their personal feelings from spilling over into their careers. And potentially ruining what they have planned for themselves.
Look, I don’t mind a romantic subplot. Hell, The Empire Strikes Back handled this beautifully between Han Solo and Princess Leia. But their budding romance was never the centerpiece.
It’s bad enough that Lucas had to make a Romeo & Juliet-inspired yarn in space. It’s worse that he went with Hayden Christensen, an actor who was woefully miscast as one of the definitive figures in the Star Wars series. Many fans picked on, panned and criticized Jake Lloyd for his portrayal of young Anakin, which I believed was mostly unfair. He was a 9 year-old kid given a role where he was asked to capture the innocence of a character who would later be molded into one of cinema’s most iconic villains. And I thought he did that just fine.
I cannot say the same thing about Mr. Christensen. To be blunt about it: he is atrocious as the Dark Lord-in-training. I understand what the character was supposed to be: this rougish, youthful, devil-may-care Jedi who’s gifts inflate his ego. However, he comes off what I imagine Draco Malfoy would be if he was given a lightsaber. An irritating, obnoxious and sniveling little shit who desperately needs a swift kick in the ass.
Just hearing him whine and bitch about how Obi-Wan is holding him back as a Jedi; or how he wishes that he could stop people from dying after he goes on a rampage on the Sand People for hurting his mommy, is enough to make me want to jump into the film and smack some sense into the fucker. Though this does explain where Luke’s passive-aggressive quasi-nature comes from.
If Christensen’s performance irritated me greatly, then his his scenes with Portman’s Padme is nearly unbearable. As I sad earlier, I wouldn’t have had a problem with a romantic subplot had it not been the main focus of the story. As well if the actors had a good chemistry together on-screen – which I feel Hayden and Natalie never really had.
We watch as the two rekindle this blossoming relationship as the film shifts back to Amidala’s and Skywalker’s home worlds of Naboo and Tattooine, respectively. But I can’t see what she sees in him, nor believe she would fall in love with a whiny little bitch like Anakin. Natalie Portman herself is fine in the role as the young Amidala, though I wish her character was given more to sink into rather than act as the beauty to Anakin’s soon to be beast.
Why does she oppose the creation of a Army of the Republic? Does her views on this issue change after the third act of the story, or is she fearful about how the machine of war will change the very fabric of a body politic she has committed herself to serving? Again, I feel this was a missed opportunity to express how this conflict touches and transforms this world and these characters. And it would have made for a more effective film.
In terms of story, characters and the lead performance, Attack of the Clones fails by sacrificing intriguing themes about the decay of a Republic, the militarization of a society and how the characters are transformed by these perilous times for a lackluster tragic romance. On a visual level, Episode II is what you’d expect in the hands of Mr. Lucas. It overwhelms you and makes you believe in this galaxy far, far away… for the better, and for the worse.
Lucas made waves when he decided to shoot his film using digital cameras instead of standard film stock and begged movie theaters across the country to show the movie using digital projections. He also pushed the new frontier of CGI by capturing many of the scenes on a green screen and by using “digital doubles”, or CG models whom doubled as actors. I admire Lucas’s ambition to showcase a new form of visual storytelling, but the look and the visuals themselves stick out like a sore thumb.
In contrast, the effects in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy still hold up to this very day. Thanks in large part to Jackson incorporating a perfect mix of practical effects and using miniature sets to capture the aesthetic of certain locations of Middle-Earth. Such as the city of Minas-Tirith and the refuge of Helm’s Deep, then using some CG as a icing on the cake of sorts to further enhance certain settings. If anything, Lucas’ effort should be a warning of how not to use CGI, as it takes away the illusion of what the audience is seeing.
And I’ve said enough: Episode II is, without question, the worst entry in the Star Wars series. Interesting themes are discarded for a romantic focus on Anakin and Padme which doesn’t resonate. The lead actor is deeply miscast as a future villain who starts out as a good guy. And Lucas himself puts the spectacle and his ambition to showcase a new vision for filmmaking over telling a compelling narrative. The Force is not with George in this installment.