Attack Of The Clones: The 20th Anniversary

Attack of the Clones hit as the middle moment of the prequel era. It is impossible to convey in this format how huge and all-encompassing this Star Wars prequel era was in my life. Basically from the day I found out Natalie Portman was cast in the trilogy, until Revenge of the Sith hit DVD, these movies were my #1 movie obsession. Nothing Marvel has ever done or will do can touch it for me in this way.

Phantom Menace was the biggest movie event of all time for me. I suppose if I am still doing these blogs in 7 years I will get into it. (If America is still livable) But there were a couple boxes even that film didn't check. With AOTC I got to go to the midnight unveiling of the toys with some friends, which was a blast. And then I got to do the midnight show opening night for the movie itself. I couldn't do it for TPM cause I was still in school and had an 8am final that next morning. No such issues 3 years later, so I got to do the midnight show, which was quite simply the greatest moviegoing experience of my life.

I will defend this film until my dying breath.

It's no secret that, during the early days of the internet, TPM had become the first movie that it was trendy to hate on online. People just wouldn't let it go that it wasn't the exact film they imagined it should be. Later years would prove that Star Wars fans are just kind of assholes. But the reality is that it was a very popular and well liked film at the time. Nothing plays in theaters for THAT long if people don't like it.

And AOTC was still a hugely anticipated film in the culture. For me I probably devoted even MORE time to devouring any pre-release info I could, since I was online myself now  during this whole lead-up. Every day on the Natalie sites, the Star Wars sites, the movie sites. The one thing I didn't do with AOTC was read spoiler stuff too. I knew damn near everything about TPM before seeing it.

I could not have loved this film more when I first saw it. It wasn't just the incredible crowd at the midnight show, but that helped. The prequels were a drug and I was an addict. I saw TPM 19 times in its long theatrical run (plus once more when it got a 3d re-re-release). I saw AOTC 17 times during its run. I only saw Revenge of the Sith a reasonable 8 times. For the record the most times I've seen a movie in theaters since is probably The Avengers at 5. 

I could never get enough. These movies were my moviegoing life in those summers. 

But it's time to zero in on AOTC. What a great movie. As much as I loved TPM, this one blew it away. Story-wise, visually, performance. Just an across the board better film. 

AOTC picks up about 10 years after TPM. The big story threads this time involve Obi-Wan investigating an assassination attempt and uncovering the secret creation of a clone army, and the romance between Anakin and Padme.

Nothing in this film took heat like the love story. Even George Lucas himself predicted that some people weren't going to go for it. Look, is there some clunky dialogue during a few of the Anakin-Padme romantic scenes? Sure. But I felt then and still do now that basically any movie romance has some cheesy dialogue. Characters professing feelings for each other is one of those things that kind of cannot feel that way. I have never thought this was one of the great movie romances of all time or anything like that. But it worked for me. Why? Natalie, simple as that. 

Natalie Portman was a major piece of episodes 1 and 3, of course, but she is a centerpiece of AOTC. She's fantastic in this. Gone is the sometimes very wooden Padme of TPM. She's way more natural and warm in this. I love her putdowns of Anakin early on. And when things turn romantic there, she is irresistible. Who wouldn't fall madly in love with her? She has never been more stunning in a movie. 

Hayden Christensen took a lot of heat for his performance as Anakin. I do think he steps it up considerably in ROTS, but aside from a few clunky dialogue scenes he can't quite sell (including the infamous sand line) he is solid here. He sells his darker moments very well, like how rattled he is after slaughtering the tuskens. 

Just based purely off the performance, Ewan McGregor shines the brightest here. I love everything he does in this movie, from his swagger to his sort of pretend naivete on Kamino, to his confrontations with Count Dooku. And both he and Hayden do an excellent job of conveying the bond that exists between their characters. 

Along the way, we get lots of great Yoda stuff (then newly CGI'd), a few excellent scenes of Palpatine further turning the screws, an expanded role for Mace Windu, the introduction of Jango Fett and his son Boba, as well as the great Christopher Lee as Dooku. We also briefly meet young Owen and Beru.

Jango is a major highlight. Temuera Morrison scored basically a lifetime role here. He's a badass. The mini-space battle between him and Kenobi is one of the movie's highlights.

I never had pacing issues with this movie, cause that middle third is very Nat heavy, but this movie really clicks into another level once Anakin and Padme head out on that resuce mission to save Obi-Wan. That's the lock in moment, where even now if that's on TV and it's close I am in. The whole last act of this movie was everything I could have wanted.

We get a cool action set piece with Anakin and Padme (with a little.R2 and 3PO) running around a droid assembly line. Then after they are captured we get that awesome arena battle with Obi-Wan added to the mix.

And then we get one of the big applause moments this film got. Just a shot of Mace Windu walking into scene, sharing some trash talk with Dooku, and then we get ALL the Jedi turning on their lightsabers. The coolness blasting off the charts.

And then just full on war. Jedi vs droids. A little dues ex Yoda coming in with an army of clone troops. So many awesome moments. Padme getting her action on. Windu literally decapitating Jango right in front of Boba, with Boba then holding the helmet. All the amusing slapstick with 3PO. I just wish it was all a longer sequence. 

But we gotta get to the final showdown with Dooku. Awesome fight with Obi-Wan and Anakin, who gets his arm chopped off. And then the film's signature moment, one of the great moments of all time. Yoda showing up to fight Dooku. I honestly do not remember at the time.if I had any inkling ahead of time that we were going to get a Yoda lightsaber fight in this.movie. But the midnight crowd lost its mind when Yoda appeared cause it was clear this was going to happen. First we get Dooku trying to take him out with the force and then lightning, which Yoda just defeats easily. And then the lightsaber fight. You would think it would have felt silly, but it doesn't. Again, I just wish it went longer.

So Dooku escapes and then it's wrap up time. I love how UNhappy an ending it is. Yoda even flat out tells Kenobi that it was not a victory. Begun the Clone War has. Things are going to get very bad. 

Anakin and Padme are secretly getting married, but even they don't really look that happy about it. I think that's why the romance always worked for me. We know as the viewer that this is a doomed relationship. Even John Williams's spectacular love theme is more sad than romantic.

Williams whole score is incredible. I couldn't even attempt to guess how many times I have listened to the soundtrack over the years. That summer it was probably every day. 

 

When I left AOTC this was without a doubt no question my favorite movie of all time. Now, that settled down a bit but I still put this on my ten best films of the 2000s list. Revenge of the Sith beat it, but even there that film had to grow on me just a little. It's still probably at worst my 3rd favorite Star Wars film. No Star Wars film ever blew me away so much in the moment as Attack of the Clones did. It was an obsession going in and still managed to exceed my hopes.