Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the fifth Star Wars science fiction movie released and the second part of the prequel trilogy which began with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
It is the first Star Wars film which used a high definition digital 24 frame system for most of the movie's live action scenes.[1].
The film grossed over $300 million in United States box office, a financial success which nevertheless was overshadowed by the even greater box-office success of The Phantom Menace. However, it was not the top grossing film of the year, the first time a Star Wars film has not had that distinction. That film turned out to be Spider-Man which also enjoyed a more favourable critical reception.
Opening Crawl
- There is unrest in the Galactic
- Senate. Several thousand solar
- systems have declared their
- intentions to leave the Republic.
- This separatist movement,
- under the leadership of the
- mysterious Count Dooku, has
- made it difficult for the limited
- number of Jedi Knights to
- maintain peace and order in the
- galaxy.
- Senator Amidala, the former
- Queen of Naboo, is returning
- to the Galactic Senate to vote
- on the critical issue of creating
- an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
- to assist the overwhelmed
- Jedi...
Plot summary
Ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, 22 years before A New Hope, the Galactic Republic is in the grip of a crisis: a group of star systems led by Count Dooku, a former Jedi (played by Christopher Lee), threaten to secede, potentially leading to a civil war. After an assassination attempt against Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), former Queen of Naboo and now leader of the loyalist faction in the Senate, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are assigned to protect her. While tracking the assassins, Obi-Wan stumbles into the secret development of a clone army, ordered mysteriously ten years ago on the Republic's behalf. Meanwhile, Anakin and Amidala fall in love. Obi-Wan tracks the assassin, bounty hunter Jango Fett, from the clone army to Dooku's separatist conspiracy, which is itself building up a droid army based on the Trade Federation's technology. To counter this threat, the Senate gives Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers, with which he calls the clone army into battle; the separatists are forced to retreat, but the Jedi suffer heavy losses and the galaxy is plunged into a civil war (also known as the Clone Wars) orchestrated by Dooku and the mysterious Darth Sidious.
Filming
Filming primarily occurred at 20th Century Fox studios in Australia, with additional location shooting in the Tunisian desert, at the Plaza de España in Seville, Spain, and in Italy at the Villa del Balbianello on the Lake of Como, and in the Royal Palace in Caserta.
Critical response
Initial reviews of the film were mixed, with general admiration for the action sequences and special effects, and criticism of the more traditional cinematic elements such as character development and dialogue, particularly with respect to the relationship between Padmé and Anakin. The marketing of the film reacted to this by downplaying the subplot by the time of the DVD release and emphasizing Yoda's popular fight scene.
Fans consider the visual effects superior to The Phantom Menace; many were pleased to see that Jar Jar Binks plays only a minor role and that his attempts at comic relief seen earlier were toned down, with C-3PO reprising some of his bumbling traditions in that role.
Selected plot elements
Anakin's mechanical hand
Anakin has his right forearm cut off by Count Dooku, just as Luke has his hand cut off by Darth Vader (who is Anakin) in The Empire Strikes Back. This dual hand severing becomes important later on in Return of the Jedi, when Luke fails to kill Vader when he sees they both have a cybernetic hand. It is worth noting that Luke's electronic hand is far more sophisticated than Anakin's, which is perhaps due to development of technology between the two movies, although it seems that most major medical advances would have been made long before during the 25,000 year history of the Republic. The artificiality of Anakin's hand may have at least partly been a personal choice. The composition of the group of C-3PO, R2-D2, Anakin and Padmé on the balcony at the end of Attack of the Clones is similar in nature to the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
Political atmosphere
The political atmosphere in Attack of the Clones is similar to the Cold War, except that it eventually escalates to a real war. Since the original drafts for Star Wars were written in the 1970s, this could have been a political statement as to what a nuclear war would mean.
Other observers believe that Palpatine's power grab is very similar to Hitler's climb to power in Nazi Germany, since he, as Chancellor of Germany, was granted "emergency powers" like Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic. Parallels also exist to Octavian, who became Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Octavian was responsible for the deaths of several hundred political opponents well before he was granted tribunician powers, and the civil war between Palpatine and the Old Republicans in the Galactic Senate vaguely resembles the civil war between the Triumvirs, although the former is less morally ambiguous.
Geonosian style execution
Within the movie, Geonosian style execution is a form of capital punishment practiced on the planet Geonosis. The origin of the term is that it was originally employed by the Geonosians. The scene depicting this method takes place in the Geonosian arena with the condemned chained to a pole, awaiting execution. The beastlike creatures approach from the arena door, and attack and eat the condemned persons in the manner of a wild beast. (This scene appears to reference an execution method employed by the ancient Romans at the Colosseum where lions and other dangerous predator animals were permitted to have their way with condemned prisoners.) Count Dooku sentenced Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Padmé Naberrie Amidala to be executed in this method. However, the executions were nullified by the timely arrival of Jedi reinforcements, led by Jedi Master Mace Windu.
References
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Retrieved Dec. 10, 2003 from http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/s/sw_attack.html
- Saxton,Curtis John, Hans Jenssen, Richard Chasemore. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2002.
External links
Last updated: 05-20-2005 09:32:38
