Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones (PG) Review

Good Points
Extra Special FX, THX Sound - the superior, HDTV Camera's usage.

Bad Points
Irrelevant dialogues in many scenes, too much romance, fair screenplay.

General Comments
Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones is the first 'STAR WARS' movie I have ever seen! I watched a review on this movie on TV and heard that it has got more than
special effects i.e. 'Extra Special Effects'. 'What are these 'Extra Special Effects'?. I also heard of a 'THX' sound uniquely used in 'Phantom Menace', its predecessor. I was really curious to know what was so special in STAR WARS!

So, I watched this movie in a 70 mm theatre (luckily - not missing out on the SFX ). One of my friends had earlier watched it and said it was 'horribly boring'. By watching the opening style and opening crawl I thought it was a remix of some old 1940's movie (I hated that yellow colour in the STAR WARS title and crawl)! I got afraid that the whole movie would be boring, but, I was wrong!!



How magnificent the 'royal cruiser' of Senator Amidala was! Everything is magnificent from thereon in - the Senate's architecture, the order in the Republic, the ordered starships in Coruscant. Last but not least, the Clone War was breathtaking!



Super Special FX :



One could note that the low-frequency effect is breathtaking when the ship of Jango Fett takes off after his fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Kamino. One could also note that in no other space movie would the planets (Geonosis, Coruscant) look that massive and real!



Boba Fett: 'Dad, I think we've been tracked!'

Jango Fett: 'He must have placed a Homing device on our hull. Hang on son we'll move into the 'Asteroid-Field'... and we have a couple of surprises for him'

Boba Fett: laughs proudly!!

R4 droid senses the Seismic charges and beeps.

Obi Wan: 'Seismic charges! Standby'



After this dialogue, two 'seismic charges' explode shattering all the rocks in its range... An excellent Special Effects scene!!



Electronically speaking, the sound is distinctly superior! Sound effects used are DTS, Dolby Surround, SDDS, and above all, THX (is that enough)? (On listening to the movie's sound on STAR WARS MOVIES by processing the TV sound in my small 2.1 channel surround decoder, and amplifying it in an old National Music System, I analysed that on hearing with a good quality headphone, even minute sounds were distinctly audible in TV transmission mono audio. (Oh God, how would a DVD- audio be)? No movie has ever reproduced minute/tiny amplitude sounds so audibly - please note the guitar sound in the background where Anakin kisses Padme for the first time - I love the sound effect there. But one must have a proper sound system to enjoy it (not a big music system/home theatre necessarily)!



I feel this movie is a technical milestone! Superb 'Extra' special effects is the right phrase to describe it!!



Apart from all these, it could be said that it is a good movie. This is the highest budget STAR WARS movie ever made. But the screenplay of this movie is as that of an art movie, and has too many romantic scenes.


My favourite dialogue in this movie is:



"It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by the knowledge of our force, but by our skills with a light saber".



Also, there is too much importance placed on the romance between Anakin and Amidala in Naboo. Dialogues are as those of old Indian movies.


All in all, this is an excellent movie technically, and a good one on other basis'!