Happy 20th Attack of the Clones

 20 years is a long time. 20 years ago I was young, had energy and not a lot of health issues except for a bad knee and sore back. Now my back still hurts and both knees are shot. Being older sucks! But time to roll the clock back 20 years on what was one of my best movie experiences ever, Episode 2 Attack of the Clones!  I know I'm a couple days early, but May 17th is just a couple days away!

Now as far as the Lucas Era films go, this is the weakest one. The dialog at times sounds like it was written by a 10 year old. This would get spoofed in the Tag & Bink prequel era comic special. But the visuals are eye catching. This was the 1st Star Wars film shot on a digital camera, which helped make the CGI look a little better except for some of the Arena Battle scenes near the end where it looks a bit cartoon like for my tastes. What can I say, I'm a Star Wars fan and I gripe about imperfections just like a Star Trek fan, which I also am. Yoda didn't look high anymore, Zam Wessel's transformations looked clean, so did Obi-Wan's pal Dex. But the Clones at the end....there are a couple bad shots.

Ewan McGregor gets top billing this time, and excels as he is obviously more comfortable in his character. Natalie Portman was already a good actress but this movie showed she was a very beautiful young woman as well. Hayden Christensen debuts as an older Anakin, and he got the most criticism but understand he followed George Lucas's instructions on playing Anakin. But the big three make their debut together and all do well. Mace & Yoda have bigger roles, Ian McDiarmid plays Palpatine as a good guy over his head but of course we all knew it was an act. But to get horror legend Christopher Lee as Count Dooku was genius level casting!

But this movie answered the question about not only how the Clone Wars started, but gave us the story of who Boba Fett was: the unaltered clone of Jango Fett, who was the template used to create the Clone Army of the Republic. Some may have been disappointed that the mystery about Boba's origin was now out, but it made him even more interesting to know there were others like him out there. Now look how popular he is! Plus Temura Morrison gets to still play him, but props to Daniel Logan who played Boba and the younger Clones in the film. Both actors gave great performances!

But this movie gave birth to a new action hero: Yoda. Who da man? Yoda, man!! This was the 1st midnight movie I ever saw and when he fought Dooku we all went crazy! It was the most awesome thing we had ever seen, not knowing his battle with Palpy in the next movie would be even more amazing. Yoda was no longer an old Jedi who taught while being seated but a lightsaber wielding beast! Mace Windu having a purple lightsaber was also cool, it was something new. The last 30 minutes make this movie. We see the Jedi at their prime, the Clone Wars begin while Anakin and Padme fall in love and get married in secret. A happy ending but we know their lives won't be happy soon after.

This movie has its flaws, and yeah it drags and gets boring but it sets up the fall of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and the fall of the Jedi Order through the Clone Wars. The merchandise at the time was well, bad. But the books, comics were all on point! Yes it has been 20 years. We thought this would be the next to last Star Wars movie and for some of us it is. But it does its job: telling the story George Lucas had planned out and setting up a finale that couldn't possibly, but somehow did, live up to expectations. In that, Attack of the Clones succeeds. Happy 20th!!