And now for Part 2 of...

Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones
A Review by Steven Hawk

[continued from Part 1 below]

It is the director's job to elicit convincing performances from his actors and to frame the scenes in such a way that the audience is drawn into what is happening to and between the characters. Lucas fails to wring a convincing delivery of his romantic dialogue from these actors, and his choice of scenes in which to develop the romance seems simplistic and contrived. For an action film, even a romantic one, there are too many "talking-head" scenes. Less standing, sitting or just walking while talking, and more active dialogue tied into other actions the characters are involved in together might have been an improvement.

Rather than the romance seeming to develop slowly over the course of the adventure (as it did, by the way, in the original Star Wars trilogy between Princess Leia and Han Solo), we are presented with a couple of initial scenes where Anakin dives in and flirts, rather menacingly, with Amidala. But Amidala's reaction to his flirtations seems ambiguous for several scenes until Anakin moves in for a kiss. We don't see a gradual recognition or flicker of loving appreciation in her before this event. We do see her develop that in a later scene as the two picnic in a waterfall shrouded field, but the timing of events is off. The kiss has already happened, she let it happen, even though we haven't been treated to any real evidence that she might be feeling something back for him. And so the audience - who just happen to know what is going to happen, what has to happen anyway - is left laughing at the predictable and corny romantic interactions between the characters.

I suppose what I may be getting to with this line of criticism is a little second guessing - which is admittedly easy to do from behind a keyboard - of the selection of scenes and framing of dialogue for the best development and progression of the romantic storyline. Indeed, I would even say that Lucas could have afforded to introduce more scenes between Portman and Christensen building the romance through meaningful actions and interactions within the plot and less of the political intrigue involving the Jedi.

And then there are the special effects, which by now everyone (or at least everyone who follows these sorts of things) knows are now done almost entirely within a computer. By and large, the effects are spectacular. But more often than I would like, the veil of the digital magic is too thin. We can see through it and recognize that what we are seeing is not real but rather the creation of a digital artist. Something seems a little… off. Perhaps this is where the sophistication of the audience comes back to bite Lucas. He has done so much through his ILM effects company to advance the art and technology of special effects, and particularly that of digital effects, that audiences (like me) come to expect more from them. More times than I wish, scenes involving the interaction of live actors with digitally created characters or creatures seemed poorly integrated. Something just seemed wrong with the way the live actors moved on or about the digital creatures that shattered the illusion.

And I, for one, felt that the use of digital animation to create the character Yoda, rather than using an advanced muppet - as was the case for most of the previous films, didn't hold up to close examination onscreen in this film. Granted, it was necessary and entirely believable when Yoda was in action, as in the final scenes of the film. Such action scenes could never have been done with a live-action puppet. But in the close-ups of Yoda's face during his important dialogue scenes, his face seemed to morph as he spoke rather than articulate naturally. Perhaps this is because of what we have come to expect from the puppet Yoda that we all know and love from the previous films. But for whatever reason, it was noticeable to me and thus detracted from the sense of immersion in the fictional universe of the story.

Then again, with regard to the above observations, perhaps I need to see the film projected digitally, as Lucas asserts is the best way to view this digitally shot and produced film. The Lee Highway Multiplex in Merrifield, VA is presenting this movie digitally projected on one of its screens. When I get a chance to see that version, I may need to revise some of these comments

All that being said, I have to give credit to Ewan McGregor for his portrayal of the wise Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan's progression from young Jedi apprentice in Episode I to a seasoned Jedi Master in Episode II is complete and believable. Even working with some wooden dialogue, McGregor has deftly worked his portrayal of Obi-Wan into a convincing foretaste of the character that will one day become the wise old wizard Ben of the original film. Indeed, there was plenty of foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the rest of the movie, including in the music, as John Williams briefly hit tones from the "Imperial March," Darth Vader's theme, as Anakin begins his descent into the Dark Side.

And the action and battle scenes are truly riveting. Perhaps better than anything seen in Star Wars so far. The final planet-bound battle compares favorably to the ice planet battle of Episode V, "The Empire Strikes Back." It is complex, frantic and superbly effected. This is one area where the digital effects technology really shines. Perhaps because we do not have as much an expectation of reality as we do for character close-ups. But there is no denying that in this one realm, Lucas is still The Master. The inevitable light-saber battles between the bad guys and the good guys (and this time there are plenty of both) are frenzied and well done, by and large. And the aforementioned action scene involving Yoda… well, it's safe to say - Yoda rocks! Sorry, had to slip into fandom just a bit there.

[coming soon, the conclusion...]