Plot: What’s it about?
It seemed like the Star Wars prequels have been eagerly awaited but with a little bit of thunder taken out of what the original trilogy had. With Episode 1:The Phantom Menace in the summer of 1999, moviegoers had mixed emotions and were more enthused by a film released a few months earlier called The Matrix also resulting in a four for four win at the Oscars. When three years past, and the year was 2002, it looked as if Episode II was going to be a bigger film and plenty of space to dominate. This looked like it was going to be a reality until the first week of May where a film called Spider-Man broke a lot of records and had no sign of stopping all summer while Attack of the Clones got respectable box office but not many good critical notices and ultimately losing in the Oscar race in it’s sole Oscar nomination to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Did that make it a big failure? Not by a long stretch.
On a visit to a nearby planet, an assassination attempt is made on Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman). With no place else to turn, she employs the security of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). While Obi-Wan wants to get to the bottom of who’s behind the attempt on her life, Anakin sees himself falling for Amidala as he becomes her main protector. Meanwhile, the Jedi has a new threat in Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and Obi-Wan’s investigations lead to a mysterious smart individual named Jango Fett (Temeura Morrison).
This sequel in this series is the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back in that the second movie is superior in the mood, style and visual look over the original. Hayden Christensen brings a boyish innocence to Anakin as well as capturing the frustration of being the apprentice and not the grown up authority figure. Ewan McGregor goes the next step with Obi-Wan as he goes from apprentice to master. This film gives a better role for Obi-Wan in this tale as he sees much action and becomes a better character with his calm ways and his amusing quips. The visual look is awe dropping and Christopher Lee is another great addition to the series, marking the second Hammer films veteran to make it to a Star Wars film. The action is greater than Phantom Menace, but there is a scene stealer in this film and the name is Yoda. The visual team give what is the great battle between Yoda and Dooku that never gets tiring in all viewings of the movie. Every year has a suffering sequel, and unfortunately this ended up being the one for 2002 but, like this year’s suffering sequel Matrix Revolutions, it doesn’t deserve the bad word and there are worse movies that deserve that honor. It’s entertaining, fun, a sight for sore eyes and a second part of a trilogy that has me extremely eager to see how this story finishes off.
Video: How does it look?
Fox and Lucasfilm have brought another flawless transfer to another chapter in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The film was made digitally anamorphic in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and even though the big screen might not have done justice for some (I disagree), this is what the DVD medium is made for that we can and I think we’re all in agreement, liking the film or not, that this transfer is beautiful. There’s not a scratch on the print and each of the Oscar nominated visual effects is one beautiful shot after another. What more can I say that has not been said about the look of these films except bring on the original trilogy!!! A truly great transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
Every time the space scene with Jango and Obi-Wan comes around, it is a great test of anyone’s home theater. The score and the dialogue are mixed greatly. The sound effects are better than ever with every laser shot, light saber duel, spaceships and any line of dialogue. The Dolby Digital 5.1 gave John Williams’ score every bit of justice and keeps in the standards with the best in THX surround. This disc also has a Spanish and a French 2.0 Dolby Surround track along with English subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Episode II, like the Phantom Menace, is given the two-disc treatment and are ripe with many extras spread upon both. On disc 1, we’re treated to another commentary track by director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow. Like the last, it is informative with the effects team and it’s a great to listen to every little part put in by everybody. There is also 3 different menus to start and on Options don’t forget the key numbers 11-3-8 to get the next installment in the pre-quel gag reels.
Disc 2 provides the majority of extras starting with the theatrical trailers and TV spots which always provide the necessary goosebumps. Next there are 8 deleted scenes with intros from Lucas, McCallum and Burtt. They are interesting scenes, but I was left wanting more and the publicity pics that noted different weren’t represented. After there are two documentaries. First, “From Puppet to Pixels” shows a little more in the digital animation, especially to the scene stealer of Attack of the Clones. “State of the Art:The Previsualization of Episode II” takes the animatic work from the first film to this chapter.They are wonderful documentaries and the credits are well worth sitting for and even though there not on par with “The Beginning”, they’re still worthy additions.
The three featurettes are 25 minutes of not too groundbreaking news and are used to promote 3 sections similar to the HBO First Look series. The web documentaries this time around covers a lot more close ground than the regular documentaries on here and provide a little more than an hour of fun on the set and every aspect of making Attack of the Clones. Finally, we have Dex’s Kitchen and Still Galleries. The Kitchen gives another two documentaries. “Films Are Not Released: They Escape” is a twenty five minute trip with Ben Burtt and the sound team going through the creation of their sound mix and all the aspects of sound design. The much shorter “Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown” goes into a short and sweet pre-visualization stages for many of the striking sequences of the film. Finally in this section there is a promo for R2-D2: Behind the Dome and an easter egg on the main menu icon and to the left for Star Wars Want Ads-The College Campaign that is funny and an amusing hidden feature.
In conclusion, Episode II is in many ways superior to the Phantom Menace and the extras are great additions but it is tough to top “The Beginning” and Attack of the Clones is another good two disc addition for fans of Star Wars and DVD collectors alike.
