As the result, I came out from the theatre feeling ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - the movie was shockingly EMPTY despite all the splendid action and the score that really isn't a bad one, BUT... I know I'm doing it again, but I just have to talk... I wrote my thoughts into a small review, but as it may take some time for PeterK to publish it, I share it here with all of you.

***

Attack of the Clones, the movie, is magnificent in visuals. Unfortunately all the promising inner aspects of the story are dealt in typical Hollywood mannerism - the movie seems horribly EMPTY inside.

Most often a good composer can fix such a movie by filling the emptiness with witty notes. Sad to say, I would have never believed that John Williams himself would write such an EMPTY score to an empty movie like AOTC is.

Yes, there IS lots of notes, marvelous music, breathtaking action, sweeping romance, poignance, sadness, and troubled inner feelings - but only on the surface. The score for AOTC really is a gargantuan one, splendid, and not a bad score at all, but unfortunately it is only music, ONLY notes, for a movie that acts just like a black hole by sucking everything into a creepy void.

Furthermore, it needs a Star Wars Trilogy LOVER to appreciate this newest score addition to the saga. If you have been once deeply touched by the original "Force Theme" and things like "Yoda's Theme", then you surely will be spellbound with AOTC score which uses these melodies in very witty ways. But for people like me - who have never cared much for the original '77 Star Wars music - this newest addition to the score saga feels simply a TOO MUCH calculated creation with its "emotional" ingredients. You either feel yourself soaring (if you love every snippet of every Star Wars score), or then you don't (if you yearn for true HEART and SOUL in today's movie music).

It is very sad to say that this score does not have the power to rescue the movie, despite the fact that it includes some of John Williams' most thrilling action pieces ever.

***

In hopes of an avalanche of stones throwed at me

Sincerely,
KEN

I, of course, still haven't seen it. Not for another week (when I will get free passes).

It is sad that Williams' music was so butchered (from all I've read).

Gae

quote:

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Originally posted by Hasta:
I'll be the first to pick up those stones thrown at you and throw them back at those who threw them.

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Then I get my bazooka and blast both of you off the face of this earth for being just tone deaf. If the music for AOTC is empty, then birds don't fly but simply glide and fish don't swim but float.

Scott

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
But, Kevin--you make it sound as if anyone who finds anything good about it must be blind. No?

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Nope. A slight clarification might be that I applaud anyone who goes into that (or any) film with an open mind and has the courage to not like any or all of the film.

I object to these people who just believe that because Lucas made the film, it's perfect.

Cleared up now?

Everyone, it seems, has some stigma attached to a given film--whether it's because the movie stars X, or was directed by Y, or scored by Z, or because the last one "sucked"....

"My biggest problem with the movie was I kept asking myself "What on earth is going on?" Maybe it was too convoluted or too many loopholes in the plot or I'm just thick but it left me as the viewer baffled."

- ME TOO !!
I for one was so disappointed with Episode I because it didn't EXPLAIN anything - just started out like any other Star Wars Trilogy movie by telling half of the story with the "storybook beginning". This kind of "not telling the entire story" only seems that Lucas may want to do yet another Trilogy about the Star Wars universe itself...

We have a saying in Finnish that "I'm out in the yard like a snowman" - and it was precisely what I felt when this clone factory thingy was revealed - and as the clones were used by the good guys...

Moviemaking to me means GOOD STORYTELLING, and it definitely seems that George Lucas CAN'T TELL A STORY - only make money with his blockbusters.

As Gae wrote, the romance between Anakin and Amidala seemed a TRULY "forced throughout". Although neither actor was a bad one, the characters seemed horribly cold because the movie - the director, the script - never went deep inside the characters. I for one would have loved to SEE the reasons why Anakin called Obi-Wan "as a father" - and more than that, this Mother-thingy came as such sudden addition to the movie that it felt like a cut & paste job on the screenplay. It is a pity that when Anakin discovers his "dark side", there IS some moments with deeper emotions - but they sort of have the "cheap" manipulation etiquette on them since these things are nowhere to be found in the first hour or so.

By the way, Gae,
I too liked Christopher Lee's appearance - it was nice to see him giving some sympathy into a villain; I just hope we will see MUCH MORE of him in Episode III. (I have always loved Hammer's HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES because there Chris Lee did a splendid good guy role).

Thanks also to Kevin and Hasta for sharing my thoughts.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
There are those who will hate it, just because everyone else *loves* it.

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True enough.

I try to have an open mind when I go and see films. Sometimes it doesn't work, but other times it does.

I went into Starship Troopers knowing full-well the talk that it wasn't really faithful to Heinlein's book, and that it was being called "Melrose Space." Well, I was so disappointed after seeing the film that I wanted my money back, and I got in free.

On the reverse side, I remember a film back in the 80's called Local Hero. A friend of mine told me to give it a try, and when I finally saw it I loved it.

Dear Lance,
I FOR ONE see every movie with an open mind. Sure, as I was younger, I also did the typical thingy by watching movies only because of stars, or composers, or Disney - and I didn't want to go to see any movie which I expected to be too artistic for me. Nowadays, however, I have discovered some extremely good movies by watching them with an open, curious mind - movies that I had previously thought to be just some artistic or commercial rubbish.

"There are those who will hate it, just because everyone else *loves* it."

- Well, I DO ADMIT that I most often hate things which are loved by the big movie-going public, but that doesn't mean that I would hate these movies blindly; I will never hate anything WITHOUT A REASON. However, there are some blockbuster-type movies which I really refuse to see, and which simply don't interest me at all, just because "everyone else go to see them". BUT, on some occasions these blockbuster-type movies have turned out being exactly the type of deeply emotional movies with witty messages I prefer - like TITANIC and MOULIN ROUGE.

MOULIN ROUGE and WHAT LIES BENEATH are "excellent" examples of how an advertising can be done in a most destructive way. As I may have told on these boards previously, I wasn't originally going to see MOULIN ROUGE because I thought it to be a typical shallow Hollywood-product with extended MTV-like music "commercials" filled with contemporary music garbage. These various movie-going incidents have really taught me to keep my mind as open as possible and NOT to believe in the advertising of any movie.

I didn't even read Ken's comments on the score; figured he was going off on the film.

who cares ?????

ATOC has flaws but also has incredibly enjoying and energy-loaded moments, even some deep moments.

too bad we won't get the full soundtrack nor the theatrical cut and the extended cut ( only the extended cut ). we need both imho.

Notice how it has finally turned to personal attacks....

quote:

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Originally posted by Shaun Rutherford:
Jonathan, not to be the whine police here, but most theatres don't accept free passes for the first few weeks' run of a film. Why don't you just pay to see Star Wars, and just use the free ticket on something good, like About A Boy.

Shaun

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Or Changing Lanes. Or Insomnia. Or, believe it or not, Unfaithful. Lotsa smart stuff out now.

Usually when a film has some niggling problems I can never get over it but this time I simply didn't care. Also, I didn't really have a problem with the romance which tends to be the first thing that makes me throw-up in a Hollywood film.

What really surpised me is that AOTC transported me back to being a wild-eyed kid watching Star Wars on the big screen in 1977. I just got so swallowed into the thrill ride. A lot of this can be out down to the energetic action sequences but some of it had to do with the return to the Skywalker residence and the play on original themes (pre-Tuskan Raider raid for Skywalker sentiment/post-Tuskan Raider raid for Darth Vader).

Perhaps the most arresting statement was the Jedi attack...so cool to finally have a final battle sequence largely removed from flight attack etc. All the light sabres everywhere was unreal.

Jango Fett was so bad as to be utterly sexy.... the uniform...the devices. Yoda - good to see him in action it is.

AOTC will be my first blockbuster DVD purchase. I just loved it.