Finally saw Attack of the Clones yesterday with my lady.
Late, I know, but we had the opportunity to do so at one of the few digitial projection theatres, and so waited until we had the time to schlep over to it (it is not quite our local theatre).
So we saw it. And It Was Good.
I’m not quite sure how good yet — it usually takes a few days for the buzz to wear off for movies like this. But it was definitely better than Episode I (by far), and I think compares reasonably with the first trilogy.
Mr. Lileks has some thoughts on the matter, and I’ll add mine:
– Yoda kicks ass. Most folks knew that going in, but I’m here to tell you — Obi Wan is cool. Anakin can deal it out. But Yoda — Yoda will fuck you up.
– The dialogue wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Only one line really made me wince with the strong urge to hire Lucas an editor. And to my pleasant surprise, there actually are some wonderfully Han Soloesque one-liners thrown in here and there (an area in which Episode I was sorely lacking).
– Surprises. I hate movies where I know exactly what is going to happen from moment to moment. Lucas keeps things interesting, and while you certainly know that Anakin and Obi Wan aren’t going to get killed by those beasties coming at them right now, the overall plot of the movie is nicely opaque. You genuinely have to think about who’s actually on the right side. (Arguably, a little too opaque — there’s one aspect of how the clones get created that still has me scratching my head).
– Digital projection was pretty neat, but didn’t totally blow me away. We had literally 2nd row seats, which turned out to be great. If there were any cracklies and scratches to be seen, we sure as heck would have seen them. There were zero, naturally. This was nice… but I will confess to being a little skeptical about how long its going to take to get theatre owners to convert, given that, as I understand it, the economics are pretty sketchy.
Anyway, all in all a darned good ride….and one that makes me really look forward to Episode III.
Hey. I think Lucas just regained my faith. Think of that!