AOTC reviews

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well a few reviews are starting to come out, according to E News Daily, Rolling Stones gave it 4.5 stars (I guess out of 5) and EW gave it a solid A. Wow those are some very good reviews, also some guy from Extra (this was on CNN) said that if you were disapointed in TPM you will love Ep2, so far the reviews have been a lot better this time.

[JMK]

These are also reviews that were rather harsh on TPM. This is sounding so positive, I don't know what to do with my expectations!

[Jedi Master Carr]

EW gave TPM a B- and Rolling Stone gave it two stars, Time has already gave it a good review and Newsweek seems more postive on it and so hasn't E News Daily so things are looking up there.

[JMK]

Well, what's not to love about Star Wars? ;)

[Charley]

Do you have any links? I checked all those sites you mentioned, and found nothing of the sort.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I just heard it on E News Daily I think these are for the upcoming issues and the sites probably won't be udated until they go out to subscribers which should be sometime this week, I suspect the reviews will be up by Wed maybe.

[JMK]

I think you're right, I couldn't find them there either, but we only have to wait for another day to find out for sure.

[Jedi Master Carr]

E News daily could have been blowing smoke about the Rolling Stones one or they were looking at the one for the soundtract which I know Rolling Stones did praise. EW I have no clue about one way or the other.

[Figrin D'an]

TF.N has two different reviews up now, done by people on their staff who got to see a press screening. I didn't read most of them, because I'm still avoiding spoilers, but both reviews seemed to be quite positive.

[Marcus Telcontar]

The reviews were very hard I think and for real - And very positive! The negatives are there but there are genuine things that make anyone sit back and go whoa to.

So to sum up the critics so far - Gorgeous, truly Star Wars, Dark, and has things that we have never seen before especially int he fights, a good script and good acting, but there are some glaring problems which dont in the end detract.

Heh. This is looking gooooooood

[JMK]

What were the so called "glaring problems"?

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think one of them was convinced about the romance, and the other reviewer had some problems with some of the dialogue mostly in one part of the movie (this is nothing new) I didn't notice anything else, but I only glanced over them. A few more reviews have been coming, out sort of, some guy on Fox and Friends called the movie awesome and he said he hated TPM. The Atlanta Constitution put a slight review saying the movie is very good and dealt with some of the postives and negatives of the film (though there were more postives than negatives and they seemed to think it was a lot better TPM) I hadn't read any other major ones, I have noticed a few internet reviews and they have all been postive.

[JMK]

I've read mostly positive stuff, but I'm having trouble finding spoiler-free reviews. I read the one at hometheaterforum.com, which was fantastic, but other than that, there isn't alot out there. :mad

[Charley]

Entertainment Weekly just jackhammered it with a C+

[Figrin D'an]

C+ huh?

That's the worst rating I have heard thus far...

However, if that represents the low end of the ratings that AOTC is getting, we can't really complain that much... considering that everything else has been strongly positive thusfar, that grade may be a low outlier...

[Charley]

Howard Stern hated it
Fox News hated it
and some stuffy british magazine also hated it.

[Figrin D'an]

Yeah, well, the only way Howard Stern would like it is if Natalie Portman got naked and had a gratuitous sex scene...



I'm actually waiting to see James Berardinelli's review... I tend to agree with most of his film reviews. When it goes up, I'll be sure to post a link.

[Charley]

Slant magazine hated it

[Ryla Relvinian]

Howard Stern can bite my left kneecap. I don't like reading negative reviews, in fact, I try not to read any. They are someone else's perspective, and the only one I care about is my take on the movie. GL isn't making these for us, he's making them for his own pleasure. Some reviewers just don't get it. The only reviews I'll read are from Mr. Cranky, because they are funny.

Mr. Cranky's Review of TPM (http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/starwarsphantom1.html)

It's going to own. :]

[JMK]

Ouch!!! Que pasa here??? This wasn't supposed to happen was it?

[Jedi Master Carr]

Howard Stern is a moron, he is popular anymore, also I read somewhere he is still mad that the SW special edition beat the crap out of his movie Private Parts (the high point of his popularity) I think he is disgruntled. EW I have already went over, Slant Magazine I have never heard of, and the stuff paper from the UK was the Independent which is like the New Yorker very intellectual and they don't like any type of pop culture film. They have been making a list of some of the postive reviews on the JC here are some of them
Harry Knowles
The Trades
Box Office Prophets
Jedinet.com
Reel insider.com
Time Magazine
CNN Reporter
FilmThreat.com
BBC Kids
BBC Radio
Carter
Hometheatherforum
Joel from pswto
Mike from pswto
CHUD
Tonny Potts Access Hollywood
Countingdown.com
crazedfanboy.com
filmjerk.com
http://www.joblo.com
The Daily Mirror

That is it so far but that is a lot of postive reviews, oh also Mancow loved it, he is a conservative talk show host who is a big sci-fi nut he hated TPM so that is good news there.

[Figrin D'an]

Yeah, I was surprised (although pleasently) that Mancow Muller praised the film. He absolutely hated TPM, and bashed it every chance he got, but he has said that AOTC is the film that "will bring the fans home."


Not that it means much, but it's nice to see that a few people that hated TPM are being so positive about AOTC...

[Jedi Master Carr]

Empireonline loved it, they say they can't release a full review yet but they say rest assure, "Star Wars is back and for those of you who thought Episode I was our last hope, take heart. There is another." I think that is great they are a very respectable film magazine who I would listen to.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I read the EW! review.


Bad. She bashed AOTC. The thing is, it really stands out as a badly done review and out of step with what we are seeing so far.

[ReaperFett]

7-2 so far (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/StarWarsEpisodeIIAttackoftheClones-1112314/reviews.php)



But that is Lying Tomatoes :)

[ReaperFett]

I love btw the basher works for EW!. Company or statement? :)




Also, note the "Geek areas", such as Harry Knowles, all seem to be loving it.








The Independant, btw, is VERY high brow. For it to get an average review would be a feat

[Jedi Master Carr]

That is what I thought Reaper I thought it was one of those intellectual mags. I have more good news as far as reviews, Variety's went up tonight and it is very postive he called the second best SW movie tied with ANH to ESB, here it is there are some spoilers so I will hide the review for those who don't want to see it, by the way he bashed TPM pretty bad so this is great news

From Variety:

By Todd McCarthy

The Force is back -- along with fun and excitement, as well as the bonus of romance -- in "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones." As if realizing that "The Phantom Menace" three years ago didn't exactly deliver the goods even while racking up a staggering worldwide gross of $923 million, or perhaps just finding his directorial footing again after the 22-year layoff, George Lucas has reached deep into the trove of his self-generated mythological world to produce a grand entertainment that offers a satisfying balance among the series' epic, narrative, technological and emotional qualities. If "The Empire Strikes Back" represented an advance on the original "Star Wars," "Clones" marks a big leap beyond "Menace," while also holding out the promise of a climactic installment that could be even more dramatic. Reinvigorating a series that showed signs of needing a transfusion, "Clones" will soar to the furthest extremes of the B.O. stratosphere.

Virtually everything that went wrong in "Menace" has been fixed, or at least improved upon, this time out: The exposition and sense of storytelling are clearer and more economical, all the main characters have significant roles to play, the detailing of the diverse settings is far richer, the multitudinous action set-pieces are genuinely exciting, there is now the dramatic through-line provided by a love story, some of the acting is actually decent, and even the score is better. Stimulating everything is a restoration of overall imaginative purpose, which is a good thing now that the first installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has, in the view of many, set the bar so high for cinematic fantasy and myth-making.

On first blush, "Clones" would appear to rank behind "Empire" and somewhere around the original "Star Wars" among the five series entries to date. The juvenalia and sporadic feeling of cynical marketeerism are pretty much gone, replaced by a late adolescent/early adult-level treatment of such matters as forbidden love, betrayal, strategic politics and preparation for war. It has become customary for contempo big-budget adventures to pile one apparent ending on top of another, ad nauseum, and while "Clones" may be guilty of this, the difference is that here they are welcome -- the "endings" get better as they go.

After the usual informational scroll, which informs that the Republic is threatened by a large separatist movement involving multiple alliances throughout the galaxy, action picks up 10 years after "Menace." Opening shots of an exquisite silver spaceship descending through the clouds to land amid the spires of Coruscant possess a grace more enchanting than anything in the previous film, but the beauty of the moment is obliterated when the craft's most illustrious passenger, Senator Padme (Natalie Portman), former Queen of Naboo, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

Padme has made the journey to vote on the issue of whether or not to give Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) emergency powers to create an army to battle the dissenters. Upon arrival, she is placed under the protection of Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), the latter of whom she hasn't seen since he was the boy played by Jake Lloyd in "Menace." Handsome and all grown up now (although Padme herself looks scarcely older), Anakin now sees his childhood friend through adult eyes, to the point where he must be reminded by Obi-Wan of the Jedi rule against emotional attachments.

Rescuing Padme from yet another attack, this time by large centipedes delivered to her bed, the two blond bodyguards launch themselves out the window to give nocturnal chase to the would-be killer, a pursuit that involves free-falls from thousands of feet and precarious flying on mini-jets through a maze of towering buildings and airborne congestion. Dizzying sequence tips the hat to "Blade Runner" in its evocation of a nightmarish urban future, but still creates a world very much its own by virtue of its sheer density.

Informed by the dying assailant that she was hired by a bounty hunter to eliminate Padme, Obi-Wan leaves in search of the evil plotter, while Anakin is assigned to accompany Padme back her native Naboo, a peaceful Italianate land where the young couple indulge in a bucolic idyll in which Anakin's amorous determination is bested by Padme's resolve not to launch into a relationship she knows will prove "impossible." Giving Anakin's romantic torment an ominous portent is his stated preference for a dictatorship over the Republic, which he feels "doesn't work."

In a beautiful sequence, Obi-Wan locates the formidable bounty hunter, Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), on a gloomy distant planet of perpetual rain which also houses the lab and factory manufacturing the hitherto unknown Clone Army designed to assist the Jedi in taking on the separatists. But while Obi-Wan pushes toward uncovering the anti-Republican conspiracy, Anakin suffers intense personal anguish when he returns to his native Tatooine in a futile attempt to rescue his mother from kidnappers. Lashing out, he slaughters her abductors (offscreen), motivated by a degree of hate he has never felt before.

Through this middle stretch of the film, which might prove a little tedious for hardware geeks and pre-teens, the seeds are being planted not only for the inevitable Anakin-Padme union, but for Anakin's eventual move to the Dark Side and transformation into Darth Vader. And while the "intimate" dialogue is mundane, and a few lines borderline risible, the crescendo of events carries the day with room to spare, setting the stage for the escalating drama and conflict of the picture's second half.

In short order, Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme are captured by the emergent villain of the piece, turncoat Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), and are put at the mercy of some ferocious, prehistoric-type beasts in a teeming, carved-rock arena so enormous it makes the ancient circuses of "Ben-Hur" and "Gladiator" look like playpens.

As if this amazing sequence weren't enough, it's followed staggering combat between masses of Separatist droids and Republican clones, a desperate air chase and a succession of lightsaber duels, the last of which is smashingly funny and exciting, involving an unexpected and remarkably nimble little participant. Lovely, quiet and portentous final scene will leave millions of fans eager for the series resumption, scheduled for three years hence.

Full-fledged arrival of Lee in the final act raises the level of drama, and of thesping as well, to a new level, and it's amusing to reflect on how this 79-year-old vet has cornered the market in villainy in two of the biggest film series now going, "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings"; all he needs now is a role in one of the "Harry Potter" pics.

But another happy surprise is that McGregor, who seemed blandly ineffectual in "Menace," begins coming into his own here. Bearded, more confident now and gingerly affecting some odd enunciation, the actor indicates he may have strategized to start slowly in the role and increasingly channel Alec Guinness across the arc of the trilogy to the point where the two actors merge in the public's mind. Samuel L. Jackson has more to do this time as a Jedi Master and political insider, and, delightfully, so does Yoda, who is voiced with relish by Frank Oz and, in his new digital incarnation, has infinitely more mobility and expressiveness than the character did in its "Return of the Jedi" heyday. The world will breathe easier in the knowledge that Jar Jar Binks has been significantly sidelined and evidently sedated, although it's funny to learn that this most dim-witted of characters has now entered politics, as Padme empowers him with her vote in the Senate when she's forced to flee.

Unfortunately, the central couple must be tolerated rather than truly enjoyed. Brilliant as a young teen actress and steadily impressive thereafter, Portman now seems calcified as she delivers flat line readings with little facial or physical expressiveness; for the long period during which Anakin anguishes over his love for her, it's impossible to tell what she feels about it. The handsome Christensen seems like a callow lad, giving the impression more of a spoiled kid than someone who's spent his formative years obediently at the side of a Jedi teacher, but he seems responsive to the progressive dark layerings, creating a measure of hope for Episode III.

Design-wise, pic is magnificently of a piece with the previous films and then some, with advancing technology offering increased opportunities with every installment. The impression of "painted" backdrops in "Menace" is reduced here, and the work of production designer Gavin Bocquet, costume designer Trisha Biggar and the enormous art, animation and effects crews is stupendous.

Lucas has drawn considerable attention to his having shot the film entirely on 24-frame High Definition digital video; at press preview caught, digitally projected images looked clean and cool, with colors appearing slightly more muted than their celluloid equivalents in the '70s-'80s trilogy, and the browns in dark interior scenes washing together without definition.

After doing a noisy recycling act on "Menace," John Williams has gone back to serious work on this one with a score that strongly supports, rather than overwhelms, the action, and provides more of a darkly romantic surge in its main theme than the actors are able to muster.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Another review what is this review day this time its Travers of Rollingstones here it is
http://rollingstone.com/mv_reviews/review.asp?mid=2043824

he is mostly postive for him at least, in Sw terms he ranks it behind ESB and ANH so that is something at least. His biggest complaint is the dialogue which doesn't surprise me, as much as he puts up ESB he must have forgotten how bad some that dialogue is (though I like it) Laugh it up fuzzball, and laserbrain come to mind.

[ReaperFett]

"I saw CLONES two weeks ago up at George's. For the record, of all the STAR WARS they've made, this is my second favorite just behind EMPIRE,” Spielberg told us. “It was great. The action scenes looked like George had been inspired by James Cameron because they were as good as any of the action scenes in T2, and I think George did his best directing with this one too."

-Senor Spielbergo :)

[JMK]

He had even greater praise for TPM. While that endorsement certainly is encouraging, I think I'll wait before I sing the praises...

[Jedi Master Carr]

Paul Clinton (the reviewer for CNN) as on CNN this morning and said he saw it and it was very very good and a lot better than TPM (which he said he hated). Joel Siegel from GMA said yesterday that he thought it was terrific but wouldn't give his review till next week. And I heard that Leonard Maltin loved it too, but that was a rumor.

[Figrin D'an]

I'm not surprised that Joel Siegel and Leonard Maltin both loved it... they tend to like pictures that are grandeous and push the limits of technology and special effects.

Paul Clinton liking it is a nice surprise though... he really dissed TPM on several occasions, a lot like Mancow Muller did... so, again, it's nice to see that some people that hated TPM are giving such high praise for AOTC.

Roger Ebert seems to be the one outlier thus far... he like TPM, but seems to dislike AOTC.

[imported_QuiGonJ]

Huh? A friend heard Howard Stern on the radio talking about the film and he told the radio audience it was good.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think he said that it was okay but not as good as the OT, that was what I read. I wasn't surprised that Maltin liked if (if the rumor is true) because he is a big Star Wars fan and like TPM. Really so far (not counting high brow critics who have never liked SW) only EW (which IMO is nothing better than tabloid trash), Ebert, and the NY Times (that reviewer was a moron, also I just found out he was the only critic that liked the worst movie of last year Freddy Got Fingered) have been the exceptions to this point, of course the other critcs like USA Today, LA Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, etc haven't weighed in yet, and we will probably get those next week.

[Jedieb]

In the next few days I'm going to go back and read all the reviews I've been avoiding. Now, saying that a reviewer is stupid or clueless because they disagree with me is completely ridiculous. It's too easy, it's a cop out really. Different people view things differently, period. But I have to say this about ANY reviewer that gave AOTC a negative review;

"WTF?!?!"o_O

Honestly, did they see the same movie I did? I'm not saying AOTC is the greatest movie ever made, but how anyone could say it was a BAD movie is beyond me. I just don't get it.:huh

[JMK]

The reviewer in our daily magazine gave it a paltry 2 stars. He's an idiot though and pans anything.