Impossible to Compare with Original Trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2002)

Those who are the most disappointed with "Attack of the Clones" fall into the trap of comparing it with the original three Star Wars movies. By this standard, there is no way any of the prequels will ever succeed in fans' minds -- not so much because the product is inferior, but because many of the people who quibble the most with these new movies seem to forget they were 10 years old or younger when their beloved "Original Trilogy" came out.
The first of the original trilogy that I saw in a theater was "Return of the Jedi" -- I was 7 years old. Over the next several years, those three movies became larger than life for me, and I still believe they are as fun as any I've seen.
But anyone in their 20s or early 30s who hate these new movies because they are "inferior" to the previous three should remember that we came to love the original trilogy as impressionable young kids. This is not to take anything away from those movies, but it is the truth.
There are elements of the original trilogy that are just as "juvenile" as this one. If they were released today, some cynical Twentysomething like myself would laugh at characters such as Chewbacca, Admiral Ackbar, and Jabba the Hutt. (A lot of people snicker at the name "Dooku"; what about the fact that Han Solo's sidekick was nicknamed "Chewie"?) We would scoff at the acting skills of Mark "But I was going to the Toshi Station to pick up some power converters" Hamill. And we would probably even consider some of the special effects overkill, overcompensating for a lack of actual direction of live, human actors.
I still love those movies because they make me feel like a kid again. Many adults my age and older -- especially film critics, who seem to love movies that stroke their intellect or are self-important -- refuse to allow themselves to be 10 years old again when the curtain opens and the movie starts.
All this cynicism... and then look around the theater when you watch this movie again and take a glimpse at the kids who are watching it. They are the same age we were when we saw the original movies. And they are absolutely glued to the screen. Ten, 20, 40 years from now, they will love these prequels the way we love the classic trilogy.
This is not "The Godfather." It is not "Out of Africa," "Gandhi," "On the Waterfront," or "The English Patient." The fact is, as a 26-year old reviewer, with the experience and pretension an adult my age has, I must admit that objectively it may not even be "The Empire Strikes Back." But it sure looks, feels, smells, and IS a "Star Wars" movie and a worthy successor to the others. And I think if we were 10 years old -- and if we allowed ourselves to think like it -- we'd enjoy it just as much as we did the first three movies. When we saw those movies for the first time we were not nearly as cynical as we are today... and we were happier for it.
8.5/10