Filling Up the Screen to Finish The Series Up Already

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2005)

"Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" was really, really loud, which helped to drown out the noisy kids. Because several weeks into the run the four screens playing it hourly were still quite crowded with an old-fashioned genuinely family audience of all ages.
And shucks if the opening lettering and music didn't choke me up with nostalgia (including for Mel Brooks' "Space Balls").
I did like the action scenes with all the whooshes, even if they weren't particularly original. But I had to keep reminding myself that Samuel Jackson, Natalie Portman (the beading designer on her costumes deserved the prominent listing in the credits), Temuera Morrison (so combustible in "Once Were Warriors"), Ewen MacGregor (hey, why does this Jedi have to be celibate?), etc. are terrific actors because I couldn't figure out why they were so stiff and uninteresting. Yeah I did watch some stupid series on Pax TV I think it was because Hayden Christensen had caught my eye, so I sat there pretending I cared about his romance as much as I had about Han's and Leia's, because I really did with the original trilogy.
I did like the little precursor information for fans -- like of the aunt and uncle on Tatooine as a young couple, a cameo by the evil emperor, and the trick on our decades-old expectations of who and what the clones would be.
I'm not sure I could sit through this a second time, but it does pay to see the effects on the big screen.
(originally written 5/28/2002)