Blockbluster

>> George Lucas remains lost with Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

by MATTHEW HAYS

George Lucas has stated repeatedly that his Star Wars movies are meant to be much like the Saturday matinée serials of the golden age of Hollywood, calling them “unpretentious and designed to thrill with lots of energy, suspense and excitement.”
There’s clearly an unwitting prescience to the latest entry, then. In its opening moments, the forces of good are under attack by terrorists, and one young female bandit manages to come awfully close to knocking off former Queen of Nabu (who now serves as a senator) Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). The odd thing is, said terrorist is wearing a veil, much like the hijab worn by many women in the Mideast. An intriguing bit of costume design, especially coming in a big-budget Hollywood movie, where in most cases producers are concerned with being hyper-politically correct so as not to offend any one ticket-buying demographic. (If Arab groups do protest, it wouldn’t be the first time this franchise has come under fire for alleged xenophobia; Lucas was taken to task for the final sequence of the first film’s close similarity to Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, not to mention the film’s lily-white cast.)

It may sound like nitpicking, but really, I was desperately looking for something to analyze in this movie. Even as empty, mindless moviegoing goes, this thing really feels belaboured. Where the original trilogy felt lively, funny and invigorating, the latest round of Star Wars films feel like George Lucas is doing little more than getting off on all that technology. Yep, CGI have become the favourite whipping boy of critics who lament things ain’t like they used to be, but as the old saying goes, if the rap fits…

Light saber rattling

There is one Gladiator-style fight towards the film’s conclusion that deserves praise. It certainly looks like it took a lot of technicians and gadgetry to put together. The critters Lucas, Inc. have come up with look nasty and threatening, and this frenzied clash eventually involves the entire Jedi force, light sabers humming and ready to go.
But the most recent Star Wars films have gone far, far astray from what made the original films so much fun. The originals were good in part because of their sheer simplicity. Lucas took basic building blocks of decent, old-fashioned film storytelling, patched together some ideas and motifs from the various classic genres (in particular the war movie, Romance and Westerns) and gave us likable characters. The character department is another place in which the latest films are truly lacking. Mark Hamill’s gee-whiz Luke Skywalker was endearing, while the bickering between Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia was at least somewhat humorous. They’re all sorely missed. Ewan McGregor, Portman and even Samuel L. Jackson feel so bland in their roles as to resemble genetically-watered-down clones. Hayden Christensen and Portman are given a forbidden onscreen romance. The two look like they belong in a low-rent porn movie instead.

Abused inner children

These were films to sate our inner children, perfect movies that crossed generational borders. After Phantom Menace and Clones, I simply feel that my inner wee one has been slapped about, neglected and sent to bed without any cookies or even a decent bed-time story. Is anyone following this ludicrously convoluted plot line, the one replacing the original films’ economic simplicity? I gave up at about half-time and kept waiting for the next bit of inane dialogue—a wait that never took terribly long. Nay, it’s no fun to be a child or an adult during this apoplectic, overblown video game. I’m all for brainless fun, but the fun got left somewhere behind here. Lucas has clearly lost his way and considering the strength of the early films, it’s a crying, $200-million shame. :

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is now playing