In Defense Of... STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES
A few weeks ago, I wrote about some of the positive things about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Today, I’m wanting to talk about the next film, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Attack of the Clones is probably my least favorite Star Wars, yet it has some of the coolest bits to it.
So first off, the worst thing about this movie is anything involving Anakin and Padme. It’s the worst, no matter what the context is. Him trying to flirt (I think that’s what it is anyway) and just being creepy like 24/7 during the entire movie is the worst thing in the world. Now that that is out of the way, let’s get to the cool parts.
This one will be divisive a little, but I love the fight between Yoda and Count Dooku. This is the first time we see Yoda wield a lightsaber and fight, and it’s a lot of fun. I remember seeing that fight scene on a promo before the film came out and I just about lost it with how cool it looked. Once again, it had a lot more energy than the fights in the original trilogy and it was just fun to watch the character who is supposed to be the best Jedi actually do something.
Second, when I was rewatching all the films leading up to the release of The Force Awakens, I found a deleted scene that gave us a bit more of Dooku’s story. I understand why the scene was deleted, it doesn’t really need to be in there for the movie that we got, but it sure does give a lot of depth to Dooku’s character. You can find the scene at 3:08 in the video below.
Third, another deleted scene sheds a lot of light on a number of things. First, it adds to the next bonus I’m going to talk about. Second, it shows Obi-Wan is not dumb. The scene has Obi-Wan and Mace Windu talking about looking for Kamino and then goes on to Obi-Wan sharing concerns with Mace about Anakin being alone and being with Padme because of an emotional connection and Anakin’s arrogance. It helps show that maybe the Jedi weren’t so stupid in not realizing that Anakin and Padme kept making goo-goo eyes at each other. Instead, some of them decided to ignore it. This scene is at 7:07 in the video below.
Finally, Attack of the Clones has a very interesting story if you remove the aforementioned stuff with Anakin and Padme. Obi-Wan Kenobi goes on a mystery thriller adventure trying to find a missing planet where he finds a clone army that a mysterious Jedi has ordered. This story is actually pretty cool and engaging, but due to the constant cuts to Anakin and Padme, they get lost in the worst love story in Star Wars.
In short, if you removed the Anakin and Padme crap and had a lot more of the mystery about Kamino stuff and Obi-Wan, Attack of the Clones would’ve been a lot better. Maybe not great, but a lot better than it is.