An Appreciation of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW

Between my birth and 1999, Star Wars had always been an event, and therefore a big deal. I had the good fortune to witness all of the original trilogy films in 1997, during their Special Edition run. I had the good fortune to behold The Phantom Menace while riding the hype wave at its highest peak. 2002 marked the first time a Star Wars film became merely business as usual.

War were declared.

It could have been just me and the times. It was my first year of working, having graduated high school just a year ago. For a while, I went through each day in a daze, struggling to comprehend my duties and responsibilities, procedures, expectations, and more. In the midst of all the tension and anxiety of the time, I felt hardly any hype for Attack of the Clones. I didn’t follow the news that closely at all. One day, I happened across the music score on CD—had to buy it, of course. I was excited for the new cues and all the images in the liner notes. My excitement was still pretty lukewarm until the movie popped up in theaters without much pomp or precedent.

What doesn’t help Attack of the Clones is that it dropped right in the middle of the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Having seen The Fellowship of the Ring earlier in the year, Star Wars took the backburner while I awaited the release of The Two Towers and read Tolkein’s original books. Who wants clones when there’s another, better series of films offering orcs, trolls, Nazgul, and more?

And yet, I went through the motions of seeing Attack of the Clones on the big screen and came out satisfied. I would have even argued that it was better than The Phantom Menace. The sheer scope, scale, and ambition of the spectacle blew me away. At the time, it was yet another favorite, and I felt as though the series could do no wrong.

Here it is, seventeen years later, and Attack of the Clones is now my least-favorite of the main Star Wars films (I say “main” because some of the supporting features are a grade worse, and I can’t fathom anything worse than the Star Wars Holiday Special). There are a lot of cool things in the film, certainly. Some significant story developments happen. But even when I got a hold of the DVD months later, I found myself skipping the romance scenes to watch only Obi-Wan’s scenes. Skipping scenes, in Star Wars? Inconceivable!

In time, I’ve come to regard much of the movie as flaky. Not just the dialogue, writing, and quality—all the same problems carried over from the previous movie. The plot was a struggle to understand back in 2002. Even though I’ve come to understand some aspects better, the plot holds less water the more I look at it.

Being Around The Film Is...Intoxicating

Before I proceed with ripping this film apart, let’s talk about the things I still like and admire about the film.

In space, do you land on the planet, or does the planet land on you?

• Every film in the series has a pattern—they all start with the opening crawl, the camera pans down, we see something happen in space. For the first time in the series (and I think it’s still the only time), the camera actually pans up, and we see Coruscant from an upside-down angle. Seeing that for the first time is a very trippy experience, and I still admire the shiny ship designs as they glide over the foggy cityscape. It’s visually awesome, even though the movie doesn’t start with a major battle or anything.
• I went into the movie expecting the same pattern as The Empire Strikes Back. The film generally covers similar ground in broad strokes, but not quite as on-the-nose as The Last Jedi. What I like about Attack of the Clones is that it copies the same plot structure, but reverses it. Just as the opening shot is flipped upside-down, so is the plot. Anakin spends this movie being tempted by the Dark Side, and occasionally giving in, whereas Luke was tempted and resisted. Obi-Wan and Anakin chase their way into Geonosis, whereas Han, Luke and the gang were chased away from Hoth. Both Hoth and Geonosis are the sites of the biggest battles for their respective movies, but they’re placed at opposite ends (the Battle of Hoth occurs in the beginning, the Battle of Geonosis happens at the end). I always felt there was an intentional effort to flip the formula, and I appreciate that Attack of the Clones does so at least with its structure.
• It is inevitable that Anakin turns to the Dark Side—that is the point of watching the prequels and it is the story that makes it worth seeing. Revenge of the Sith seems to contain all of the important scenes that show his transformation into Darth Vader. The best that Attack of the Clones achieves is aligning certain pieces to make it happen. As the middle part of this arc, it is a little disappointing that more doesn’t happen, but there are a few significant pieces of foreshadowing that I genuinely appreciate.
• On one Naboo scene, Anakin stands with his legs in a wide stance and his hands clasped behind his back—it’s the exact same kind of stance you see the Imperial commanders take in the original films, and it’s a standard militaristic “at ease” stance used in real life. Anakin seems at peace when he does it here, as if meditating. It’s as if the militaristic stance is his most natural and relaxed state.
• Anakin and Padme share their political views, and Anakin eerily suggests that a dictatorship might actually be the answer. Everything else about this scene might be way too sappy (especially when Anakin rides the fat-bottomed cow thing), but this bit of dialogue stands out.
• There are at least two points in which Anakin commits a faux pas that brings a certain level of tangible silence to the conversations. These scenes stand out very effectively since we see the concerned reactions from the side characters, so we can see that Anakin crosses a line of what is socially acceptable. This first happens when Anakin challenges Obi-Wan’s authority in front of Padme and everyone. It happens again when Anakin contradicts Padme in front of the Naboo Queen. These scenes are hardly comfortable to see, but that’s the point and I think it’s a good way of showing how the character’s faults make him fail in polite society.
• Perhaps the biggest step Anakin takes towards the Dark Side is when he frees Shmi, only to have her die in his arms. Sand People massacre ensues. This is when a certain threshold is crossed that he can’t uncross—he is no longer an innocent child (or even a whiny teenager), and this is the point where his childish dreams fall apart. This is when we can finally see how this guy could become the most evil character in the galaxy (…well, second to Palpatine).
• While chasing Count Dooku on Geonosis, Anakin and Obi-Wan have a brief fight. Anakin wants to turn the ship around to save Padme (who fell out of the gunship), but Obi-Wan demands that they focus on the mission to stop Dooku. It boils down to duty versus personal feelings. This scene probably could have gone in other directions that would have worked better (and there are one or two Youtubers I’ve watched that explain why pretty convincingly). And yet, I like the fact that the scene even exists. It helps underscore the moral dilemmas that Anakin faces, and his begrudging loyalty to the cold, dogmatic Jedi. It also helps break up an otherwise long, effects-heavy finale with a character-based problem—even if it only lasts a moment, it’s better than nothing at all.
• One thing the film covers that I probably wouldn't have predicted is Luke's aunt and uncle from Episode IV. Turns out Owen is literally Anakin's half-brother, so the relationship makes sense. These threads are ultimately tied in the next episode, but the bulk of the work is achieved in Attack of the Clones thanks to the amount of time Anakin spends hanging around Lars' homestead. These scenes offer quite a few good details that are necessary to connect to the later episodes.
• Even though parts of the film can try my patience, it is the Clone Wars I’ve always yearned to see in this. We have a full-blown TV series that covers its sprawling battles, but for 2002, this movie (and a brief Cartoon Network series) was all we had. So when it came to the grand finale, I was genuinely blown away by all the spectacle the film managed to cram in.
• For one thing, it includes a plethora of great things we’ve never seen in Star Wars before. Hundreds of Jedi fighting together. A crap-ton of imaginative vehicles, weapons, and droids. We see somebody use two lightsabers in a fight. We see Yoda act like a badass. It’s all a feast for the eyes.
• What really knocked me off my feet was the way the scenes escalate. First time viewing, I knew the movie was going to end but I had no idea where things were going—I half expected the arena fight to be it, and the film could have ended without any Clone Wars happening. But no, just as things looked dire, the Jedi show up and the scene becomes a huge brawl. Then the clone troopers show up and turn the arena into a kill box. When the ships take off, we see that the fight has boiled over across the surrounding landscape, and it becomes a full-blown battle (ground and air). This is all capped off with a lightsaber fight, which may not be as big-scale as the droids-vs-clones battles, but it is satisfying to tie off a film with the heroes fighting the villain mano-a-mano.
• Many qualities of The Phantom Menace carry over admirably—lovely-looking locations and settings, highly imaginative concepts and ideas, incredible-looking worlds, nice costumes and props, and the spirit of the thing. I’d even argue that Attack of the Clones looks better since it feels less rough around the edges (especially regarding the special effects) and has a little more gravitas (especially since Jar Jar is reduced to a few lines).
• One thing the movie does better than The Phantom Menace is immersing the audience in the settings. This is because the scenes in Attack of the Clones (and Revenge of the Sith) are not nearly as static. Most of TPM’s middle consisted of characters sitting in a circle and talking, which showed less of the worlds around them. With the other two prequel movies, more effort is put into staging each scene so that the characters interact with the world, and we in turn see how certain environments work. In Attack of the Clones, we see city traffic, nightclubs, diners, refugee transportation, hyperspace docking rings, more insides of the Jedi Temple, youngling training, the Jedi Archives, clone birth and training, droid building, and more. These are details that show worlds that are alive, creditable, and immersive.
• I like the Kaminoans. I don’t even know why, but I found it refreshing that they welcome Obi-Wan so cordially and speak in such a calm, civilized manner. This is probably meant in service of the story, to contrast this zen-like business transaction with the brutality of clone warfare. But what helps even more is that it gives us the unexpected—going into Kamino, Obi-Wan could have faced hostility, but what we see instead is confusing and cryptic. Our confusions matches Obi-Wan’s, but he catches on that the Kaminoans have mistaken him for somebody else and he rolls with it for more information. Pretty sly move, not only for him to gain information but also to give us more exposition. In the end though, the Kaminoans are a pretty groovy race of aliens that look distinctive and live in a very distinctive environment. 

Even Nute Gunray can't stand watching this stuff.

• One minor villain makes a surprise re-appearance: Nute Gunray. What I love about his scenes is that the film succeeds in characterizing him as a slimy coward. It only took a few short scenes during the arena fight to show this: first by having him turn away from the violence, then showing him protest when Padme fights back. Nute is officially one of the best villains I love to hate in these movies.
• Sound design—I may gripe about how some sounds in the prequels are repeated annoyingly, but Attack of the Clones really blows me away. One of the biggest and most awe-inspiring uses of sound is the seismic charges Jango drops in the asteroid field—just a few seconds of silence, then a huge metallic bang, and it sounds so punchy and powerful. Watching those things go off always gave me chills.
• One of the greater triumphs of the sound design might be the Geonosian language. The other movies have pretty wild sounds for their aliens (especially A New Hope’s bar scene), but this is a language that genuinely sounds like something bug people would say, and it is as alien as it gets. No human tongue could possibly recreate it, but we hear it in full, organic sentences and phrases. It’s a superb aspect of the world-building.
• John Williams’ score is on-point as usual. It’s very radical how he incorporates an electric guitar during the Coruscant chase scenes. But the biggest standout is easily the Love Theme, which is a grand, sweeping score that exudes a sense of romance, wonder, and conflict. You know, all the things we should be seeing in the movie. It’s encapsulated in the music perfectly, and the theme always manages to hit me in the feels.
• As usual, there are a few standout scenes that draw the eye through their composition and meaning. Some of the best shots in the movie are:
• The opening approach to Coruscant, fog and chrome and all.
• When Anakin speeds off to search for Shmi, there’s a pretty decent montage of sunset scenes, ending with a wide shot of Anakin questioning Jawas in front of a red sky.
• When Anakin fights Dooku, the camera focuses on their faces against a dark background while the red and blue light of the lightsabers light them up. It is a visually theatrical (and stunning) way of toying around with the light and darkness, and it kinda makes me wonder if this effect was inspired from Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished film Inferno, in which rotating colored lights achieve the same effect.
• The second-to-last scene in the movie, Palpatine and some other guys look down from a balcony and watch the clone army mobilize.

This Is Getting Out of Hand. Now There Are Two Plots!

The strangest thing to reconcile with Attack of the Clones is its plot. I always felt it hit up all the same notes as The Empire Strikes Back just fine, but without a major reveal and with the structure flipped backwards. On closer inspection, it’s apparent that the film also strived to encompass a lot more. It’s a sweeping romance in the midst of war—essentially the same as Doctor Zhivago, the film of which was well over three hours. Attack of the Clones also features a huge mystery subplot, and along the way that includes assassination attempts on Padme, a chase scene on Coruscant, encountering the Fetts, an asteroid chase, and a whole mess of stuff on Geonosis. There are some lingering plot threads from the last movie that needed to be addressed (namely, Anakin’s mom). There are threads in the next movie that needed to connect (all the politics, Anakin’s continuing arc). Really, it’s too much for just one film.

The overall structure generally works, and I don’t mind that it splits the POV between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Unfortunately, both threads have their issues.

Too Afraid to Tease a Senator

Deep inside of me there's a ten-year-old barfing at this.

Anakin’s narrative is the one that should take the center stage. There is a problem though—because this plotline is modelled after the sweeping romantic epic of Doctor Zhivago, the film by nature abandons its actual roots as serialized pulp adventure. There is a fundamental difference in genres, and Star Wars works at its best when it’s quick, punchy, campy, and perhaps a little imperfect. Just about every beat leads to another through continual problems (or peril) that stacks up. It becomes a chain of one thing leading to another. And none of that happens with Anakin and Padme when they’re on Naboo and Tatooine. In order to capture the gravitas of the epic romance, the film slows way the hell down and forces our focus on the two leads, expecting us to feel for their relationship.

Alas, this doesn’t work. Biggest problem is that the chemistry between the characters is dull—partly because the performances are stiff, and also because the lines are horrible. Romantic chemistry works when the characters can connect on a level that’s more than physical, which means that the characters should share something in common. The only thing Anakin and Padme share is a cute little joke about “aggressive negotiations.” That’s like a one-liner that would have been fitting in a James Bond film. Up that point, Anakin keeps creeping on her and everything he says is something awkward, cringey, and unnatural in tone. It almost plays out as if he whines and whines and whines until she caves.

I feel as though there’s an attempt at conflict. There’s friction between the two as Anakin makes his moves and Padme resists them. But this only happens at certain moments—it’s nonexistent for entire scenes (such as the waterfall or dinner scenes), and it makes those scenes drag more. The scenes on Tatooine pick up more because they have a goal—to find Shmi—so there’s a sense of mystery, discovery, and ultimately violence that has to be reconciled.

I can’t help but to think they only went to Naboo and Tatooine because of the whims of the script—these scenes just had to happen, so the film pushed the characters in that direction in a stiff, artificial manner. The little staycation on Naboo feels especially convenience, since we all know that Anakin and Padme have to fall in love eventually, and Anakin couldn’t ask for a better opportunity than to hang out by the lake with her.

Storm Kamino, See Dem Cloners

LOOK AT ALL THESE SPECIAL EFFECTS!

Obi-Wan’s mission to track down Jango Fett is the more interesting half, if for no other reason than it’s driven purely by mystery and action. It is a string of events that shows us (rather than tell) how the clone army is created and what the Confederacy is up to. This is also where a few of the more interesting setpieces—Obi-Wan fighting Jango in the rain, and the asteroid field chase—happen.

What Obi-Wan finds out is that the Jedi Archives were tampered with, and whoever did it got away with it because the Jedi are so confident in their system that “if it’s not in the archives, it doesn’t exist!” Only younglings and Yoda can think beyond that box. Once on the trail, Obi-Wan finds the Kamino cloners, but seeing as this a movie about the Clone Wars, this is unsurprising. We see the Confederacy building a droid army, but so what? We’ve seen them in the last movie too. Count Dooku tells Obi-Wan that the Jedi and Republic have been compromised, but knowing who Palpatine is, this does nothing but poke holes at any dramatic irony the films manage to hold up.

I can accept the Confederacy army as it is—it’s explained that it’s a combination of the Trade Federation and the Techno Union Army. But the clones had to have been grown some years ago, and the film’s explanation is that some random Jedi named Sifo Dyas placed an order for them without anybody else’s knowledge. This is weird as it is—how does one order a million clones? Is it a website? Mail-order? TV shopping network? More head-scratching is that Obi-Wan recognizes the name and claims he passed away ten years ago. But Sifo Dyas is a fake identity set up by Count Dooku and Sidious, so how did Obi-Wan (and possibly other Jedi) ever know of him? How did Sifo Dyas gain any kind of reputation if he never really existed?

Frankly, name-dropping Sifo Dyas always felt off to me—it’s a significant plot enabler that’s never addressed again. We simply have to accept that Sidious ordered the clones and expected the Republic to pick up the bill. For a galactic-wide civilization—one that’s described as having a burgeoning bureaucracy nonetheless—it seems very fast and loose that the Jedi Council learns of the clone army, asks a few questions, but goes ahead and uses them anyway for the Geonosis battle. Who does get that bill anyway? Do clones come with warranties?

The clone army is a product, and I can understand it being treated as one. It still feels off and ridiculous to me that the army’s development and deployment is treated like an Amazon package. One million personnel, each with armor, weapons, and vehicles, takes a huge amount of logistical leverage that the film seems to hand-wave by showing us spaceships appearing when they’re needed. I find it hard to believe that the Kaminoans would release all these clones all at once without some assurance that their bill would be paid, or some kind of contract set up with the Republic. I find it hard to accept that the Republic would just roll with picking up the bill and using the army without debate or pushback (although this is probably something that’s circumvented with Palpatine’s emergency powers). Above all, I find it hard to swallow that the clones arrive on Geonosis so fast.

Shade Runner

Following Obi-Wan’s trail felt more and more like a stretch the more I scrutinized it.

In all the gin joints in all the galaxy, you had to go to this one...

See if you can dig this: Obi-Wan finds a dart off of Zam’s body, so he visits his ol’ buddy Dex running a diner (…a freaking diner, are you kidding me?) A trip to the Jedi Archives comes gives him no information because their librarian is an a-hole. Yoda and his students gives Obi-Wan the idea that the archives could have been tampered with, so he flies off to Kamino. He meets/fights Jango Fett there, who very visibly seems to be up to something shady. Obi-Wan tracks Jango to Geonosis, where they fight in an asteroid field and Jango tries quite convincingly to outrun and kill Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan tricks him, then sneaks around the planet until he’s captured.

At face value, it looks as though Obi-Wan had caught Jango unaware, and that felt off to me. To accept this means accepting that Jango flew off to Kamino and stayed there for no particular reason. Then he flew to Geonosis for no particular reason (I mean, sure, his employers were there, but if he just fought a Jedi he could have gone anywhere else in the galaxy to avoid being tracked. He is a bounty hunter, right?) To have Obi-Wan stumble across all this seems overly-convenient.

Unless you think about this from the villains’ perspective. In order for Sidious’ plan to take shape, he needed war to break out. That meant leading the Jedi to Kamino and Geonosis on purpose, so they can put two-and-two together and alert the Republic. With the threat of civil war, Palpatine’s emergency powers are granted, and he gets what he wants. All of this hinges on Obi-Wan making the discovery—it didn’t have to be Obi-Wan specifically, and it didn’t matter if Padme is successfully assassinated or not, so long as some Jedi somewhere follows the clues. Leaving this up to Count Dooku to figure out, Dooku leaves it up to Jango to lay down the trail (while simultaneously trying to take out Padme).

This means that Jango might have planted the Kaminoan dart on purpose—not to silence Zam necessarily, but to plant the first clue that Obi-Wan follows. On Kamino, Jango would have waited patiently, then go through the motions of fleeing with the expectation that Obi-Wan would follow. In this light, the plot actually seems to make more sense.

A Simple Man at the Center of the Universe

In The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett was a minor villain we loved to watch, if for no other reason than because he has an awesome helmet and costume. He didn’t do much in reality, but his ominous voice and stoic mannerisms suggested a cold man of business capable of some dirty business. Easily the best shady character in the series.

By Grapthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!

Just as Lucas brought back C-3PO and Jabba the Hutt in The Phantom Menace, he seemed very hellbent to bring Boba back and give more of his backstory. I do like how he rounds off the scenes with young Boba—the shot of him holding Jango’s helmet is pretty sobering, and it foreshadows things to come. It’s one of the very few scenes in the movie that achieves a greater meaning through mere imagery, just as a good film should do.

And yet, the inclusion of the Fetts in Attack of the Clones always struck me as simply feeding the fans more nostalgia. Bringing in Jango/Boba as bounty hunters is fine and all, but the film really grates on me when it pushes Jango as the father of all the clones. That’s one million Jango Fetts working for the Republic. I’m not sure if this is on Palpatine’s orders or what. I suppose it’s creditable that Jango donated his DNA, got paid for it, and that’s that. But I can’t help but to ask why? What makes Jango so special that he has to be the source?

Jango is literally just a dude. He describes himself as “a simple man making my way through the universe.” He can stand toe-to-toe with Obi-Wan only because of armor and gadgets. Years of bounty-hunting probably gave him instinct and reflexes. But for a cloned killing machine, couldn’t the Republic have done better?

I’d argue that the Kaminoans should have used a candidate with greater physical strength and muscle. Imagine how intimidating and spectacular it would have been to see an army of Dolph Lundgren types mowing down the droid army? As it is, I feel like Lucas made the decision to clone Jango because of the love of the character, but without really addressing what it is that makes Jango and Boba work. We don’t love them because they can fight and become an army. We love them for their mystique, which is eroded slightly (and perhaps cheapened) by making them something they are not.

You know what would have been more creditable? If the Kaminoans cloned Chuck Norris. A million Chuck Norrises would have conquered the galaxy for Palpatine in a matter of days. The Jedi wouldn’t even stand a chance, and it would have been spectacular to see.

Machines Making Machines?

In a previous post, I finally came around to realizing how useless the Podrace scene in Episode I actually is. I can still watch and enjoy it for all its action beats and such, but I can see why it may be considered a drag. It goes to show that some action scenes are sometimes shoved into a story for no real purpose.

This happens again in Attack of the Clones when Anakin and Padme snoop around Geonosis and stumble their way into a droid factory. For like ten minutes or more, they both have to fight Geonosian guards while avoiding the perils of the factory’s machines. At the same time C-3PO bumbles around and has his head swapped with a battle droid’s body (this ultimately happens because R2-D2 shoved him for some reason, then R2 flies across the factory and saves Padme from death).

It’s fun and all, but if you cut the scene out of the movie little changes. All the heroes are captured in the end, C-3PO has his head cut off, Anakin loses a lightsaber (but gains more sabers later), but that’s all that happens.

As I understand it, this scene didn’t really exist in the original draft. It was an impromptu decision to have all these shenanigans added in, and it kinda shows in how it happens so suddenly. It’s technically impressive how the actors performed on an all-green studio and the VFX artists literally painted the factory around them—it looks really sharp and real at times.

The problem is, for the amount of time this goes on the story doesn’t move forward at all. No new character beats are established (other than maybe showing more of Anakin’s recklessness). The film teases us a few times, almost to the point of pranking us—we’re teased that Anakin might lose his hand (but doesn’t) and that Padme might be killed with lava (which the editing makes you gasp when it seems like it happens, but doesn’t—very mean trick there, George). You could argue that the scene shows us how droids are made, but we’ve already seen that briefly when Obi-Wan first landed on the planet. So…what’s the point again?

The Shroud of the Dark Side Has Fallen

There are a few other specific things that bug me in this movie.

• Count Dooku is a strange villain to reconcile. I can't fault Christopher Lee, or the decision to cast him, because he's absolutely delicious to watch in this role, and fresh in the zeitgeist thanks to his simultaneous appearance as Saruman. I suspect Lucas penned Dooku as a deliberate callback to Lee's role as Count Dracula in the 70s (because think about it: Dracula, Dooku, both are counts, and behind the scenes Lucas pulled out a vampire Yoda statue for a laugh). When reading the novelization for Revenge of the Sith, I was intrigued to see Dooku portrayed as a pompous, elitist kind of person who looked down on Anakin and other characters. I feel like this is what he's supposed to be, but none of these characteristics come through in the films. His motivations are never revealed (other than he works for Sidious). He spends most of the movies looking rigid, says a few evil things, and fights a few times. That's it. I wish there was more action or dialogue that revealed his character more.
• In the same light as the above, there is an odd scene where Dooku interrogates Obi-Wan, and he says some cryptic (possibly untrue things) and tries to turn Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. This should be a significant moment, same as Vader tempting Luke. It falls completely flat, and the dialogue always confused me. It doesn't help that the delivery is so bland.
• Did I really need to see Dex pulling his pants up?
• Anakin joy-riding a fat-bottomed cow creature. It was a cheesy, weird, cringey scene in 2002, and remains so today.
• R2-D2 and his rockets. R2 is a good character and all, but I did not need to see him take flight and whiz around like he did. In a way, it feels like a shortcut for him to traverse the droid factory.
• When Padme and Anakin kiss finally, this serious, romantic moment is interrupted by a high-pitched “hiyah!” from a droid. This is the kind of nonsense that makes the prequel sound design grating, because I can’t stop laughing at this random “hiyah!” moment.
• Same thing happens when Count Dooku takes off in his sailboat thing. The droid pilot says some nonsense that sounds like “yippie hayo horsey.” That kind of phrasing can’t be unheard, and once again I can’t stop laughing.

Funny thing is, the more I think back on the movie and write about it the more I admire it. Action scenes may be frivolous, but they are ambitious and exciting. Acting and writing may be janky, but the overall story has an appealing structure. For every bland or cringey aspect, there is something else that’s kind of awesome.

There are many missed opportunities with this film, but what we have is an interesting piece of pulp science fantasy that delivers a few spectacles we had never seen before. I might always admire the film for its finale, even if the build-up to it is a confusing slog.

Well, it’s Star Wars all the same and the movie does succeed in lining things up for a promising third film.

They'll keep fighting, and they'll win!