Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones


Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space-opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the second installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the fifth film to be produced, and the second film in the "Skywalker saga". It stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Frank Oz. Set ten years after the events in ', the galaxy is on the brink of civil war, with thousands of planetary systems threatening to secede from the Galactic Republic. After Senator Padmé Amidala evades an assassination attempt, Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker becomes her protector, while his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi investigates the attempt on her life. Soon, the trio witness the onset of a new threat to the galaxy: the Clone Wars.
Development of Attack of the Clones began in March 2000, some months after the release of The Phantom Menace. By June 2000, Lucas and Hales completed a draft of the script, and principal photography took place from June to September 2000. The film crew primarily shot at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia, with additional footage filmed in Tunisia, Spain, and Italy. It was one of the first motion pictures shot completely on a high-definition digital 24-frame system.
The film was released in the United States on May 16, 2002. It received mixed reviews, with some critics hailing it as an improvement over its predecessor The Phantom Menace and others considering it the worst installment of the franchise. The film was praised for an increased emphasis on action, visual effects, musical score, and costume design but heavily criticized for the screenplay, Christensen's performance, romantic scenes, overabundance of CGI and green screen and underdeveloped characters. It performed well in the box office, making over $653 million worldwide; however, it also became the first Star Wars film to be outgrossed in its year of release, placing third domestically and fourth-highest-grossing worldwide. The third and final film of the prequel trilogy, ', was released in 2005.

Plot

The Galactic Republic is threatened by a Separatist movement organized by former Jedi Master Count Dooku. Senator Padmé Amidala comes to Coruscant to vote on a motion to create an army to assist the Jedi against the threat. Narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt upon her arrival, she is placed under the protection of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker. The two Jedi thwart a second attempt on her life and subdue the assassin, Zam Wesell, who is killed by her employer, a bounty hunter, before revealing his identity. The Jedi Council instructs Obi-Wan to find the bounty hunter, while Anakin is tasked to protect Padmé and escort her back to Naboo, where he expresses his romantic feelings for her.
Obi-Wan's investigation leads him to the mysterious ocean planet of Kamino, where he discovers an army of clones being produced for the Republic in a deceased Jedi's name, with bounty hunter Jango Fett serving as their genetic template. Obi-Wan deduces Jango to be the bounty hunter he is seeking, and after a brief battle, places a homing beacon on Jango's ship, the Slave I. Obi-Wan then follows Jango and his clone son, Boba, to the planet Geonosis. Meanwhile, Anakin is troubled by visions of his mother, Shmi, in pain and decides to head to Tatooine with Padmé to save her. Watto reveals that he sold Shmi to moisture farmer Cliegg Lars, who then freed and married her. Cliegg tells Anakin that she was abducted by Tusken Raiders weeks earlier and was likely dead. Anakin ventures out and discovers Shmi at the Tusken campsite, still barely alive, but she dies in his arms. Enraged, Anakin massacres the tribe. He later declares to Padmé that he will find a way to prevent the deaths of those he loves.
On Geonosis, Obi-Wan discovers a Separatist gathering led by Count Dooku, who is developing a droid army with Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. Obi-Wan transmits his findings to the Jedi Council, but is subdued by Separatist droids. Senate Representative Jar Jar Binks proposes a vote to grant emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine, where the successful outcome allows the clone army to be authorized. Anakin and Padmé pursue to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, but are captured by Jango. Dooku sentences the trio to death, but they are saved by a battalion of clone troopers led by Yoda, Mace Windu, and other Jedi. Windu beheads Jango during the ensuing chaos. Obi-Wan and Anakin intercept Dooku, and the three engage in a lightsaber battle. Dooku injures Obi-Wan and severs Anakin's right arm, but Yoda intercepts and defends them. Dooku uses Force powers to distract Yoda and flees to Coruscant, where he delivers information for a super-weapon to his Sith master, Darth Sidious. As the Jedi acknowledge the beginning of the Clone Wars, Anakin is fitted with a robotic hand and secretly marries Padmé on Naboo with and R2-D2 as witnesses.

Cast

E! reported that Lucas had asked NSYNC to film a small background cameo appearance, in order to satisfy his daughters. They were subsequently cut out of the film in post-production. The end credits erroneously list Alan Ruscoe as playing Neimoidian senator Lott Dod. The character was actually another Neimoidian, played by an uncredited David Healey and voiced by Christopher Truswell.

Production

Writing

After the mixed critical response to The Phantom Menace, Lucas was hesitant to return to the writing desk. In March 2000, just three months before the start of principal photography, Lucas finally completed his rough draft for Episode II. Lucas continued to iterate on his rough draft, producing a proper first and second draft. For help with the third draft, which would later become the shooting script, Lucas brought on Jonathan Hales, who had written several episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for him, but had limited experience writing theatrical films. The final script was completed just one week before the start of principal photography.
As an in-joke, the film's working title was Jar Jar's Great Adventure, a sarcastic reference to the negative fan response to the character.
In writing The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas initially decided that Lando Calrissian was a clone and came from a planet of clones which caused the "Clone Wars" mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope; he later came up with an alternate concept of an army of clone shocktroopers from a remote planet which were used by the Republic as an army in the war that followed.

Filming

Principal photography occurred between June 26, 2000 and September 20, 2000 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney. Location shooting took place in the Tunisian desert, at the Plaza de España in Seville, London, China, Vancouver, San Diego, and Italy. At his own personal request, Samuel L. Jackson's character Mace Windu received a lightsaber that emits a purple glow, as opposed to traditional blue and green for "good guys" and red for "bad guys". Reshoots were performed in March 2001. During this time, a new action sequence was developed featuring the droid factory after Lucas had decided that the film lacked a quick enough pace in the corresponding time-frame. The sequence's previsualization was rushed, and the live-action footage was shot within four and a half hours. Because of Lucas' method of creating shots through various departments and sources that are sometimes miles and years apart from each other, Attack of the Clones became the first film ever to be produced through what Rick McCallum called "virtual filmmaking".
Like The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones furthered technological development, effectively moving Hollywood into the "digital age" with the use of the HDW-F900, developed by Sony and Panavision, a digital camera using an HD digital 24-frame system. This spawned controversy over the benefits and disadvantages of digital cinematography that continues as more filmmakers "convert" to digital filmmaking while many filmmakers oppose it. In contrast to previous installments, for which scenes were shot in the Tunisian desert in temperatures up to 125 °F, the camera would still run without complications. Lucas had stated that he wished to film The Phantom Menace on this format but Sony was unable to build the cameras quickly enough. In 2002, Attack of the Clones became the third film to be released that was shot entirely on a 24p digital camera. The cameras record in the HDCAM format, although the image was cropped to a 2.40:1 widescreen ratio. The area above and below the 2.40 extraction area was available for Lucas to reframe the picture as necessary in post-production.
Despite Lucas' efforts to persuade movie theaters to switch to digital projectors for viewing of Episode II, few theaters did.

Visual effects

The film relied almost solely on digital animatics as opposed to storyboards in order to previsualize sequences for editing early on in the film's production. While Lucas had used other ways of producing motion-based storyboards in the past, after The Phantom Menace the decision was made to take advantage of the growing digital technology. The process began with Ben Burtt's creation of what the department dubbed as "videomatics", so called because they were shot on a household videocamera. In these videomatics, production assistants and relatives of the department workers acted out scenes in front of greenscreen. Using computer-generated imagery, the previsualization department later filled in the green screen with rough background footage. Burtt then cut together this footage and sent it off to Lucas for changes and approval. The result was a rough example of what the final product was intended to be. The previsualization department then created a finer version of the videomatic by creating an animatic, in which the videomatic actors, props, and sets were replaced by digital counterparts to give a more precise, but still rough, look at what would eventually be seen. The animatic was later brought on set and shown to the actors so that they could understand the concept of the scene they were filming in the midst of the large amount of bluescreen used. Unlike most of the action sequences, the Battle of Geonosis was not story-boarded or created through videomatics but was sent straight to animatics after the department received a small vague page on the sequence. The intent was to create a number of small events that would be edited together for pacing inside the finished film. The animatics department was given a free hand regarding events to be created within the animatic; Lucas only asked for good action shots that he could choose from and approve later.
In addition to introducing the digital camera, Attack of the Clones emphasized "digital doubles" as computer-generated models that doubled for actors, in the same way that traditional stunt doubles did. It also furthered the authenticity of computer-generated characters by introducing a new, completely CGI-created version of the character Yoda. Rob Coleman and John Knoll prepared two tests featuring a CGI-animated Yoda using audio from The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda's appearance in Episode V also served as the reference point for the creation of the CGI Yoda; Lucas repeatedly stated to the animation department that "the trick" to the animation of the CGI Yoda was to make him like the puppet from which he was based, in order to maintain a flow of continuity. Frank Oz was consulted; his main piece of advice was that Yoda should look extremely old, sore, and frigid. Coleman later explained the process of making the digital Yoda like the puppet version, by saying "When Frank would move the head, the ears would jiggle. If we hadn't put that in, it wouldn't look like Yoda." Because of the acrobatics of the lightsaber fight between Count Dooku and Yoda, the then 78-year-old Christopher Lee relied on a stunt double to perform the most demanding scenes instead. Lee's face was superimposed onto the double's body in all shots other than close-ups, which he performed himself. Lucas often called the duel crucial to the animation department, as it had such potential to be humorous rather than dramatic.

Music

The soundtrack to the film was released on April 23, 2002 by Sony Classical Records. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Voices and London Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack recreates "The Imperial March" from the film The Empire Strikes Back for its first chronological appearance in Attack of the Clones, even though a hint of it appeared in the previous movie in one of the final scenes. A music video for the main theme "Across the Stars" was produced specifically for the DVD.
On March 15, 2016, a limited edition vinyl version of the soundtrack was released. Only 1,000 copies were pressed initially.

Themes

Lucas has noted that Palpatine's rise to power is very similar to that of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany; as Chancellor of Germany, the latter was granted emergency powers, as is Palpatine. Comparisons have been made to Octavian—who became Augustus, the first emperor of Rome—and to Napoleon Bonaparte, who rose to power in France from 1796 to 1799. Octavian was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of political opponents well before he was granted tribunician powers; Bonaparte was appointed First Consul for life by the French Consulate after a failed attempt on his life and the subsequent coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799. References to the American Civil War can also be discerned.
War journalism, combat films, and footage of World War II combat influenced the documentary-style camera work of the Battle of Geonosis, even to the point that hand-held shakes were digitally added to computer-generated sequences.
English scholar Anne Lancashire describes Attack of the Clones as "thoroughly political in its narrative", to the point that interpersonal relations are made subordinate to the political drama that unfolds, and "a critique of the increasing role played by economic and political appetite in contemporary First World international politics in general". In this political drama, the Trade Federation, the former idealist Dooku, and Palpatine " the economic and political greed and ambition... of the political and business classes", while the intuition of the Jedi has been clouded by the dark side of the Force. The cityscape of Coruscant, the location of the Jedi Temple, is a dystopian environment that references 1982's Blade Runner. Nevertheless, the Jedi endure as the heroes; Obi-Wan's role has been noted as similar to that of James Bond, and Zam Wesell's attempt on Padmé's life is similar to a scene in the first 007 film, Dr. No.
The prequel trilogy films often refer to the original trilogy in order to help connect the films together. Lucas has often referred to the films as a long poem that rhymes. Such examples include the line "I have a bad feeling about this", a phrase used in each film, and lightsaber duels which almost always occur over a pit. As with Attack of the Clones, The Empire Strikes Back was the middle film in a trilogy, and of the original trilogy films, The Empire Strikes Back is the object of the most references in Attack of the Clones. In both films, an asteroid field is the backdrop of a major star battle in the middle of the film. Obi-Wan escapes Jango Fett by attaching his spacecraft to an asteroid in order to disappear from the enemy sensors; Han Solo uses a similar tactic by attaching the Millennium Falcon to a Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back. As a retcon, John Knoll confirms on the film's DVD commentary that Boba Fett, who would later catch Solo in the act in The Empire Strikes Back, "learned his lesson" from the events of Attack of the Clones.

Release

After a teaser trailer premiered with the film Monsters, Inc., a new trailer for the film aired on the Fox Network on March 10, 2002 between Malcolm in the Middle and The X-Files, then on March 15, 2002 with Ice Age in theatres and was made available on the official Star Wars web site the same day. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas from Chicago predicted before the film's release that U.S. companies could lose more than $319 million in productivity due to employees calling in sick and then heading to theaters to see the film.
The film premiered as part of the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival at the BMCC Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St. in New York City at a Sunday, May 12 set of screenings benefitting the Children's Aid Society, a charity supported by George Lucas. Attack of the Clones was then screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, before getting a worldwide theatrical release on May 16, 2002. The film was also later released in IMAX theaters; the film had not been filmed for IMAX but was "up converted" with the digital remastering process. Because of the technical limitations of the IMAX projector, an edited, 120-minute version of the film was presented.
Before the film's release, there was a string of controversies regarding copyright infringement. In 2000, an underground organization calling itself the Atlas Group, based in Perth, Western Australia offered a copy of the screenplay, with an asking price of US$100,000, to various fan sites and media organizations, including TheForce.Net. The scheme was subsequently reported to Lucasfilm Ltd. by the fan site.
An unauthorized copy was allegedly made at a private showing, using a digital recorder that was pointed at the screen. This copy spread over the internet, and analysts predicted up to a million fans would have seen the film before the day of its release. In addition, authorities seized thousands of bootlegs throughout Kuala Lumpur before the film opened.

Home media

Attack of the Clones was released on DVD and VHS on November 12, 2002. The DVD features an audio commentary from director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor and sound designer Ben Burtt, ILM animation director Rob Coleman, and ILM visual effects supervisors Pablo Helman, John Knoll, and Ben Snow. Eight deleted scenes are included along with multiple documentaries, which include a full-length documentary about the creation of digital characters and two others that focus on sound design and the animatics team. Three featurettes examine the storyline, action scenes, and love story, and a set of 12 short web documentaries cover the overall production of the film.
The Attack of the Clones DVD also features a trailer for a mockumentary-style short film known as R2-D2: Beneath the Dome. Some stores offered the full mockumentary as an exclusive bonus disc for a small extra charge. The film gives an alternate look at the "life" of the droid R2-D2. The story, which Lucas approved, was meant to be humorous.
The film was re-released in a prequel trilogy DVD box set on November 4, 2008.
The six-film Star Wars saga was released on Blu-ray Disc on September 16, 2011 in three different editions.
On April 7, 2015, Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, and Lucasfilm jointly announced the digital releases of the six released Star Wars films. Attack of the Clones was released through the iTunes Store, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, and Disney Movies Anywhere on April 10, 2015.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment reissued Attack of the Clones on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on September 22, 2019. Additionally, all six films were available for 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos streaming on Disney+ upon the service's launch on November 12, 2019. This version of the film was released by Disney on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 31, 2020.

3D re-release

On, it was announced that all six films in the series were to be stereo-converted to 3D, and re-released in chronological order beginning with The Phantom Menace which was released on. Attack of the Clones was originally scheduled to be re-released in 3D on, but was postponed due to Lucasfilm's desire to focus on . However, the 3D presentation of the film was first shown at Celebration Europe II from July 26 to 28, 2013.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% based on 253 reviews, with an average rating of 6.59/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones benefits from an increased emphasis on thrilling action, although they're once again undercut by ponderous plot points and underdeveloped characters." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 54 out of 100, based on 39 critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Numerous critics characterized the dialogue as "stiff" and "flat". The acting was also disparaged by some critics. Conversely, other critics felt fans would be pleased to see that Jar Jar Binks has only a minor role. Additionally, Jar Jar's attempts at comic relief seen in The Phantom Menace were toned down; instead, C-3PO reprised some of his bumbling traditions in that role. McGregor referred to the swordplay in the film as "unsatisfactory" when comparing it to the climactic duel in ' as it neared release. ReelViews.net's James Berardinelli gave a positive review, saying "in a time when, more often than not, sequels disappoint, it's refreshing to uncover something this high-profile that fulfills the promise of its name and adds another title to a storied legacy."
Roger Ebert, who had praised the previous Star Wars films, gave Episode II only two out of four stars, noting " someone who admired the freshness and energy of the earlier films, I was amazed, at the end of Episode II, to realize that I had not heard one line of quotable, memorable dialogue." About Anakin and Padme's relationship, Ebert stated, "There is not a romantic word they exchange that has not long since been reduced to cliché." Leonard Maltin, who also liked all of the previous installments, also awarded two stars out of four to this endeavor as well, as seen in his Movie and Video Guide from the 2002 edition onward. Maltin cited an "overlong story" as reason for his dissatisfaction and added "Wooden characterizations and dialogue don't help."
Following suit with the series' previous installments, the Academy Awards nominated Attack of the Clones' Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll, and Ben Snow for Best Visual Effects at the 2003 Academy Awards, but the award ultimately went to '. Natalie Portman was also honored at the Teen Choice Awards, and the film received an award for Best Fight at the MTV Movie Awards. In contrast, the film also received seven nominations from the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Screen Couple and Worst Remake or Sequel. It took home two awards for Worst Screenplay and Worst Supporting Actor.

Box office

The film grossed $310,676,740 in North America and $338,721,588 overseas for a worldwide total of $649,398,328. Though a box office success, it was nevertheless overshadowed by the even greater box-office success of ' three years earlier. It was not the top-grossing film of the year, either in North America or worldwide, the first time that a Star Wars film did not have this distinction. In North America it was outgrossed by Spider-Man and ', both of which were more favorably received by critics. Worldwide, it was also outgrossed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Adjusted for inflation, Attack of the Clones is the lowest-performing live-action Star Wars film at the North American box office, though is still among the 100 highest-grossing films of all time when adjusted for inflation. It sold an estimated 52,012,300 tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run.

Accolades

Novelizations

Two novels based on the movie were published, a tie-in junior novel by Scholastic, and a novelization written by R. A. Salvatore, which includes some unique scenes. A four-issue comic book adaptation was written by Henry Gilroy and published by Dark Horse Comics.

Sequel

A sequel titled Revenge of the Sith was released May 19, 2005 and was written and directed by George Lucas.