May 8, 2002

Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
(20th Century Fox) Rated PG
Release Date - May 16, 2002

The first big action sequence of the film is so remarkably well made that it made me wonder whether LucasFilm effects people are really THAT much better than everyone else (read: Dykstra’s Spider-Man CG team).  The way Lucas did it, the characters and their surroundings always had real weight and velocity and movement.  It never felt fake, at least not as effects work.  (Jeff Wells will rail against some of the action choices Lucas made… but discussing George Lucas with Jeff is impossible.  Anything positive is someone else’s fault and anything bad is more evidence against the convicted.)  Later in the film, there is some slightly weak work in the “Coliseum Sequence,” where characters jumping on and off of CG animals and vehicles look like they came out of a Harryhausen movie.  But that is a minor thing in light of the breathtaking work throughout the movie.  There really hasn’t been a film yet as sophisticated visually as The Phantom Menace and this one feels like another 50 percent improvement.