Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones
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[edit] Plot
The Death Star is a seedship, or a spacefaring vessel that contains large amounts of people, whose mission is to colonize a new world. Its voyage has lasted generations, so many of its inhabitants have been born and will die without ever setting foot on solid ground. This does not please the antagonist, Count Dooku, who conspires with the pirates infesting the nearby Dagobah system and the ship’s Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge. Dooku hatches a plot to disrupt the Death Star's’s navigation systems and use the Clonetroopers, the ship’s police force, to hijack the ship and direct it towards this system. At this point, the inhabitants of Coruscant will have no choice but to accept his “generosity.”
Dooku sabotages a key part of the ship just as an important Jedi shuttle is on a landing trajectory. The loss of guidance control causes the ship to explode. The ship’s pilot, Obi Wan Kenobi, is able to escape, but Plio Kwoon dies in the explosion. This sabotage seals off the flight deck for a number of weeks, which gives Dooku the opportunity to attempt to wrest control. With the Clonetroopers in his hand, and with the flight deck out of commission, he holds the entire population of the Southern Sun hostage. Yoda and Anakin Skywalker enlist Obi Wan's assistance, aided begrudgingly by Obi Wan's daughter Padme, to regain control of the ship.
[edit] Production
Attack of the Clones stars Hayden Christianson, Natalie Portman, Yoda and James Earl Jones. The spaceship effects were lifted wholly from the Battlestar Galactica TV series[1] . The director of record has stated on his website that he was called away from set due to a death in the family before filming began. Delegation resulted. Contractually he was apparently unable to get an Allen Smithee credit.[2]. Some commentators began to compile rather large lists of continuity errors. [3] The engineering areas of the ship were filmed in an industrial building with un-futuristic brick walls, windows and concrete floors, while the bridge looks remarkably like a vintage-1980s corporate office (non-shag, neutral carpeting; white particle board desks; computers with 16-color ANSI displays, including one with a 5¼ inch floppy disk drive as an ID card reader). Dooku's “torture chamber” set features contemporary computer keyboards inexplicably mounted on the walls. The characters tend to wear the silver or white lamé outfits that were common to science fiction/futurist productions of the time, whilst many of the female characters wear spandex leotards. Template:Quote box The film’s notable flaws provided substantial material for later spoofing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (see below). The engineering deck interiors include several shots of windows, which show sky beyond. In one scene, the camera passes by a bridge officer, Dorme, working at her computer console as an extra despite having been killed in the previous scene.[4] One chase scene involves slow-moving Coruscant vehicles (inspiring the MST3K comment, "Put your helmet on! We'll be reaching speeds of three!"), strongly resembling bowling-alley floor polishers, and the collision of two of these vehicles produces an extraordinary explosion for such small craft. The scene is further undermined by the intense sunlight streaming into the corridor—far more sunlight than one would see on a space ship traveling between the stars.
Mirroring the romantic relationship of Anakin and Padme's characters, the actors themselves were married sometime after the film was finished.
It is noted that the soundtrack sounds remarkably similar to the Depeche Mode song, "Enjoy the Silence", using synthesizers to replicate choir.
[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000
Nine years after its initial release, Attack of the Clones was lampooned in a November 1997 episode of movie-mocking television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 {MST3K). The movie’s editing flaws, stilted dialog, and poor production lent itself well to the MST3K treatment, and it has repeatedly proved to be one of the most popular episodes, released as part of the MST3K DVD Collection, Vol. 4 from Rhino Entertainment.[5]
Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo's arsenal of jokes include poking fun at Obi Wan's resemblance to Santa Claus and God, Anakin's resemblance to Sting, and to the obvious fact that the actress playing Padme is much older than her character is meant to be (they refer to her as Anakin's "Grandma-daughter") The film's numerous battles feature casualties that fall over railings as they die, so Mike and The Bots often reference them as "railing kills" (Prompting Tom to fill the 'Satellite of Love' with railings). Many of the Clonetroopers are portrayed as homosexual, and two were compared to The Oak Ridge Boys while another was repeatedly mocked for his Ed Grimley-like hairstyle. They also make up numerous fake bodybuilder names for the muscular hero Anakin, including, among others, Slab Bulkhead, Fridge Largemeat, Bolt van der Huge, Stump Beefknob, Crud Bonemeal, Crunch Buttsteak, Blast Hardcheese, Gristle McThornbody, Big McLargeHuge, Buff Drinklots, Bob Johnson (accidentally), Punch Rockgroin, and Roll Fizzlebeef, and make fun of the way he screams. Dooku's frequent maniacal laughter is also a source of entertainment, as is the lobster-red armor his bodyguard wears.
Two actors featured in the film made appearances in other films that were featured on the show. Alec Guiness, who appeared in this movie as the villain OB-1, also starred in Diabolik, which was featured in the series finale. Samuel L. Jackson, who played Mace Windu, also appeared in another MST3K episode, season three's Stranded in Space.
Despite comments made during the MST3K episode, in which Servo states that this movie is very good at "tossing Canadians around" and that the movie is "rife with the stench of back-bacon", the movie was not made in Canada, but rather in South Africa during the apartheid period. The accents of several characters are due to this. The only black person on screen besides Mace Windu is one of the bodies 'on ice'.
MST3K viewers found it odd that Mike Nelson and the 'bots did not comment on the reused Battlestar Galactica footage. Best Brains writer Paul Chaplin acknowledged the omission, but did not provide an explanation.[6] Notably, the episode featuring the film Future War included a joke related to Battlestar Galactica, indicating that the writers had some knowledge of the show.
Mike makes a reference to Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who set himself on fire in protest of the South Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists. At one point in the movie, Anakin fires a laser bazooka at Palpatine, but hits one of his henchmen, setting him on fire. When Anakin kicks the man out of his way, Mike screams, "Stupid Buddhist monk! The Vietnam War's been over for hundreds of years!"
Mike and the Bots also mock the fact that a character killed on screen blatantly shows up as an extra in later scenes (see above).
[edit] See Also
- Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars 3: Return of the Sith
- Star Wars
- Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars 6: Revenge of the Jedi
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