Star SFX, flat story Yet Attack Of The Clones aims at wooing audiences

Suleman Din

George Lucas's latest addition to the Star Wars franchise, Attack Of The Clones, succeeds in providing riveting special effects and darkening the series' mood, but still falls flat in telling a compelling story.

If you are not a Jedi wannabe, if you cannot quote Harrison Ford's Han Solo, if you are not waiting in line already to see the movie, you will probably not get much of the references in the film, or understand the significance of certain characters and events. It will be a visual treat alone.

The reason is the first prequel, The Phantom Menace, was a critical flop, and many devoted Star Wars fans became disillusioned with Lucas.

Its characters, like the annoying, patois-speaking Jar-Jar Binks and a precocious nine-year-old (Jake Lloyd) playing Anakin Skywalker, angered loyal fans, who felt the film series was turned into a laughable excuse to push merchandise.

This fifth instalment of Star Wars is squarely aimed at winning them back.

For instance, when Obi-Wan Kenobi (played again by Ewan McGregor) tells Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) cynically that one day, Anakin will be the death of him, fans will laugh knowingly, because indeed Skywalker will kill him as Darth Vader in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

Or later when Kenobi, inside a bar, uses a Jedi mind trick on a hapless drug dealer and then slashes off the arm of his would-be assailant, fans coo as they are reminded again of Alec Guinness' stately, collected Kenobi from A New Hope.

All this cross-referencing, in fact, is part of the Star Wars mythos --- the idea of life and events recurring in cycles, tied together by fate and the Force. After a while, it strikes the viewer as unoriginal, contrived attempts to connect with the good feelings associated with the original movies. At times, it is repetitive.

Worse, there is the wooden dialogue characteristic of Star Wars movies, and no Ford to make it work. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the love scenes between Christensen and former princess Padme (Natalie Portman).

There is no passion between them, though their relationship is supposed to be forbidden love. Their lines ("I'm haunted by the kiss you never should have given me"), will make the film's largely teen male audiences laugh rather than empathise.

But fans, surely, will not be too concerned about such flaws. This episode represents the turning point in Anakin's life, when he begins his slide toward the Dark Side that will eventually take the Republic and Jedi order with him.

Ten years older, Anakin is almost an adult, full of ambition and hormones. He whines about the restrictions Kenobi has put on him, much like a teenager vexes against an early curfew. Whether it is because the way the character was written, or because of Christensen's portrayal, Anakin will be widely trounced by fans and critics alike.

Which makes one wonder whether this is intentional --- maybe we are not supposed to like him anyways, since he does become Darth Vader.

Fans will also appreciate the tying up of loose ends in the mythology --- the movie covers the origin of Boba Fett, the origin of the Imperial Storm Troopers, the origin of the Death Star and Christopher Lee's Count Dooku, who shows off Jedi powers unseen in any previous Star Wars movie.

The highlights of the film include when Anakin stumbles into the Dark Side, slaughtering the tribe of Sand People who kidnap his mother. And there are two awesome battles between Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson) and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) and Count Dooku.

Yoda's mastery of the Force is the one thing in the movie everyone will talk about --- he is almost invincible. He wields a lightsaber like a cheetah on acid, and it gives the audience something to yell about.

The movie starts with an assassination attempt on Padme's life that destroys her ship and kills her decoy. Another assassination attempt leads into the first of the movie's well-done chase-battle-action sequences.

More such action sequences carry the film. In typical Star Wars fashion, the movie leads up to a riveting climactic battle, combining elements from all the previous films.

Lucas must thank his lucky stardrives for Industrial Light and Magic --- without their always impressive digital wizardry, the movie would have little else to offer.