The Digital Bits: In what way is Attack of the Clones a significant motion picture?
Danley: It represents George Lucas’ forward-thinking perhaps more than any of his other films. While Clones may be lacking to some when viewed singularly, the groundwork it laid in terms of storytelling and filmmaking trends remains critical to the Star Wars franchise and the wider contemporary blockbuster landscape.
Miller: The answer is simple: Because of its technology—both in the rendering of visual effects, and the advent of digital cinematography, thanks to George Lucas investing his own money to advance the digital frontier. Clones pioneered being shot with a high-definition digital 24-frame system. Additionally, Lucas continued to show the vastness of his imagination, showing the world that whatever the mind conceived, it could be accomplished. Compare, for example, the Federation Council in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) with the vast Galactic Senate in Star Wars: Episode II.
In time, other studios—such as Weta in New Zealand—would apply digital technologies to enhance their own productions. Today, effects-laden films can be taken for granted. Any environment is digitally possible. What really matters is, do we care about the characters inhabiting those environments?
To accommodate the 3D craze of the early 2010s, Lucasfilm made 3D versions of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. The 3D Phantom Menace, given general release, earned below expectations at the box office. The 3D Attack of the Clones was, to the best of my knowledge, screened only at two Star Wars conventions: Celebration Europe II on November 7, 2003, and Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, April 16, 2015. (Revenge of the Sith, like Attack of the Clones, was screened in 3D only at Star Wars Celebration conventions and not given a commercial release.)
The Digital Bits: Did you experience Attack of the Clones in 35mm, Digital Cinema, in the IMAX re-issue, or on a home-media format?
Woloski: As a completist, I experienced Attack of the Clones in all available formats. (I had a friend who got a pirated copy and watched it for the first time on her computer which I refused to do. She is a friend no longer.) The IMAX version that came out in November of 2002 was mind blowing! This was my first IMAX film and I was amazed at the sheer volume of the screen. It was like seeing it for the first time again.
Danley: I never got to see it projected digitally, though in hindsight I wish I had. Even though our local theater was showing a 35mm print, there was still a discernible difference in the image when compared to The Phantom Menace. It somehow simultaneously felt softer yet sharper. I was also able to catch it in IMAX that fall at the Universal City CityWalk Cinemas, which was an epic experience where the runtime limitations of the format actually benefited the movie quite a bit! It was a leaner, meaner, adrenaline-filled (and admittedly overstimulating) moviegoing excursion. I would truly, deeply love to relive it someday. Recreating the then state-of-the-art DVD experience was a recent delightful trip down memory lane. It still holds up surprisingly well!
Woloski: Attack of the Clones was the last film I bought on VHS and the first film I bought on DVD. The DVD format was far superior but I wasn’t ready to let go of the VHS legacy that had gone back to 1982.
The Digital Bits: Do you have a favorite scene or sequence?
Miller: The duel between Yoda and Count Dooku. Finally, we get to see the little green guy cut loose! Size matters not!
Woloski: Whenever I need a taste of Star Wars I go to Attack of the Clones, and scrub right for the Geonosian arena/Clone Wars sequence. Being a creature fan, I love the threat of the nexu, reek and acklay as they approach our heroes tied to columns. I cheered as Lucas paid homage to stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen in the shot where the crab-like acklay was trying to stab Obi-Wan with its massive claws.
Danley: The rain-soaked brawl between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett was a longtime standout scene for me, though my favorite moment is and always will be the shot of the multitude of Jedi charging across the arena floor to take on the legion of battle droids. To see that many lightsabers ignited and in action at once was something fans could only dream of at that point. In 2002 it became a reality in the most cinematic fashion.
Woloski: Lucas also paid homage to his friend Steven Spielberg in the shooting style in the battle of the clones versus the battle droids where he would use zooms instead of an insert cut or dolly shot. We saw this documentary style in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Then the smoky shots where you could mainly see the bright blue and red laser bolts firing from clone troopers and battle droids. I could go on and on as to why I love this sequence.
The Digital Bits: Where do you think Attack of the Clones ranks among the Saga?
Danley: Saga-wide rankings have never worked out for me personally, but I’ll say that I’ve only grown fonder of each prequel after revisiting the first two as they hit these two-decade milestones. I’d still rank Episode I above II and will have to see where III lands in 2025.
Miller: How can I choose between the stupidity of Jar Jar Binks in Episode I, and the awkward relationship between Anakin and Padmé, clunky storytelling and paradigm shift in Episode II, and the despair of Episode III? Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I have little desire to rewatch any of them. It’s the original trilogy—with George Lucas’ unspoiled-at-the-time original vision—that grabs my attention. No bait-and-switch for me. I prefer The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, not The Tragedy of Darth Vader.
Woloski: Personally, Attack of the Clones is near the top of the list when I rank the Star Wars Saga. I tend to root for the underdog and sing its praises when most fans talk negatively about it. There are so many reasons to love this film and the exciting sequences surely outweigh the scenes with questionable lines of dialogue. I believe Lucas and co-writer Jonathan Hales did a great job keeping the film planted in the Star Wars universe. And, John Williams’s Across the Stars is one of his best themes in not just a Star Wars film but in any of his soundtracks. This was also the theme to which my wife walked down the aisle in our wedding.
Miller: Considering all nine Skywalker films, and Rogue One, the original Star Wars trilogy remains the best, and of those three, the original Star Wars tops them all.
The Digital Bits: What do you think is the legacy of Attack of the Clones?
Danley: Its zaniness in style and boundary-pushing technological sandboxing make it truly stand out twenty years later.
Woloski: The legacy of Attack of the Clones is that it is the first major motion picture to be shot completely on digital and is the first movie exhibited in more than fifty theaters equipped with digital projection. But in the bigger picture it gave us the spin-off animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There’s only so much you can do in a feature and this series filled in seven seasons worth of great stories before the events of Revenge of the Sith. It is my hope that moving forward, Star Wars tales will play out in Disney+ series where narratives can be developed in long-form. There I said it!
The Digital Bits: Thank you—Stephen, Bob and Richard—for sharing your thoughts about Attack of the Clones on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.
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IMAGES:
Selected images copyright/courtesy IMP Awards, Los Angeles Times, Lucasfilm Ltd., 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company.
SOURCES/REFERENCES:
The primary references for this project were the motion picture Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox, 2002), regional newspaper coverage, trade reports published in Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety, and interviews conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS:
David Ayers, Stephen Danley, Mark Lensenmayer, W.R. Miller and Richard Woloski.
IN MEMORIAM
- Khan Bonfils (“Saesee Tiin”), 1972-2015
- Christopher Lee (“Count Dooku”), 1922-2015
- Aletha McGrath (“Madame Jocasta Nu”), 1920-2016
- Kenny Baker (“R2-D2”), 1934-2016
- Kenneth Wannberg (Supervising Music Editor), 1930-2022
- Michael Coate
Michael Coate can be reached via e-mail through this link. (You can also follow Michael on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)
