“Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” is not a film. Sure it raked millions of fans into theaters this summer, but not a single frame of George Lucas’ latest space adventure was recorded with celluloid on the brain. This makes the digital-to-digital DVD release of “Clones” the most stunning home display of picture and sound ever.
Mirroring the “Phantom Menace” release, “Clones” is a healthy two-disc set with more than six hours of insightful commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes and interviews.
Unfortunately, all is not well with Anakin Skywalker. When we last left him, the 9-year-old pod racer was about as bright-eyed and carefree as a galactic slave boy could be.
Now a decade has passed and Hayden Christensen’s (“Life as a House”) cocksure Skywalker is chaffing under the strict leadership of his Jedi mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by a reliable Ewan McGregor (“Moulin Rouge”).
Despite the ogle-worthy sky rise chases and swashbuckling saber duels, “Clones” is ultimately a love story. Anakin and Natalie Portman’s (“Beautiful Girls”) Senator Padme Amidala are reunited after an attempt on her life.
And wouldn’t you know it, our little Darth has sprouted like a weed. After all, we can’t have a puny Lord Vader, now can we?
“Ani?” Padme asks when she first sees him towering behind Obi-Wan. “My goodness, you’ve grown!”
“So have you,” stammers the monastic Jedi as he hits on a woman for the first time. “Grown more beautiful, I mean … for, for a senator, I mean.” It’s a humble start for the Jedi who, as legend has it, will save the universe.
Luke may be hip in a retro sort of way, but “Clones” proves once more “Star Wars” is in fact Anakin’s tragedy. And what a tragedy it is.
“In some ways … in a lot of ways, I’m ahead of him,” Anakin rants to Padme the first time his bearded master is out of earshot. “It’s worse. He’s overly critical. He never listens. He won’t let me move on!”
With a complex part made more so by the sheer number of actors who have contributed to it, Christensen is an adroit Anakin. He see-saws back and forth from rebellious, whiny adolescent to tortured soul whose emerging abilities bubble over in fits and spurts of remarkable bravura.
The teenage years always were the toughest.
Though a darker side is creeping in, Anakin is still the hero. But “Clones” pits his dedication to the Jedi Order squarely against his attachment to Padme’s love.
A study in the concept of evil, “Clones” blurs the lines between black and white. Here the future Darth Vader is consumed by love — for Obi-Wan, Padme, his mother — and if evil can love, and love is what makes us human, then what is evil? And most importantly, how does it begin?
“Clones” also fills huge gaps in the Star Wars mythos and solves many of the series’ mysteries. Most importantly, “Clones” manages to spin new ones. Why does Yoda hear the voice of fallen Jedi Master Gui-Gon Jinn while meditating on Anakin? And who ordered a clone army just before the events of “Phantom?”
With the Republic careening toward a brutal civil war and Chancellor Palpatine amassing power, Anakin and Padme are forced to choose sides. Fortunately for the galaxy, they choose each other.