SW E2: Attack of the Clones

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/news/2001/08/news20010806.html for the
full slightly spoilered story behind this title.

Attack of the clones ?????

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Apparently so. I thought the Phantom Menace was a dodgy title when they
announced it, but that is really really poor. Why don't they just call it
"Episode II - Invasion of the Saucermen" and have done with it?

Andy
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07968 357 854

Nah, you want "Episode II - Attack of the killer clones from outer space"

Is this a case of "clones, send in the clones, where are the
clones..."

Daniel

"attack of the killer cloned Tomatoes from outer space" sounds even better

But that's the roots of starwars. Pulp Sci-fi. It's just
done with a larger budget.

Besides let's look at the other "good" titles objectively:

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi

Frankly they're the same. Slightly cheesy titles that
you'd expect from Buck Rogers or Dan Dare...

See ya,

Adam

True A New Hope isn't much good, but The Empire Stikes Back and Return of
the Jedi are pretty evocative titles. I would suggest The Clone Assault as
an alternative title, but I'm sure someone else could do better. Attack of
the Clones is just bland.

Andy
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07968 357 854

On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Andrew Wren wrote:
Not entirely sure where the spoiler is - we've known since ANH that there
was a Clone War. And TPM's timeline meant that it was going to be either #2
or #3.
I like the idea of "The Clone Wars" - but I guess using the word "Wars"
again would lead to ridicule.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/news/2001/08/news20010806.html
The Spoiler related to the plot synopsis contained within and not the title. Someone
would have moaned.

IIRC at one pt in SW fan mythology the Stormtroopers were meant to be clones.

Then there was the Boba Fett is the last surviving clone rumour. But there's been so much
rot written about Boba Fett it's untrue......

Palpatine is using clones at the time of "Dark Empire" btw, which is as close to SW Cannon
as you can get without being a film. And there's the Spaarti Cylinders in the Heir to
the Empire Trilogy - a relic of the clone wars that came into the Emperor's possesion ?

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Philip Ayres
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Wren" <andy@>
To: "chat" <chat@>
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 12:05 PM
Subject: RE: SW E2: Attack of the Clones
Let us not forget the Revenge of the Jedi title for Episode IV
The Title seems to have been chosen very early compared with E1:TPM
Maybe another attempt to spoil the people who produce fake merchandise day
with a last minute name change

Jon

Well that's what they were saying about the Phantom Menace. There were all
sorts of titles floating about, but once the Phantom Menace was officially
announced they stuck to it. I don't think this title is going to change.

Andy
_____________________
andy@
www.knightsofni.freeserve.co.uk
07968 357 854

These are only evocative because you have all the associated
imagery associated with the earlier starwars films.

Stripped bare of all that, I'd say there is very little
difference between:

The Empire strikes Back

and

Attack of the Clones

Both evoke images of 50's pulp sci-fi, yes it's cheesy but
frankly it's fun.

Cheers,

Adam

You're forgetting that at the time the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the
Jedi were released, the Empire and the Jedi were already known to us. To the
best of my knowledge we haven't seen a clone yet, let alone a clone army.

Anyway, I know its only a film, but I'm ill at home today and I feel like
moaning about something :-).

Andy

If you are talking about "Mars Attacks!" or something similar,
then yes, you are right. Like "Barbarella" or "Flash Gordon", the
whole thing is one big sendup of itself. These three are films
I enjoy a lot.


Humour, though, is the hardest thing to get right. And let us
look at the latest offerings. The seventies films don't really
count, as they are not sendups, but altogether more self-important,
with their moral messages about Redemption and about The Force.
Total overblown hokum, but honest hokum.


So let's look at tPM. TPM does have '50s pulp elements, yes. Going
through them:-

Jar-Jar Binks was the Comic Relief. He was also an offensively
stereotyped rastafarian. I guess it's just me, but the humour
was lost on me, and the racism wasn't. I hated this character,
and despised the scriptwriters for including him.

Which brings me on to Watto. He's mean, he's callous and heartless,
and he's cowardly. He's also beyond the reach of the primary
spiritual and religious forces of the story. And, if you can't
spot it by listening to his voice, look at that nose. What does
that add up to? Are we allowed to say "anti-semitism"? Another
offensive racist stereotype please, Bob.

And the guys that did the original attack? The evil Trade
Federation look like ... no wait ... cardboard cut-out Japanese.
Why not call them "The Yellow Peril" and be done with it?

But enough with the racism. '50s pulp goes for hokey science
in a big way. Like that "midichlorian" bull. Well, '50s pulp
should at least nod to internal logic: and so what do we have? Is
it a bug (or boug) that lives inside people and communicates
between them to create The Force. So the action-at-a-distance
problem of the Force has been "explained" by making it an occult
power possessed by bacteria instead of an occult power possessed
by humans. How's that again? Did I miss something?


I could go on (as most of you will know). The fact is that tPM
was a sh!t film saved only by the fact that it was part of a
bigger story that has mostly been all right. The script was hokey
and relied on a mechanism that a four-year-old child could have
spotted; er, George, the princess-dressed-as-servant thing has
been done before.

"Clone Attack" says to me that the people that wrote the title
better not have anything to do with the script. But tPM says
to me that they will ... again. So that'll be more flat humour,
duff pseudoscience, annoying comic relief and blatant racist
stereotypes. I'm so excited. I can't wait.

But no doubt Lucas will get richer, because it'll be a huge box
office smash.


The effects will be good, though. So most people will enjoy it.

And, with luck, Wierd Al will get something good out of it.

---

Coffee-House Misanthrope Simon
(Who didn't enjoy Phantom Menace, in case you're wondering. :-) )


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