The fandom surrounding the franchise was just as loud and mean as the critics, if not more so. RELATED: Kumail Nanjiani Details His Obi-Wan Kenobi Character Critics aren’t there to destroy the arts, but behavior like this crosses a line when it bypasses constructive criticism of a film and goes straight to the written equivalent of attacking a movie in a back alley with a box full of razor blades. While these people are paid to critique films and other media, there is a world of difference between tactfully pointing out that an actor’s performance wasn’t great and trying to massacre the actual actor themselves. The romance between Christensen and Natalie Portman was lauded as one of the worst parts of the movie, with critics saying that they seemed “to fall around like clumsy mannequins without any facial expressions or real emotion.” His choice to leave Hollywood after the filming of the prequels ended is easily justifiable, with a handful of mostly independent features filling out his résumé until Obi-wan commenced filming. “Dud” and “sullen and snotty” were thrown around, and “an annoying teenager who can’t act” was particularly critical. Unfortunately, Christensen barely fared better than his Phantom Menace predecessor, with critics attacking not just his performance, but him personally. It’s no wonder that Jake Lloyd quit acting, after having his performance “poetically” described as “pure torture … like having my testicles in a vice grip.” A performance, by a child, that was so reviled that several reviews of Attack of the Clones brought it up again to really twist the knife in as far as it could go. It’s another digital cartoon with awful dialogue, weak performances.” It’s not hard to see why Ewan McGregor has publicly stated he almost quit the franchise, despite his role being one of two that was even semi-consistently praised, the other being the late Christopher Lee.įranchise newcomer Hayden Christensen’s turn as Anakin Skywalker came hot off the heels of Jake Lloyd’s performance of the character in The Phantom Menace three years earlier. The most profane one, from a professional critic, read “ Attack of the Clones is shit with a capital SH. “A tale full of sound and fury, sucking the life out of cinema” and “It may be going too far to say it’s a movie at all” are harsh, but “falls to new depths of narrative incoherence, torturous banality, and acting incompetence” might be the sharpest of all. MORE: The MCU’s Problem With Tackling Mental Healthĭelving into the archives of the internet, I pulled a few choice quotes from critics, circa 2002, about the movie’s initial release. While there are valid reasons for this change of heart, it also doesn’t excuse the behavior nor dim the light that the premiere shone on not just the Star Wars fandom, but pop culture toxicity as a whole. Fans are crawling out of the woodwork, and have quietly been doing so for years, to praise the actors, the score, the plot, and just about everything in the movie, even the CGI. Now, several members of the cast are set to reprise their iconic roles for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series on Disney+, and the atmosphere couldn’t be more different. When it premiered, Attack of the Clones was slammed by vocal critics and loud members of the public alike, derided as being the new worst Star Wars movie, with vitriol thrown in the faces of cast and crew alike. However, there are few films whose reception has changed so drastically from when they were first released as Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. From would-be blockbusters that were unable to stand the test of time to hidden gems brought into the limelight, it’s almost impossible to guess a film’s legacy from its inception. The public’s reception to many movies changes after 20 years of hindsight.
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