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Attack of the Clones DVD Review

© Paul F. McDonald

It is with great happiness that I announce the arrival of the Attack of the Clones DVD in my DVD player. It is the second Star Wars film to be released on DVD, and it very much lives up to the promise of The Phantom Menace which came out last year. These movies are clearly up to exploiting everything that DVDs are about, so much so that I only give my VCR a sort of patronizing run when I need to record something off television.

The cover art of the DVD itself is very cool, working with that sort of collage look that has dominated all the Star Wars posters since the seventies. Inside there is a splendid chapter index, and the DVD themselves are quite nifty, the first one boasting Jango Fett on the front, and the other Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu standing out against a backdrop of dozens of Jedi brandishing lightsabers.

The first DVD contains the movie itself, as well as some very lively interactive menus featuring a certain planet such as Geonosis or Kamino. Admittedly, it’s geeky, but those alone are worth getting me excited. I genuinely love the fact that the film is split up into fifty chapters. Scene selection is certainly one of the best things about DVDs, and it is a positive delight to be able to jump to your favorite scene right away without having to stop and rewind and play over and over. That’s just another reason why Star Wars goes so well with the DVD format.

As for the film itself, it is stunning. I was never able to see the movie in its digital format all summer long, so to be able to witness it in all its digital glory is something else. It is really the best looking DVD I’ve ever seen, even better than The Phantom Menace. The sound system is likewise extraordinary. The sights and sounds are so clear it makes the experience that much more direct, even though one perhaps loses the intensity of sitting in a really large theater. The little bits that were added are quite welcome, such as the extended dialogue between Anakin and Padme during the confession scene on Tatooine, not to mention Padme taking Anakin’s mechanical hand during the wedding at the end. And what can I say? After writing a dozen or so articles about Attack of the Clones, I still really love it, and can only scratch my head yet again over the critical response. It is a fabulous story with great characters played by talented actors, and that’s all there is to it as far as I’m concerned. However, I am happy to see that the critical tide is turning a bit, as just in the past month there has been a couple of pieces published online and off praising the subtle symbolism of the film as well as the acting in it.