24 May 2002

I can't win, some days... I had a dentist appointment yesterday afternoon, and despite having no problems whatsoever - despite having even improved in some areas - I'm going to have to go back in about a week and a half so they can replace a cracked filling.

In the "it could always be worse" catetory, though - my insurance apparently covered more of my crown last year than they'd expected so there's a credit on my account with them in excess of $100, which will mostly cover the filling.

(But what if they just kept the money, and I didn't have to have a drill in my mouth, hm?)

Matt and I went with K.T. and Kevin last night to see Attack of the Clones. Matt was... disappointed.

I thought it had its pros and cons.

WARNING: Possible spoiler alert!

Pro: CGI continues to improve. I could still usually tell the difference between the CG'ed sets and the stage-set ones, but they're definitely improving.

Con: Someone got a little too carried away and/or impressed with themselves in places, and a few scenes were really busier than they needed to be.

Pro: Eye candy. Haden Christensen is cute - he has pretty eyes, and a very sweet smile. Ewan McGregor hasn't gotten any uglier since the last movie, though I'm still undecided about the beard they gave him in order to age him. Between costume changes and dramatic fight moments, Natalie Portman shows off a lot of (PG, of course) skin. And her hair isn't as weird this time, though she wore a lot of hats - I'm wondering if she had her hair cut or dyed for some other show, that they had to keep her head covered so much.

Con: Pretty actors can't necessarily act... And even the best actors are sometimes stymied by awful writing. Two of the romantic scenes, in particular, had me wincing so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. The line, "I'm haunted by the kiss you shouldn't have given me" should really have wrung at my heartstrings - not tickled my funnybone. But it had been preceded by so much pap that I just couldn't stand it.

Pro: A dramatic battle with dozens of Jedi fighting hundreds of droids! Lightsaber lust! And finally I get to see some female Jedi! (They rock, of course.)

Con: I was amused by the several references to Yoda's expertise with a lightsaber, but actually watching Yoda fight a lightsaber duel was just a little too absurd. Especially with Matt sitting next to me whispering frantically, "Rabid Muppet! Rabid Muppet!" I bit my hand so my laughter wouldn't disturb the other moviegoers - there's a lingering bruise this morning.

Pro: R2-D2

Con: C-3PO

Pro: Gorgeous costuming. I want about half of Amidala's wardrobe.

Con: More goofy hairdos... I think the real power in the Empire is in the hands of the Hairdresser's Union.

Pro: Some excellent "foreshadowing" of things to come, both on an individual and on a galaxy-wide basis. (Do prequels really forshadow things? Or just make clever references?) Also, as a storyteller, I appreciated the parallels that Lucas was drawing between the events in Clones and those in Empire.

Con: Some of the foreshadowing and parallelism was entirely too heavy-handed. Some of that goes back to dialogue - in particular, I thought the conflicted nature of Anakin's relationship with Obi-Wan could have been shown very easily and a lot more elegantly if he hadn't been alternating between actually saying, "I'm better than he is! He's jealous! He's holding me back!" and "He's like a father to me!"

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think I'd want to pay to see it in the theater again.

--Liz