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Re: Absolutely
Posted By: Sam, on host 24.128.86.11
Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2001, at 05:53:49
In Reply To: Absolutely posted by MarkN on Monday, August 6, 2001, at 23:59:23:

I agree. That title is hideous. I thought "The Phantom Menace" was bad.

But I'm not sure it's bad for reasons of being cliched. "____ Strikes Back" and "Return of ____" were cliched titles from books and chapters of pulp fiction long ago. Star Wars is in part a throwback to the science fiction dime novels of decades ago. The titles are appropriate. "Attack of the ____" is a bit TOO familiar, though, so maybe I see that point after all.

You're right that it leaves no element of the unknown, however. "Attack of the Clones" is a movie about clones attacking. The other titles suggest what will happen but not how. This one doesn't tell you how either, but nor does it make one wonder about how. The word "clones" shouldn't have been used at all. It's too specific, too boring.

I'm not sure what happened to George Lucas since RotJ either. I liked "The Phantom Menace" as a movie, quite a lot actually. But I'm not excited about it being part of the Star Wars canon. It's too emotionless, treads too carefully, and forgets that humanity, not computers, is what makes even CG-heavy movies hit home. There may be hope for the next movie. Things will start to happen to the characters that they'll have to CARE about, and that could make all the difference. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

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