Word: anakin
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...AOTC is also notable for its poetic language—especially near the middle of the film when Lucas exposes the curious dialectics of rough/coarse and soft/smooth. Framed within the grand love story of the film, young Anakin Skywalker compares Natalie Portman’s skin to the harsh sand of his home planet Tattooine. Lucas puts the ball in the audience’s court as he asks: What is the nature of smoothness? Roughness...
...course, counterprogramming isn't a fail-safe strategy. Universal released About a Boy last month, hoping that female moviegoers would choose Hugh Grant over Spidey and Anakin. Though the comedy got stellar reviews and has already earned back its $27 million cost, it might have made more in a less crowded season. A small art film can turn a profit in a few theaters, while more expensive films intended as counterprogramming must compete with blockbusters for a wider audience. Universal plans to keep About a Boy on select screens throughout the summer and pull it up to a $40 million...
...bargain a director makes when he goes over to the digital side. He can animate a pixel but not a Portman. An often enchanting presence, the young star is stiff and humorless here. Christensen has to carry the emotional load. And he does a fine job: his Anakin is both a petulant, impetuous boy and a young man with an appraising stare. He suggests a mind eager for action, restless and conflicted, ready to turn--as Anakin will next time--into Darth Vader...
...solid thesping, hire the Brits. McGregor tamps down his innate exuberance to play stern baby-sitter to Anakin but lends his scenes a thoughtful weight. And Lee has the tired majesty of a Dracula shaken awake in his sepulcher but with a few good bites left in him. He enunciates plot points like a teacher with a thrilling classroom style; his voice has cello music in it. His character also cues the film's one giddy musical moment: when Dooku rides a celestial scooter, composer John Williams borrows The Wizard of Oz's theme music for the Wicked Witch...
Clones' visual effects can be buoyant (Anakin makes a pear float, in a literal fruit loop) or imposing (the final vista of an orange sky). And they give a vertiginous kick to the fight scenes. A mile-high car chase has cool dips and speed bumps. An arena battle begins as a Gladiator knock-off and then escalates, with lumbering monsters that recall the peerless work of stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen. A light-saber duel in the dark has loads of drama and glamour...