Star Wars Attack of the Clones (2002) review

 It might not surprise some of you to learn that this film does not land a place on the top 1000 films of all time. The Star Wars prequels were polarising to say the least, but I think Attack of the Clones deserves a place (not a high place, but a place nonetheless.)

Attack of the Clones picks up ten years after the Phantom Menace left off where the prophetic chosen one Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is now a Padawan learner under Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan Mcgregor.) The galaxy is on the edge of civil war, as more systems secede from the Republic to join a Separatist movement led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee.) Meanwhile, Anakin begins an illicit romance with Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman.)

I'm sure there are many Star Wars' fans who are frothing at the mouth when I suggest that Attack of the Clones is good enough to have merited a place on the top 1000 films, but as long as you take it for what it is - good fun, there's no reason that it shouldn't have a place. Don't worry, I'm not going to start advocating for a Phantom Menace or the sequels.

Yes, Hayden Christensen is pretty creepy/wooden throughout the film, but no creepier than Leia kissing Luke not once but twice and then having her confess that she's always known that Luke is her brother. Not to mention that Christensen had some awful dialogue to recite. How charismatic can you be when you have to talk about sand? I would also question how much chemistry he had with Natalie Portman.

Yet where Star Wars always delivers is the action sequences and Attack of the Clones delivers here. These are the parts I remember the most about this film. We get some awesome light-sabre rattling as Obi-Wan and Anakin fight Count Dooku, before we learn why Yoda is the greatest Jedi of all time. The fight in the Geonosis arena also led to some thrilling viewing.

This more action-oriented edition of the Star Wars saga helped to steer the franchise away from the more tedious aspects of A Phantom Menace. Long gone are the trade negotiations. It also marked a darker tonal shift, as we gain more insight into what made Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader. There are plenty of dark scenes, as Anakin channels his inner-angsty teenager, and massacres the group of sand-people who captured and tortured his mother to death.

Like I say, I wouldn't have placed Attack of the Clones highly on my top 1000 film list, but I would have still given it its dues. Yes, it has flaws, but these flaws apply to the franchise as a whole - and A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back feature in the top twenty, so there you go.

 

The Wicker Man (1973) review

 Number 620 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1973 folk-horror 'The Wicker Man.'

Police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is a devout Christian investigating the disappearance of a little girl on a remote Scottish Isle. There, he is is appalled to find the residents, led by Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) have rejected Christianity in favour of a dangerous form of paganism.

Horror films generally fall into one of two cliches: over-reliance on jump-scares or over-reliance on gore. Thankfully, director Robin Hardy and writer Anthony Schaffer deftly navigated these cliches. Schaffer deliberately eschewed the latter cliche in favour of a tense, unsettling atmosphere.

From the moment that Neil Howie steps onto the island, it's obvious that somebody isn't quite right. Nobody seems to know who the missing girl is nor do make any effort to help him. Instead they prefer to have sex in public and teach children about phallic symbols in school. And it is all treated as completely normal which is what makes it so scary.

It's normal to everybody, but Howie who is horrified by the debauchery he witnesses. Woodward played the straight man, so to speak, with all the moral indignation that we would expect to see. But I think the true star was Christopher Lee who played the villainous Lord Summerisle.

Lord Summerisle is a cult-leader who has brainwashed the island's residents in happily following his every word even when it crosses ethical boundaries. They blindly follow their pagan beliefs, gaily singing and dancing through the film's most terrifying sequences. Nowhere is this more apparent than the film's chilling conclusion. I won't spoil it here, but this is a horror film, so there's no happily ever after.

As the film was made on a shoestring budget, Lee was more than happy to work for free. This really shows his dedication to his craft.

Folk-horror has made a resurgence with the likes of Midsommar and the Witch, but they all pay homage to the pioneering Wicker Man.