It is a good thing that the Jedi checked security, because someone is very determined to snuff Amidala and their hired bounty hunter’s hired assassin tries again that night. I like Attack of the Clones very much because it is an homage to the film noir detective stories of days gone by, complete with sleuthing, car chases, fights, conspiracies, and rain. The next ten minutes is almost entirely the car, ahem, speeder chase.
Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones (00.10.30-00:21:00)
The action shifts to a mysterious person meeting with another mysterious person in familiar armor. They discuss the previous failure to kill Amidala, and then Fett hands Zam a glass tube containing something “very poisonous” in hopes of more subtly killing the Senator (00:10:43). Fett then, apparently, leaves the assassination in Zam’s hands. The scene shifts to Amidala’s apartment, where Kenobi has returned from a perusal of the building. Anakin comments that he doesn’t like “waiting here for something to happen” to Amidala (00:11:04). While contemplating what he means by that statement, I recall something that Yoda said to Luke on Dagobah: “Use the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack” and it would seem that Anakin’s natural tendency to head off problems has left him in a position at odds with the more defensive nature of the Jedi. Already this has been shown, as Kenobi is content to hang around and protect Amidala and simply wait for the assassin’s next move, while Anakin chafes at not being more active.
Amidala covered the cameras in her room, probably for the completely natural response of not wanting to be watched by a 19 year old who is infatuated with her, but she thinks that this is an ok way to survive an assassination because R2-D2 has been programmed to warn the Jedi in the event of an intruder (00:11:13). This is laughable. Given the size of Amidala’s room, by the time an intruder intrudes it will be too late for a warning to matter, but since Anakin has an inflated view of his Jedi abilities’ ability to alert him to danger, it sort of makes sense that he would allow her to do so. Apparently, all of this is being done in an effort to catch the assassin, and Amidala is “bait” (00:11:25). I don’t understand this at all. If someone is the target of an assassination, they are not bait, they are a target. You don’t need to bait their assassin because the assassin is already gunning for them. Secondarily, all of this is predicated on the assassin physically entering Amidala’s room to kill her, perhaps knowing that the cameras are turned off making it easier to gain entry. How is an assassin supposed to know that the cameras are off? Furthermore, what makes the Jedi, or anybody, assume that the assassin will try physical entry? The previous attempt at murder was done from a distance, probably by remote detonation. Especially considering the fact that they are in Amidala’s known residence, would it not have made more sense to defend against some sort of arial attack through her rather large window – like a missile, gunman in a speeder, or flying droid? The last thing I would expect would be an actual intrusion, because it seems highly unlikely a profession hit person would be so stupid as to try it. Well, it was “her idea” and Amidala obviously hasn’t got a clue, and because Anakin is silly with love, that means neither of them is thinking clearly, so I will let this bad bit of writing pass (00:11:27).
Zam loads up her specialized delivery system, and back at the apartment, the Jedi are discussing Anakin’s mother issues, which still haven’t been resolved. It is revealed that he hasn’t been sleeping because of bad dreams he has been having about his mother. I already wrote about this in my Phantom deconstruction, but I don’t know why the Jedi did not at least go back and free Anakin’s mother and give him a bit of closure in that part of his life. It is one thing to leave as a boy, but quite another to stay away for ten years. I maintain that if the Jedi had done something about this, rather than letting such feelings fester, they could have avoided a whole mess of problems with Anakin. Sure, attachment is forbidden, but what does that even mean? Obi-Wan was clearly attached to Qui-Gon, and now to Anakin (and Anakin to him) so why not make a special case for the one Jedi that knows his mother and is bound to have strong feelings about her? It obviously is disturbing him, but all Obi-Wan can say is that “dreams pass in time” (00:12:22). With Anakin? Doubtful.
But, because they are on the subject of Anakin’s attachments, he jumps to talking about his infatuation with Padme. Kenobi says it is Anakin’s “thoughts” which “betray” him (00:12:33). I don’t know why Kenobi would say that, considering that Anakin just said that being around Amidala “is intoxicating” (00:12:30). One doesn’t need to read minds to know what is going on, but then, maybe Kenobi is being ironic or euphemistic. Because Amidala is a politician, Kenobi begins one of his frequent diatribes against politicians, making them all out to be unscrupulous characters. While certainly the Senate is, at this time, very corrupt, it nevertheless seems questionable to lump them all in the same category (which Anakin calls him on). At any rate, the discussion, heard while the flying droid is delivering its deadly payload, it interesting and, to my thinking, fairly realistic.
I have my first real problem with this scene at this point: after cutting a hole through the glass, and delivering the poisonous centipedes, the droid hangs around. I have no idea why. It seems unlikely that it is waiting for the centipedes to return. Are the centipedes supposed to be somewhat sentient (they do hide when R2 activates for a routine sweep of the room) or capable of scaling curved glass? The only reason I can postulate for the droid’s persistence is so that Kenobi can jump through the window onto it. Convenient, but that is not a good thing when that is the only explanation.
Right before the centipede killers attack, the Jedi “sense” it (00:14:11). Sense what, exactly? Can the Force give them an message of warning? If so, why did it not do so when the centipedes first entered the room? Why right before attack? Did the possibly-sentient centipedes suddenly think “aha! we have her now!”? I don’t know what they could have sensed, but the Jedi run off and Anakin slices the centipedes while Kenobi dives out the window. Just before Obi-Wan makes the jump, the droid behaves oddly: it backs off slightly when it scans the Jedi, and then starts to run. Like I said, I don’t know why it hasn’t already left. It is possible that Zam wanted it to record confirmation of the death, but then you have a fairly large bit of evidence waiting to be found if someone stumbles into the room before the centipedes strike.
The next few minutes continue to stretch credulity because the sequence is dependent on Anakin taking time to find a speeder, then find Kenobi, then catch Kenobi, and then find Zam and give chase. Given that the city is massive, the droid small, and the three dimensional nature of the traffic, it is highly unlikely that Anakin could actually find Kenobi, much less Zam. Sure, there is the Force thing, but I would think that it would be nearly impossible, even for someone of Anakin’s power, to easily locate one mind among trillions. However, the Force is powerful, so I will give Lucas the benefit of the doubt here.
At 00:15:49 Zam shoots the droid putting Kenobi into freefall. She then jumps in her speeder and speeds off. Anakin then has to focus on safely recovering his falling master while Zam makes her getaway. He does so, but then somehow, and rather quickly, locates her (out of trillions of beings and thousands of speeders) despite the fact that she went left and he went down. Even if you grant that Anakin could find Kenobi with the Force, it seems highly unlikely that Zam is a Force user, and therefore on the Jedi’s special radar. How did they find her? The story dictates that they must.
Chasing ensues through three dimensions, around flaming posts, and for some reason through a large electrical discharge, instead of over. The dialogue during these moments sounds bad, but my estimation is that most of it is delivery, because to me it sounds like the casual banter between friends with whom this is not their first chase.
Now, for the biggest unlikely coincidence of them all. At 00:18:13 Zam takes a hard left into a tunnel through a building, and Anakin goes a different way, believing it to be a shortcut, but instead of cutting Zam off when she emerges from the tunnel, Anakin stops at a point several hundred/thousand feet above her and jumps out his speeder and lands on top of hers. What? I am sorry, my willful suspension of belief was revoked a few minutes ago, and I have none left for this. This doesn’t make sense, or even seem remotely possible. And then, while he is on top of Zam’s speeder, he shoves his lightsaber down through her cockpit and jiggles it around wildly, and somehow manages to avoid cutting her in half. Why would he even do that? Grabbing her gun hand makes sense, but he only does that after he loses his lightsaber. I think that Lucas didn’t have a good idea how to end the chase and decided to use the “crouching speeder, falling Jedi” gag one too many times and it wasn’t a good gag to begin with.
Regardless, errant blaster fire fries Zam’s flight controls, and the speeder goes down, tossing Anakin into the alley way while Kenobi watches from above.
(00:21:00)
I have avoided mentioning the aesthetics of the Star Wars films, mostly, but to offset all my negative comments, I will say that the color and level of detail in this sequence (and the next) is quite stunning. This may just be the most colorful part of the entire Star Wars saga, and I love the depth that this scene gives to Coruscant, and the universe of Lucas’ films. One can easily forget the illogical nature of what is happening if they focus instead on all that is occurring around the chase. I have watched this part of the film many times, and each time I find something new going on in the background action. Thumbs up to Mr. Lucas for that.
a simple man 