[ernesttomlinson]

I can't take credit for this observation; a friend of mine pointed it out to me months after I saw the movie.

OK, Dooku's in the hangar, or whatever it is, and about to take off in his ship, having dispatched Obi-Wan and Anakin with ease. Yoda shows up and then the battle of Dooku vs. Sonic the Hedgehog starts; Yoda is not worsted but Dooku escapes anyway. (I know a lot of moviegoers thought this battle was cool and I vaguely remember that a cheer went up in the theatre when I saw the movie. But I thought it was beyond ridiculous.)

Now here's my friend's astute comment. Dooku's ship is right there, waiting for him. So why the heck didn't Yoda just *destroy* it? As my friend pointed out, this action would have been consistent with the supposed policy of never using the Force for attack.

I'll point out one other irksome fault of "Attack of the Clones" that chefelf has already commented on indirectly. All signs in the original "Star Wars" - Obi-Wan's wistful remembrance of the Jedi's thousand years of peace "before the dark times", Motti's and Tarkin's referring to the Jedi as extinct - point to the death of the Republic as being well in the past. There's nothing *definite* but that's the atmosphere I perceive. That Obi-Wan is still alive and remembers these things doesn't mean that they're necessarily recent events; Yoda is as ancient as Methuselah and, since he implies that his strength with the Force is responsible, it's not a stretch to imagine that Obi-Wan's life is similarly prolonged. Well, there's the matter of young Luke, but consider--why should Anakin Skywalker necessarily have sired Luke *before* he went over to the Dark Side? Or is that getting too wild?

But Lucas, for heaven knows what reason, decided to put the fall of the Republic only a few decades in "Star Wars"'s past. Technology sure ran downhill in a hurry! (I know that inconsistency between the old special effects with models and the new CGI effects in the prequels is inevitable, but putting the Republic's last days in the distant past would add at least a tinge of plausibility.) And all those stupid coincidences...I'm reminded of the dreadful prequels to "Dune" that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson wrote some years back. I read them, or parts of theme, and found that Herbert and Anderson did the same thing. Every curious detail in the original "Dune" had to have its origin story, preferably with all sorts of ironic connections to the others.[I]

[Just your average movie goer]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I thought the same thing too actually. Right when Dooku uses the force to throw that pillar at Obi Wan and Anakin...

Yoda catches it with the force and needs to throw it aside so it doesn't land on the two guys in front of him. Now if he throws it to the right, it will crash on the floor. If he throws it to the left, it will crush Dooku's ship and prevent a very troublesome villain from escaping and causing even worse problems.

So why for the love of God did he throw it to the right?

[ernesttomlinson]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm rather fond of the first three Star Wars movies, even "Return of the Jedi", despite its numerous, often ridiculous flaws (e.g. look up Roger Ebert's "Fallacy of the Predictable Tree" and apply it to the fight of the Ewoks against the Storm Troopers. And why the %@&* did "General Solo" take Threepio on his incompetent commando mission?) I'm unlike most Star Wars fans, perhaps, in sort of liking "The Phantom Menace". It's bad but I can imagine kicking back with a glass or three of wine and watching it again. "Attack of the Clones", though, was the first Star Wars movie I came out of scowling, wondering why I had wasted my money. The acting was bad, the dialog was bad, the plot was a mess, even the action scenes were a joke--when Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Amidala were led to the arena to be killed, I thought of Dr. Evil and his "overly elaborate and exotic death" comment.

[Michel Orla]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I thought the same thing too actually. Right when Dooku uses the force to throw that pillar at Obi Wan and Anakin...

Yoda catches it with the force and needs to throw it aside so it doesn't land on the two guys in front of him. Now if he throws it to the right, it will crash on the floor. If he throws it to the left, it will crush Dooku's ship and prevent a very troublesome villain from escaping and causing even worse problems.

So why for the love of God did he throw it to the right?

Same reason why he allowed Anakin to be trained despite his misgiving's. He obviously isn't as bright as we are made to believe in ESB.

"The Dark Side I sense in you Dooku" Whatever made Yoda say that

[barend]

personally, i think the best thing yoda could have done in that scene was DIE!!!

[Despondent]

I remember that rapturous yelp went through the theater like that of a squirrel in church.
A momentary Should we be admiring this? We waited three years, the film's almost over and I don't want to leave empty-hand... ah screw-it. Leave. (or sit through the credits, smoldering.)
:angry:

[Helena]

Hi there ernesttomlinson.

I don't think the Republic's demise can have been that long ago, as the Senate still exists (just about) in ANH, and people other than the Jedi remember it - e.g Owen Lars remembers the Clone Wars and Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi. I do agree about the technology in the prequels, though - at the very least it shouldn't have been better than what we see in the original trilogy.

[Chefelf]

Yoda shows up and then the battle of Dooku vs. Sonic the Hedgehog starts

I'd just like to point out that calling Yoda "Sonic the Hedgehog" is brilliant. I wish I'd thought of that when I wrote my reviews.