Star Wars II: The Title Cometh

It’s gonna be plastered all over every Web site from here to Bangladesh
by morning; who am I to buck the trend? Lucasfilm just announced
that the full title of SW2 will be “Star Wars Episode II:
Attack of the Clones.” The silly jokes may now commence.

6 replies on “Star Wars II: The Title Cometh”

  1. Well, if you insist…

    Here are some lowlights from the /. forum:

    “Send in the Clones”;
    “Killer Klones from Outer Space”;
    and of course, my favorite:
    ‘Next on Fox: “When Clones Attack!”‘

    Seriously, though, who really thinks “The Empire Strikes Back” is a sophisticated movie title? I was a little kid when it came out, and I still thought it was sorta goofy. And “Return of the Jedi”? It might as well has been “Son of…” or “Bride of…”. Just what, exactly, is he “returning” from? He never went away in the second one.

    LucasFilm’s PR was just better at hype in those days (or we were less immune), so they could bombard us with it until we were brainwashed into thinking these were normal titles for a movie. The only decent title, “A New Hope”, wasn’t even used in the original marketing campaign; it was more or less an afterthought.

    • Re: Well, if you insist…

      Here are some lowlights from the /. forum:

      Seriously, though, who really thinks “The Empire Strikes Back” is a sophisticated movie title? I was a little kid when it came out, and I still thought it was sorta goofy. And “Return of the Jedi”? It might as well has been “Son of…” or “Bride of…”. Just what, exactly, is he “returning” from? He never went away in the second one.

      I think it refers to the return of the Jedi order, which admittedly doesn’t happen in Ep 6 but could be implied. You’re right, they’re not great title’s anyway, but they leave you wondering–The Empire Strikes Back? Ok, we could guess that, but what are they going to do? Attack of the Clones–um, gee, I can guess what the plot revolves around…

      And I have to say, it sounds way cheesier than any of the other four titles.

      Stevis

      • Re: Well, if you insist…

        And I have to say, it sounds way cheesier than
        any of the other four titles.

        I think it’s a close second to The Phantom
        Menace
        . Of course, that title was met with a lot of
        flaming, too. Some of us already figured out that this
        film would have to be about the clone wars, but there must
        have been a better title out there somewhere. (No, I
        don’t read spoilers. Watch the first trilogy, and you can
        figure out what events have to be depicted in episodes 2
        and 3.)

        • Re: Well, if you insist…
          Oh, most definitely, the clone wars have to be here somewhere, as does Bail Organa (“you served my father during the clone wars…”). As does, I suppose, some hot hot Annakin and Amidala action, although I’m going to guess that it will be implied.

          I kinda like The Phantom Menace, in retrospect–after all, the whole trade federation gambit was more or less a setup to drive Palpatine closer to power. A number of mainstream reviews decided not to or completely failed to note that Palpatine=Emperor…at least the ones I saw.

          Just my $.02

          Stevis

  2. The simple route.
    Lucas could have taken the obvious yet not quite as
    campy route and just called it Star Wars Episode 2: The
    Clone Wars. Since these wars are supposed to be
    such a big part of the history of this universe. But then
    again he named the ugly annoying alien thing after a
    studdered glass object for holding food substances, so
    what the hell do we want?

    ===JonShado

    • Re: The simple route.

      Lucas could have taken the obvious yet not quite as
      campy route and just called it Star Wars Episode 2: The
      Clone Wars. Since these wars are supposed to be
      such a big part of the history of this universe. …

      I think maybe the reason he didn’t use “Clone Wars” is that it could be seen as redundant, ie. “star *Wars*: clone *Wars*”. So failing that, he went to the next best thing he could think of (ahem…), “Attack of the Clones”.

      BTW, I think “Phantom Menace” was pretty good title, but if you think about it, some of the criticism of that title was that it was sort of vague. Certainly nobody can make that accusation here!

Comments are closed.