Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones just arrived on dvd. Like a nerd, I picked it up yesterday.

I thought Natalie Portman sparkled in her outfits. I liked how the more she was trying to talk Anakin off his crush, the more ridiculous and sexy she dressed. If some woman was giving me the it can't work out speech, I'd have to comment on the form-fitting leather. Just me.

A few months ago, a freind of mine was in town. While waiting for another movie, we checked out Episode 2 around the part of the Obi-Wan-Boba Fett fight. My friend thought the fight itself was totally badass, but based on the love story he saw, announced he would never see the rest of it.

I saw the movie opening night at the Cinerama in Seattle, one of the best movie theatres in the country, and one thing that surprised me was how bad the picture quality was. There was a lot of digital artifacting, like monitor lines on computer-generated elements in a scene. When I saw it again at a different theater in San Francisco, it looked much better.

Now, I had heard it was being digitally projected "the way it was MEANT to be seen" at a number of theaters, and looked much better. So I check. Turns out I saw it digital at the Cinerama, and on film in SF. And the digital was much worse, clearly showing the seams in the effects, looking like a tacky computer game (well, more than is usual for a star wars movie). Looks like the digital revolution won't be putting film to the firing squad for a while. What bugs me it the constant parroting of the party line, that digital is better. Of course, the digital print is much better looking on television. Nice how television is the future of Star Wars films.