8. The Urban, Noir-ish Element Of The Coruscant Sequence Is Great
The main opening sequence of Attack of the Clones takes place in Coruscant, a city which looks half-Tokyo, half-Blade Runner, and one which presents an urbanised cityscape unlike anything seen before in the Star Wars franchise. One which has always naturally been about grand sweeping space vistas and desolate, arid planets which look perpetually on the brink of a sand storm. Such difference makes for a welcome habitat, and though the actual action that takes place in the city (such as the main speeder chase through the traffic-laden sky, which is impressive in parts but far, far too long) is hit-and-miss, it remains that taken as an environment - a setting - the opening sequence makes for a brilliant introduction to the film. Coruscant's Wookiepedia (an invaluable resource for all things Star Wars) page states that the city's Undercity, the downtown region where the action ends up, is "dangerous and filled with crime...where sunlight never reached", and that element of Film Noir is definitely present in Attack of the Clones, with Obi-Wan going solo, detective-style, to search for clues and potential missing persons. This is all set up in the Coruscant sequence, which uses essential Noir-ish traits - from the Venetian blinds in Padmé's room to Obi-Wan finally thinking f**k it and grabbing a drink at the bar to nurse the weariness his chase has caused - to foreshadow the murky world of betrayal and deceit that Clones will turn into. There's something immensely satisfying about seeing Star Wars drop one of its most revered Jedis into a seedy bar to kill a shot of something, and Anakin's line "Jedi business, go back to your drinks" feels like it could be ripped from any Noir picture of the period were "Jedi" swapped for "Police" or "Detective".