Scripty goodness

This has evidently been making its rounds around the Net for a week or two, but I’ve studiously avoided it until now. An Episode II script. There are a few differences, a few missing pages, a number of (mostly unfortunately) clipped scenes, and some scenes that were clearly added afterwards (not surprisingly), but it’s basically there. Enjoy.

UPDATE: Discussion in more (SPOILERS!) detail below …

Having read through the script, a few thoughts.

• At a guess, this script is from a short while before shooting. Most of the dialog is the same, or is a superset of what was in the final version, but there are a few changes. These might have been reshot during post-production, or minor changes may have been made during production.
• What’s particularly interesting here is that while the dialog scenes are pretty much intact, the script is very sketchy about the action scenes. In particular the whole “conveyor belt” chapter is missing, the war scenes and asteroid fight are greatly abbreviated, and both the arena and the Count Dooku fights are significantly different. On the other hand, the original “Coruscant Car Chase” has additional bits that were chopped out. I have to wonder whether a lot of all that was reimaged or written up during post-production.

• Sadly, no doubt to appease the Jar-Jar haters, a fair amount of his dialog is chopped out from this script to what appears on screen. Unfortunately, it’s his more interesting bits, particularly some that explain his changes in diction. On-screen, Jar-Jar is a pale shadow of himself, and if that makes some folks happy, I’d say the lack of solid characterization in this film speaks for fleshing people out wherever it’s possible.

• The script actually has even more politics in it than the film, including an anti-business screed by Amidala to Count Dooku (always amusing to hear about that in the context of a Hollywood millionaire).

• The script has some added scenes that tell us more about Padme’s childhood and her family. I can see why they were largely edited out, but it’s nice background material. Still not sure about the whole refugee bit, though.

• The pages for Anakin’s “I killed them” scene are listed in the script, but left out. Was that because of security (i.e., the pages were not available until later)? Or did whoever release this feel that it gave too much away? I’d be curious to know when that scene was actually shot.

• Threepio plays both more and less of a role in the script. On the one hand, Padme gets to give him his external shell, while she’s waiting for Anakin to get back from rescuing Mom. That scene is kind of oddball (and it makes no sense that a robot would last long out of doors on a sandy desert planet). On the other hand, the Artoo/Threepio involvement after Anakin and Padme reach Geonosis is completely different, much reduced, and, arguably, better.

• While the script includes more fleshed-out dialog, none of it explains any of the oddities I describe in my review of the movie. It’s still stupid for the Jedi to go charging off the way they do, Jango Fett is still dramatically underutilized, and Padme is still nuts to be mooning after Anakin.