Greats of Yester-year: Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Every great movie villain is accompanied by some menacing sound so that when they arrive on screen, you know not only because you can see them standing there in all their dark glory, but because you can hear them. They assault your senses and combat your efforts to remain comfortable and unafraid.

The titular shark in Jaws had his famous movie theme. The monster in the first alien film had a heartbeat sound. Godzilla (when he was a villain, back before he got silly) had the horrible sound of his approaching footsteps.

These indicators get the blood going and create the sense of dread that tells you that any moment, evil will descend upon the story and when it does, horror will follow.

I spoil nothing for anyone by saying here that among the most famous movie villain sounds is the mechanical breathing belonging to the Star Wars franchises' Darth Vader. When he first walked onto the screen, stepping through a cloud of smoke, the black silhouette in the bright white hallway, we heard his breathing and instantly became fascinated with Vader, busying ourselves with questions like, "Is he a man?" "Is he a robot?" "Is he something else?"

George Lucas would later go on to make up the answers to these questions and find ultimately unsatisfying ways of presenting the information to us, but that sound -- that Darth Vader sound -- the noise that never quickened, never faltered, the sound that was evil. That was something that we couldn't get enough of.

Flash ahead to the year 2001, when audiences had had two years to put the oddly dissatisfying "Phantom Menace" behind them and hope that Lucas would get it together for the remaining films in his opus. The hope that "Episode I" would be the weak link in the Star Wars saga was alive and well.

Our first glimmer of hope that this might actually be the case came on the night of November 2, 2001, when Disney and Pixar released "Monsters, Inc." And with each print, the first look at footage from the frightfully-named "Attack of the Clones."

Not only did Lucasfilm win back some goodwill with a clever spattering of imagery that Star Wars geeks the world over were giddy to see (Boba Fett's armor, C-3P0 with his skin, a new actor playing the role of Anakin), but it was presented as a classy reminder of where the story was headed, and the delightfully dark places the saga was going to take us.

After all, the prequel trilogy is about the birth of evil and what better way to remind people of that then to remind them who the baddest bad guy in the galaxy really is?

And it worked. Prior to the release of "Attack of the Clones," expectations were back on track, hopes were high, and the belief that the last one was just a mis-step was fairly solid among many in the fan community who bothered to discuss the film beyond the time it took to actually pay to see it.

Darth Vader, the most evil, terrifying, powerful villain in the galaxy was at the center of the new story we were being told, and this teaser made a quick reminder of it.

We eventually got our Vader in the prequel films. Sigh.