Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Review

Director: George Lucas (The mastermind behind the Star Wars films)
Producer: George Lucas and Rick McCallum
Screenplay: George Lucas and Jonathan Hales
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen (Jumper, Takers), Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance), Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings, The Man with the Golden Gun), Temura Morrison, and Ian McDiarmid       
Gross Revenue: $649,398,328
Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter: 67%
IMDB Rating: 6.8
Academy Awards: Nominated for Best Visual Effects 
     Attack of the Clones has the unique distinction of being the only Star Wars film to not be number one film in the U.S. in the year it was released.  It was out grossed by Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Spider-Man, which are in my opinion MUCH better films then Attack of the Clones?  Had fans finally started to abandon the legendary franchise?  It’s hard not to understand why, when there is nearly nothing to separate it from the numberless number of blockbusters released these days.  Though it’s infinitely better than The Phantom Menace, which is not at all hard to accomplish, and even can almost be considered a “good” film, Attack of the Clones is still a subpar sequel compared to the original trilogy.

     This "second" installment of the Star Wars saga takes place ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, and things have changed much in this short time span.   Anakin Skywalker is now a grown-up Jedi Padawan, Padme Amidala is the senator from Naboo instead of their Queen, and the Republic is on the brink of Civil War.  Several star systems have followed former Jedi Count Dooku in forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), in an attempt to overthrow the Republic.  In the midst of all this, there are several assassination attempts on Padme’s life.  Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect her, and the pieces are laid for one of the greatest struggles the Republic has ever seen, The Clone Wars, and Anakin’s journey to the Dark Side of the Force.

     Already, this film is better than the Phantom Menace.  The story is infinitely more interesting, and is actually relevant to the Original Trilogy; the long alluded to Clone Wars.  There is less Jar-Jar which is a smart move, and more C-3PO and R2-D2, which makes the movie feel more like Star Wars.  The film features two intertwining storylines, Obi-Wan’s search for truth about Padme’s assassination, leading to the start of the Clone Wars, and Anakin and Padme’s courtship and romance.  The former is a mysterious and interesting part of the film, while the latter is one of the weakest, lamest, most cringe-inducing romances ever seen on film.

     First to the interesting part.  Obi-Wan’s search for the source of Padme’s assassination attempts leads him to the dark and rainy planet of Kamino, a system of “cloners”.  There he discovers that the Kaminoians have been creating a grand army for the Republic.  This part of the movie is the most exciting and mysterious of the storylines.  I love how Lucas treats it almost like a film noir, as a mystery needing to be solved.  It ties greatly into the Original Trilogy, simultaneously explaining what the Clone Wars were, the origin of the Storm Troopers, and the mysterious origins of infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett.  Featuring amazing imagery and ending in a climatic action scene, this part of the movie almost makes Attack of the Clones into a good movie.
     Now on to the boring part of the film: Anakin’s romance.  This is the first film to feature Hayden Christensen in the role of Anakin Skywalker, possibly the worst casting ever done for Star Wars.  He brings absolutely no emotion to the role of Anakin, and plays him as nothing more than a whiny and emotionally stunted teenager.  His love for Padme is so unbelievably awkward and the lines so corny, it is hard to believe that the actors can read them without cringing.  One for example, which Anakin says to Padme over lunch, “You’re exactly the way I remember you in my dreams”.  Seriously Padme, that’s creepy.  He hasn’t seen you in ten years, and he admits to dreaming about him.  This is the kind of guy you need to stay away from, not pledge your loyalty to.  Anakin’s love for Padme is shallow, obsessive, and downright creepy, and there is absolutely nothing romantic about it.  There is nothing romantic or heartfelt about this wooden and corny courtship, and really brings the quality of the film down.

     Attack of the Clones has the unique feature to being the first film to be produced in an all-digital format, as in no film.  George Lucas has long been a pioneer in advancing visual effects, and the Prequel Trilogy is no different.  Most of the film’s backgrounds and sets, and even a large portion of the characters, are all-digital creations, which have positive and negative effects.  It allows the filmmakers an infinite amount of freedom in portraying the Star Wars universe, but the film suffers from CGI overload, and the amount of digital imagery is just too much for the viewer to handle.  The various digital creatures and background start to overwhelm the viewer, and it makes the film look and feel like a video game.  Some of the imagery still holds up well, but technology has come a long way since 2002, and several of the creatures and backgrounds no longer appear photorealistic.
     Speaking of Anakin Skywalker, what a waste of a potentially fascinating and wonderful character.  For many years, audiences had wondered and dreamed about “the man behind the mask”, the person that became Darth Vader.  The prequel trilogies were supposed to explore his journey towards the dark side, but the films this far have done a terrible job.  In the first film, he was a whiny, needy 9 year old, who had no understanding of what’s important in life.  In this film, Anakin is a whiny, needy, obsessive, angsty teenager, who has no understanding of what is really important in life.  He’s overly sensitive, he never listens, and he is just an overall brat. Hayden Christensen does a terrible job portraying him, coming off as whiny and a brat, but he is not given much strong material to work with. I hate this character, and I hate the opportunity that George Lucas wasted in not exploring him further.
     Except for Hayden Christensen, the acting overall greatly surpasses the first film.  Ewan McGregor, who I thought played Obi-Wan as one-note and flat, does a much better job fleshing him out in Attack of the Clones, and makes him into a layered character.  Natalie Portman is still pretty flat, but she is given atrociously horrible dialogue which is beneath her quality as an actor, but she makes the best of what she has.  Samuel Jackson brings coolness and strength to Mace Windu, and is definitely the baddest Jedi of all time.  Christopher Lee brings elegance and grace to the role of Count Dooku, and brings legitimacy to the nearly all digital cast.  The cast is much more well-rounded then the first film, and the performances are far better.

     The action and the special effects were great, which is to be expected in a Star Wars film.  This is the first film to be made using all-digital cameras; no film was used during this production.  George Lucas has always been great at creating worlds unlike any anyone has ever seen before, and Attack of the Clones is no different.  From Kamino, to Geonosis, to the underworld of Coruscant, each is uniquely and completely different, and features its own culture and inhabitants.  Though most are generate through CGI, practical effects are still used, which helps to populate the different universe.  However, parts of the film, such as Anakin and Padme’s journey through the Droid factory, suffer from CGI overload, and look more like a video game than a motion picture.  The action sequences are better this time around, from the aerial dogfights to the lightsaber battles, everything is improved.  A Yoda vs. Count Dooku lightsaber battle could have been a mess, but it was amazing, and one of the greatest duels in the Star Wars saga, due to the amazing expertise of the visual effects technicians.  Attack of the Clones is overall visually impressive, despite overuse of digital animation, and the action scenes are spectacular.

     I like to think of the Prequel Trilogy as like a series of video games.  If The Phantom Menace is a really dull and boring video game, then Attack of the Clones is a pretty good video game.  The dialogue sucks and some of the story is weak, but the action scenes are awesome and the effects are groundbreaking.  However, I want more from my Star Wars films then just video game-style thrills, and Attack of the Clones fails to deliver in the most important categories: story and character.  Despite featuring impressive action sequences and groundbreaking visual effects, and improving in almost every way over The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones still features wooden acting, atrocious dialogue, and a weak story that fails to live up the quality of the Original Trilogy.  2.5/5
My rankings of the Star Wars films
1. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 2.5/5
2.Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 1.5/5