Bad movie, great implications

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2002)

As a Star Wars universe fan, I found myself concentrating less and less on "Attack of the Clones" as a movie in and of itself; the dialogue (terrible!) love scenes (cringe-inducing) and CGI (rubbery) made it hard to applaud this work. However, the ideas in the movie, and the plot threads that connect it back to "The Phantom Menace" and, especially, forward to the original trilogy definitely make this worth the eight bucks. Go with friends who've read all the novels and discuss amongst yourselves afterwards.
Fortunately, there's no talk of mitochorians or virgin births; instead, there's an angry, smoldering (tall) Anakin intensely seducing young Amidala in some dimly lit, almost creepy scenes; but hey, else would Darth Vader court, anyway? The actors do the best they can with the lines they've been forced to read, but that doesn't stop you from wanting them to just Be Quiet. The action scenes are good, and fast, and if you don't mind that everyone, Jedi or layman, seems to defy physics and basic concepts about matter and acceleration, you'll be suitably impressed.
The new worlds were cool, if a bit too reminiscent of past movies; though if you played "PodRacer" you'll really appreciate the scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin chase an assassin through Corscecant (sorry, can't spell). Yoda kicks some serious gravity-defying butt, Palpatine gets more and more evil, and Boba Fett! he's Australian! who knew! Yes, all in all it's worth seeing, kiddies. Banish "The Phantom Menace" from your mind and get thee to a theater. George Lucas is in my good books once again.