What just happened?!

Rating: 4/10 (8 September 2005)

First of all I enjoyed the first of the Star Wars prequels and I thoroughly hate this film. Now you probably ask yourselves how one man can like the first Episode and not the second? The answer is actually pretty simple, dialog. The dialog in this film is ridiculously bad. I don't know how Lucas could come up with lines as cheesy as they were in this film. Now the dialog in the other Star Wars films is far from perfect but then again Lucas never really mastered dialog and thus it didn't make that much of an impact on me but the dialog was just so fake and unreal in this film that it sometimes made me want to laugh out loud. You can almost see the characters struggle with the dialog. Some more successful than others.
Ewan McGregor does a good job and sounds increasingly like the now deceased Sir Alec Guinness. He develops the character from what we saw in the first film and now brings a lot of intelligence and charm to the character and actually seems credible for the most part but the cheesy dialog is hard to look past even in an actor as accomplished as McGregor. Ian McDiarmid returns as the Palpatine and he still gives a fine performance as the man who will become the evil Emperor. He is still holding back, preparing for his hour of glory which will eventually come in Episode III (which is far better than this piece of crap by the way) and it seems as though he knows his hour will come because he seems to have no problem holding back. Then of course there is Hayden Christensen who has received a lot of criticism from both audience and critics alike and unfortunately I must join in the group because his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker is absolutely dreadful. There is just no way that this whiny kid is going to become one of the greatest screen villains ever. It just doesn't seem credible. Lucas explained that he picked Christensen because he felt Christensen had more on screen chemistry with Natalie Portman than any other actor who auditioned for the role. Does George Lucas see something I don't?! I felt that their on screen chemistry was among the worst I had ever seen! The "love" scenes were completely forced and unbelievable and not at all credible like they were between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. For the most part the love scenes in this film are embarrassingly bad. I felt that Hayden Christensen didn't bring enough of a transition to the character which will make the transition from good to evil seem more false in the third film. Natalie Portman is a very good actress but the material she is given in this film completely kills her talent and makes her seem like a below average actress. Christopher Lee does a decent job but he mainly repeats his character from The Lord of the Rings (except with worse dialog) which is by no means a bad thing.
The effects are of course very good and the film is a visual feast but I did, however, find myself unimpressed as this film came out after The Lord of the Rings in which the effects were nothing short of breath taking. The effects in this film felt more like effects and they had a computer game feel to them that ultimately makes the film less credible. This does not mean I didn't enjoy the effects because they are very well done but since it is Star Wars you expect them to be nothing short of brilliant and be the best of the best and that is sadly not the case with this film. The best effects scene is in the Colosseum (which is incidentally a tribute to Ray Harryhausen, the father of special effects, which I felt was a nice touch).
(***SPOILER ALERT*** If you haven't seen the film stop reading now!!!)The lightsaber duels (and the action in general) took a step down from the previous film. I feel I am a minority but I just didn't find the battle between Dooku and Yoda interesting at all. In fact I found it to be a little ridiculous. Their battle went well until they drew their lightsabers where it all just took a wrong turn. I actually laughed out loud when Yoda needed his walking stick after having jumped up and down and bouncing off walls like a hyperactive volley ball. I felt the battle between Obi Wan, Qui Gon and Darth Maul was excellent in the first film and I expected it to be topped in this film and it wasn't. To Hayden Christensen's credit he CAN wield a lightsaber and make it look believable and I thought his lightsaber scenes were very well done.
All in all Attack of the Clones is by far the weakest in the franchise by a long shot and the only really positive thing about it is the nearly complete absence of Jar Jar Binks. The actors do their best but the dialog is too cheesy and the effects are not as awe inspiring as they should have been.
I rate this film so low because it is a Star Wars film and you expect Star Wars to be better than this and you must compare it to the other films in the franchise.
4/10