Puzzling...

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2002)

It seems the critical "let's bash Star Wars because it's Star Wars" wagon still survives, although the surviving members, such as one who commented here earlier, have claims to make that are about as substantial as most of the rumours turn out to be. As one of the few people who didn't jump on this bandwagon when Episode I came out, I was never sure what to expect with this one. I'm glad I don't listen to naysayers who, at the professional level, probably get paid off to bash the films so that conglomerates like Sony can get backhanded promotion for their products.
Anyway, I won't waste anyone's time by regurgitating plot details. I'm sure that everyone's seen the film by now (if you haven't, why the hell not?). I'll deal with the negatives and the positives as I saw them.
The negatives are simple. The digital photography is not fully mature as a medium yet, and it shows. Lucas loves his long shots way too much, and in this film, they lose just enough resolution for it to become obvious. In ten years time when digital photography is more advanced, perhaps this won't matter, but it matters now. Secondly, Hayden Christensen is the wrong guy for this role. No matter what you say or do, I just do not believe in this man. He is not Jedi material, and he is certainly not Sith Lord material.
Now the good things, and boy there are a lot of them. First of all, in spite of the digital photography having serious drawbacks, it also makes Lucas' world much more real. CGI effects, characters, planets, and so forth, are much more seamlessly integrated in this offering. When Lucas stated that he wanted to do the film digitally so that he could have more seamless integration of the special effects, he wasn't kidding. The film has far better pacing, too. One of the weak spots I did notice (but didn't exagerrate to the point of becoming boring) in Episode I was that they tried to do too much in too little time. In Episode II, the balance between exposition and adventure is just right.
Natalie Portman... well, what can we say about Natalie Portman? She was born to play Padme. She is the glue that holds the whole melodramatic side of the film together. I am sure that if the Padme side of the Anakin/Padme drama had been played by anyone else, it would have fallen apart.
Yoda... well, you just have to see it to believe it. There is a reason why this guy is entirely CGI, and there is also a reason why he has been training Jedi for approximately 800 years. Mace Windu was awesome, too.
All in all, I'm giving Attack Of The Clones nine out of ten. Ten out of ten for execution, but minus one for what Ewan McGregor (who also kicks serious butt in this film) called "a terrible, terrible title".