Almost good

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2002)

For the first two thirds of Attack of the Clones, the film ranges from total mediocrity to passable entertainment to horrific boredom. The dialogue is rather awful, the plot developed in a hackneyed manner. A couple of the early action sequences are fun, especially the one involving Jango Fett, whose young clone is named Boba (Boba Fett fans will be given their money's worth in this one!). The love story with Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker is truly execrable. I wouldn't dismiss Hayden Christensen as many have already (Portman is actually the film's weakest link). Just by chance, I saw about 2/3 of Life As a House the night before I saw Star Wars, in which Christensen stars as a troubled teen, much as he does in Attack of the Clones. He's not a bad actor, really. I would more blame the inadequacy of the character on the writing. Lucas has no clue how to develop emotions on screen, at least in this character, without shoving it into the dialogue. The only success that Lucas has in the character is in an homage to The Searchers, where Annie (they really need to stop calling him this; he'll turn into Darth Vader just because everyone keeps insulting his manhood!) goes off into the deserts of Tatooine to rescue his mother from a group of Sand People. Lucas even quotes some of Ford's best shots.
After this sequence, Anakin and Amidala are forced to run off to save Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, who is, btw, much better here than he was in Ep. 1). There is a decent, but somewhat confusing action sequence involving Amidala stuck on a conveyor belt in a robot factory. Amidala and Anakin are captured and thrown into a colosseum and are forced to fight three giant monsters. From this point, Attack of the Clones can do (almost) no wrong. In the most impressive mid-film change of quality that I've ever seen, Attack begins to equal the best sequences in the first trilogy, and perhaps beat most of them. 45 or 50 minutes of straight excitement bring Attack of the Clones to a close, with C3PO's awful action movie one-liners being the only distraction. The obligatory lightsaber duel between Count Dooku and Obi-Wan and Anakin had me gripping the armrests in excitement, and the now infamous lightsaber duel between Dooku and Yoda had me clapping and laughing at the same time. Yoda still ranks as the best character in the series (he's especially great in this film). And then comes the final shot, which will make any Star Wars fan cringe in horror (but this time in a good way!). Fans who hated Episode I will appreciate the fact that Jar Jar Binks is the indirect cause of the Empire's rise to power. I still can't forgive the weakness of most of the film. It pulls itself together so well that it's tempting to let the whole film pass, but I have to give it, at the most, 6/10.
P.S. On a second viewing, right after I saw the final installment of the series, Attack seemed quite a bit better, so I raised my score a point.