Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

Rating: 6/10 (7 December 2015)

Five movies in, and I think I've finally come to my definitive least favorite of the series. It's not bad, per say, just underwhelming, although it does have an better plot than The Phantom Menace. In Attack of the Clones, the Galactic Republic is on the brink of civil war when several planetary system threaten to secede under the leadership of rogue Jedi Count Dooku. An assassination attempt is made on Senator Padme Amidala, so Anakin Skywalker is tasked with protecting her, while his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi goes to investigate. Luckily, Episode II did deliver on my hope from Episode I in that the plot moves considerably forward, and some of the more notable characters are given more screen time (or less in Jar Jar's case, thank god). Padme and Anakin have a romantic subplot that I didn't mind, and Obi-Wan is always fun to watch, but I thought Anakin's character was much more interesting in this movie. There was quite a bit of foreshadowing of Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader that put the prequels into a better context and made Anakin more intriguing. It'd be nice if Hayden Christensen wasn't so awful in his role. Attack of the Clones does succumb to middle-chapter problems at times. There wasn't anything as memorable as the Darth Maul battle in The Phantom Menace or the speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi. The fight between Yoda and Count Dooku is pretty cool at first, but watching a little green alien jump around like Sonic got old after a while. Attack of the Clones is still just as entertaining and fun as the other Star Wars movies, even if it's one of the weaker entries.