A great-looking but ultimately pointless film

Rating: 7/10 (2 December 2005)

Rewritten on December 30th -06.
Attack of the Clones is the weakest film in the Star Wars saga of George Lucas. The problem with any middle-chapter in a trilogy is that it has no beginning nor an ending. Whereas Empire compensated by having interesting environments and humour, Episode II is not so lucky.
Out of the the four films directed by Lucas, this has the worst acting out of all of them. Hayden Christensen is extremely stiff and can't seem to deliver lines with passion or even the appropriate level of intensity. Natalie Portman begins to suffer from the over-acting syndrome which was most prominent in Episode III, but here she also has difficulty sounding credible.
My favorite character in the prequel trilogy has always been Obi-Wan, played by Ewan McGregor, but I always felt that Lucas attempted too hard to emphasize the tense relationship between him and Anakin and this hurts the film again. Additionally, Jango Fett never manages to capture the mystery of his son, Boba.
The film is visually impressive, sounds brilliant and even has a nice plot, but its blown flat in places by bad acting and in others by generally nonsensical elements. Though it was funny the first time I saw it, Yoda's lightsabre fight with Dooku did not enhance the film nor did it advance the plot in any way.
And though we see C-3PO and R2D2 working together as a comic-duo for the first time (chronologically) there isn't enough witty dialogue to save the film.
Resultedly, the weakest film in the series.