Deeply flawed, but it's better than The Phantom Menace

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2015)

10 years after the events of The Phantom Menace, a new separatist movement threatens the republic while Anakin Skywalker, now a formidable Jedi Padawan, is stuck in a hideous romantic sub plot and must choose between his Jedi duties and forbidden love. The Phantom Menace isn't a bomb, but it's something of a dud thanks to the awful writing and acting. Attack of the Clones, while undoubtedly an improvement, suffers from many of these issues. The most compelling character in the movie is CGI Yoda. Seriously. Christopher Lee is good as a new villain, although he seems slightly on autopilot, Ian McDiarmid is genuinely solid as Chancellor Palpatine and Ewan McGregor improves on his bland work in The Phantom Menace. But Jar Jar Binks is still awful, even if the writers thoughtfully laid some of the blame for the republic's downfall on his shoulders, Natalie Portman is terrible, Samuel L Jackson phones it in, Boba Fett is played by a terrible child actor and worst of all, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, who will one day be Darth Vader, is more wooden and less complex than a rocking chair and only slightly more lively.
The dialogue is abominable. The love story is flat, the lines are boring, expositional and emotionally void while there are far too many scenes featuring characters standing against green screen and talking about stuff. If I wanted to see loads of people talking I would watch a chat show. Still, people are a tiny bit unfair on AOTC. George Lucas has managed to recover some of his directing skill back and the cinematography is sometimes decent. The action set pieces are genuinely pretty good although they suffer from an overabundance of CGI and as a result the film often feels like a bland video game. It takes place in a wonderful cinematic universe and the story is interesting enough (Not the love story). It's darker than TPM, and as a result it's more involving. The highlight of the film is the death of Anakin's mother and his first steps towards becoming Darth Vader. This is an enjoyable but overlong space opera. The first 25 minutes are actually really rather good, and the final 40 minutes are as well but the film keeps stopping and starting in between. Personally, I don't mind it and it's the prequel I can watch the most easily.
6/10