"At last..." (spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2002)

"At last..." a real hardcore fan sighed behind me last night in the theater when "A long time ago..." came on screen. Like he knew what was coming. Three years have passed since The Phantom Menace (ten years in the movie) and the changes are all in favor of Attack of the Clones.
No "Yippee", less Jar Jar and more action and fun. From the beginning through the end the film is filled with beautiful landscapes and action sequences that will thrill EVERYBODY.
Highlights of the film are the Clone-factory, the chase through Coruscant, the Arena battle, the Clone-Droid battle, the conveyor-belt scene, but most of all: the fight between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Yoda against the evil Count Dooku. The ending leaves enough for us to see more of Christopher Lee as this most threatening character since Darth Vader (or is it until Darth Vader?).
The acting is good, but not great, although Lee, MacGregor, Jackson and Oz (as the voice of Yoda) deliver strong performances. The love story between Anakin and PadmÃ© didn't convince completely, but it's still better than most teen-flicks we've seen in recent years. The love story was the weakest part of the film, but it didn't bother me that much.
Lucas did a good thing to stuff this film up with action, action and... uhm... even more action, so we don't have much time to think about the story (which is considerably better than The Phantom Menace). We roll from one action-sequence into another.
And the CGI? One word: fantastic! It's like George Lucas and Peter Jackson have a contest who creates the most breathtaking shots and views. Lucas has raised the bar once more and shows some serious battles. Star Wars indeed. All our thanks go to ILM for creating this.
Now, overall: Episode II is a great popcorn-action-ride, which it's supposed to be. It has its flaws, but they don't matter to me. I wasn't distracted by them. The references to Phantom Menace and the original trilogy are plenty and fun. I can't wait for Episode III, seemingly the darkest film in the saga.
We just have to see what the effect is of Yoda's words: "Begun these Clone Wars have..."