More fun than Phantom Menace, but fails to recapture the magic of Episodes 4-6

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2002)

** MILD SPOILERS ** Attack of the Clones was a darned sight better than Episode 1, and tried to regain some of the old formula (in particular, more one liners and better pacing), however it didn't quite get there. The script was atrocious, especially the love story between Anakin and Amidala ("soft and smooth ..." (the whole opening night audience cracked up on that one), or "I'm haunted by the memory of the kiss you shouldn't have given me", and was Anakin dreaming about his mother in that scene or was he ... I know Lucas wants us to believe he's engaging in modern myth-making, but Oedipus Rex?!?) What the Skywalker family's blood has in midi-chloridian count, it lacks in acting talent -- first Mark Hamill, now Hayden Christensen.
Characterisation remains hollow, there still isn't a charismatic Han Solo/Harrison Ford. Some of the other guys were just playing to type, e.g. Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft ("this party's over") and Christopher Lee as Saruman ("join me, and together we'll destroy the Sith/conquer Middle Earth"). Though satisfyingly, Ewan McGregor did a better job of Obi Wan than in the first movie.
The racial stereotypes still abound -- the Asian-looking and -sounding aliens remain the bad guy Trading Federation -- but George Lucas has added a new one, New Zealand Maoris as bounty hunters. In general you feel Lucas did his consumer market research and adjusted his product accordingly, e.g. Jar Jar Binks has a much diminished role, more battles with more Jedi, killed the tariff wars back-story -- he's the Master Movie (and Merchandise) Marketer, after all.
Episode 2's plot has more holes than Swiss cheese, but then again so did the original trilogy's. More troubling are the homespun political philosophies: the separatists, being manipulated by the Sith, do not seem to be demanding anything more evil than the right to self-determination and to practise capitalism (yes, that same evil system that greases Star Wars' and Hollywood's wheels). And the saga's wider story could be characterised as a galactic civil war between two arms of the same godlike family. Is this what we want to be feeding our culture and children? On humble Earth, the "Divine Right of Kings" was jettisoned in favour of democracy a long, long time ago already.
Ultimately, the movie was more fun than Episode 1 -- especially the last 30 minutes -- but the fun consists mostly of "in-jokes", e.g. between Obi Wan and Anakin ("... you'll be the death of me"), C3PO screaming "Die Jedi dogs!", and Yoda kicking butt. In fact, the venerable Jedi Master steals the show (the story does have a heavy moral, not the one about Anakin's journey to the dark side, but "Don't Mess With Yoda.") And the subplot involving Anakin's mother and Owen Lars ("this is my girlfriend, Beru") is pointless unless you were really into the original trilogy. As a stand-alone movie none of this would have made any sense, but because we Generation X'ers were brought up on the Star Wars myth, the allusions make the movie enjoyable.
Upshot: if you strip the love story out Attack of the Clones, it's about on par with Return of the Jedi ... go and see it if you're a fan of Episodes 4-6 but don't expect it to recapture the magic and orginality of Episodes 4-5.
Open plea to George: Please please hire the best director and script writer(s) you can for Episode 3 (they will line up to work for you), the Star Wars saga is too important to us fans for it to go out with a whimper!
AS A STAR WARS FAN: 8/10; AS A REGULAR MOVIE-GOER: 6/10