Succeeds in spite of itself

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2019)

"Attack of the Clones" opens 10yrs later and finds Queen, er, Senator Padme Amidala still playing her look alike decoy games even though this surely would've been public knowledge after the events of "Phantom Menace". Weak. Then we find Anakin now about 20yo as apprentice to longer haired Obi-Wan but when they meet Padme, love-lorn Anakin goes way off script backtalking Obi-Wan forcing the latter to chastise him in front of everyone. This scene is beyond ridiculous since any such recalcitrant behavior would've been disciplined out of him by this point. So weak. Then the speeder chase scene at night in a lot of multi-level traffic proceeds mishap-free as if there were no other vehicles in sight. Weak. And this is just the opening few minutes! The dialogue is just immature at best, and all Anakin's patronizing "yes, Master"'ing is so tiresome. When the assailant/fugitive is captured by Obi and Anakin - which btw are neglecting their primary protection duty of Padme - the bounty hunter who hired her darts her dead when he could've as easily darted them! They apparently didn't "sense" that danger! There are key story elements that dangle like loose ends. For instance, what is this prophecy of One who will bring the Force back into balance? That was first brought up in Phantom but it's not detailed/described, there's no evidence the Force is out of balance! There's just this unsupported bantering about it. The whole Padme/Anakin dynamic which is supposed to be Jedi protecting a Senator is a dumb romantic courtship. Someone as influential and attractive as Padme would've long been taken by another politician to increase their power structure, but instead we're treated to an adolescent fever dream. The rest of the film suffers from the same half-baked writing and direction, thanks again to an unchecked George Lucas. This is the poor level of storytelling/film-making you get when the same guy is the only executive producer, director, writer, and editor! That's one dude with control issues.