Good addition to the saga, and far better than Episode I

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2003)

****Warning, spoilers ahoy*****
First off, you're unlikely to enjoy this movie unless you've both seen and enjoyed the other Star Wars movies (well, at least enjoyed the original trilogy) because :
A) You won't know what's going on otherwise, and; B) If you don't like Star Wars in general, you're not going to be able to overlook it's flaws and enjoy the many good things about it
Secondly, much of the criticism of this movie is unfair. In terms of special effects and sound the film is of course brilliant, but it's also better in every department than the mediocre Phantom Menace - tighter direction, better dialogue, less Jar Jar (and when he does appear he's actually funny and has a purpose), more adult action sequences. Hayden Christenson excepted, the cast range from at least good to great - Ewan McGregor, Iain McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, Samuel L Jackson and Natalie Portman all turn in performances which, while lacking some of the spark present in the original trilogy, are at least as good as those in the average Hollywood blockbuster.
The score does borrow from the other four films, but when it does recycle this music it's almost always done in a really effective way - note the use of the Imperial March as the stormtroopers board their ships to begin the clone war. And the score does contain the lovely, original, Across the Stars.
The plot, which was the Phantom Menace's strongest point, is again particularly good, and deals with some quite adult themes - the Galactic Senate, filled with greedy, corrupt politicians, is manipulated into creating the clone army (which we know from the original trilogy will form the basis of the Empire's military might) to fight a war which was instigated by the Sith purely to allow the creation of this army. It's a shame the sequence of Amidala arguing against the creation of the army (available on the DVD) was deleted - the idea of a military/industrial complex taking over a society from within and needing a war to justify this is actually quite prescient.
This is not to say that the movie is flawless, or as good as the original trilogy. The editing in the middle of the film is quite shoddy - constantly jumping from Anakin and Amidala falling in love to Obi Wan investigating the clones. Just when a scene starts to get interesting we're off to the other side of the galaxy. Also, the amount of CGI used is ridiculous - fair enough, many of the sequences simply couldn't be created without extensive use of CG, but one has to question the fact that every single stormtrooper in the film was computer generated. I can't help but think that the amount of blue screen needed for this must have affected the actors performances. And no matter how good CG is, it just can't replicate the randomness of the real world - many of the backgrounds in the film just look a little too perfect, and everything seems to lack the washed out colour of the original trilogy. Everything in the originals looked real, whereas in Attack of the Clones many of the sequences look like cut scenes from a playstation game.
In addition, it has to be said that for large parts of the film Hayden Christensen delivers quite a wooden perfomance (although it has to be said he's still an improvement on Jake Lloyd). It doesn't help that alot of his dialogue also feels clumsy and corny - it's hard not to watch the love sequences and not squirm, but it's telling that Natalie Portman gives a far stronger performance than Hayden in these scenes. Some of the dialogue in the rest of the film, particularly C-3P0's awful gags in the arena battle, is also quite wooden, although alot better than that in the Phantom Menace.
However, if you can forgive these flaws you'll be rewarded with a film which is a worthy addition to the Star Wars saga, and which contains some absolutely classic Star Wars sequences - Obi Wan fighting Jango Fett on the landing platform, Anakin racing into the desert as the Skywalker theme segues into Duel of the Fates, the Jedi kicking serious ass in the arena battle, Anakin and Obi Wan's furious argument aboard the gunship, the astonishing battle scenes at the end (with the irony of the Jedi leading the stormtroopers into battle), Yoda fighting, and my personal favourite, Yoda teaching the Jedi kids. These scenes sum up everything Star Wars is about, and are easily on a par with the original trilogy.
Let's just hope the upward curve continues come Episode III.
Rating - 7/10