poor dialogue, but that was never lucas' strength. brilliant otherwise.

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2002)

"the clones" gets off to a great start, moves slowly in the middle act, then brings us home with some brilliant sequences. it has been criticized for its lack of meaningful dialogue, but look back on the other four "star wars" films-- lucas does not seem very interested in it. the love story angle of the film works only because it has to-- there are many uncomfortable scenes between anakin and padme. visually, "episode II" is great, and it was fun getting to know old, familiar characters better through action. lucas wisely leaves out the things that made "phantom" weak-- jar jar plays a very minor role, the word "meticlorene" (sp.?) is not mentioned, and there are no jokes involving bodily functions. "episode II" is strong, and it sets us up for a great adventure in "episode III." i rated it an 8.