SPOILERS: MUCH better than The Phantom Menace, but not quite as good as thefilms in the classic trilogy, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2002)

I was able to catch an advanced showing of the Star Wars prequel, Attack of the Clones in Westwood. The showing was for a large group of theater owners to get them excited over the film.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Attack of the Clones starts out with an explosion of a boomerang shaped Naboo starship and an attempt on former Queen, now senator Padme Amidala. The film, after an exciting chase on airspeeders, through the vast openness of Corescant breaks down into two seperate sections, Anakin traveling with Padme to protect her from potential assassins, and Obi-Wan sent by the Jedi Council to investigate the recents attempts on Padme's life. One of the things that make this prequel far better than The Phantom Menace is that the storyline is designed for a more mature audience, as much of the kiddie humor is eliminated as Anakin is now more fully grown as a Jedi Apprentice.
There are even some nods to the classic trilogy, (Obi-Wan slicing off a bounty hunter's arm in a Corescant bar, a chase in an asteroid field above the surface of Coruscant, etc) I also like how much more fully developed the characters are in this film as compared to Episode One, instead of a whining, pouting Obi-Wan Kenobi, as a Jedi Apprentice, we see this character better developed into a younger version of the old wise Jedi Knight that we all know and love from the classic trilogy. Even though Anakin has replaced Obi-Wan as the whiny Jedi apprentice this time.
Some parts of the film still get quite silly though as the romantic elements could have been better written, I mean, I realize that Anakin and Padme are supposed to fall in love so that they can produce both Luke and Leia, from the classic trilogy as their children, but instead of a mature romance, Lucas goes for a usual teenage romance with many of the same consequences and bickering. The sequence where Anakin and Padme share time on a Naboo lake can get quite irritating to watch as it disrupts the flow created by some of the earlier action sequences. The scenes with Anakin and Padme on Naboo talking about politics and their course in life, in my opinion was the weakest part of the film. Those scenes just really slowed things down quite a bit. Plus, yes, folks Jar Jar Binks IS in the film as a bumbling senator with much of his juvenille dialoge attached, forunately, his scenes are brief, and his vote on an important scene in the senate shows the important element he is to this film. Also, this may sound a little too picky, but as watching the movie I couldn't help but notice that the characters from The Phantom Menace (Obi-Wan, Padme, Mace Windu, etc.) don't look much older than they did in that film. However, Anakin looks a lot older in the film as it takes place ten years after the events in The Phantom Menace, which is another small problem that bothered me from time to time as I was watching this.
Obi-Wan then begins his investigation into the attempts on Padme's life on a watery planet called Kamino the source of the Clones in the film. (The special effects in this sequence make the rainstorms in The Perfect Storm look outdated by comparassion!)
We begin to see Anakin's turn to the dark side as something dreadful happens to his mother and the actions that he takes in revenge. This is a very emotional scene and will bring chills to the audience.
Which finally leads to the all-out battle action sequence on the planet Genossis, where hundreds of Jedi battle all sorts of battle droids and Genosians, (who look like tall walking/flying grasshoppers with weird laser guns), Another thing which slightly disappointed me was the lack of a major space battle at the end making this the first Star Wars film of the saga to not end with a major space battle of some sort.
In short, Lucas has more than made up from the downfalls and mistakes displayed in Episode One, and this time has thankfully returned to the fun and excitement displayed in the films of the classic trilogy! The audience of theater owners gave the film a loud applause after the credits ended and many of them cheerfully stated that Attack of the Clones was really the film that episode one SHOULD have been. My faith in the Star Wars saga has cheerfully returned after many years.
The performances are much better than those in The Phantom Menace, Heyden Christensen makes a much better Anakin than the bratty, Jake Lloyd. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan seems more comfortable than he was in Episode One, and Natalie Portman's Padme Amidala has eliminated much of the monotone performance she had in the last film. The REAL standout however, is Christopher Lee whose Count Dooku is on par with his evil performance as Sauroman in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
So to break it down here are the high points and low points of Attack of the Clones:
HIGH POINTS:
Better character development than in The Phantom Menace
More mature screenplay with less juvenille jokes.
Amazing special effects on par with The Phantom Menace.
Jango Fett and Count Dooku are much better villians than Darth Maul was in episode one.
LOW POINTS:
Romantic elements between Anakin and Padme can get quite silly and conventional at times.
Slow pacing as a result of those scenes.
Jar Jar still has some of his juvenille dialoge intact.
No big space battle at the end.

An eight on a scale of one to ten.