Jaw dropping effects and exceptionally fun moments heavily weighed down by some poor performances.

Rating: 1/10 (18 May 2002)

After seeing Attack of the Clones today I left the theater chatting with my friends about the insane coolness that is Yoda and other such things, but I also felt a little disappointed. For a good portion of the film I had gone back to my wide-eyed days of a pre-teen as ships raced through the skies and lightsabers sliced the air. I felt that tingle of excitement as dozens of jedi drew the sabers, preparing for the ensuing battle. Unfortunately, I am no longer at the age of ten or eleven.
The film, despite how fun it can truly be at times, is brought to a crashing halt frequently during the middle portion of the film. It's difficult to be a kid and enjoy a love story, but it's even more difficult to not be a kid and find yourself attempting to swallow a poorly delivered love story. I seriously found the scenes in which Anakin and Amidala fall in love to be painful to watch. The performances are horrendous. I have never seen Christensen (Anakin) in anything else, so I have no other roles to compare him to, but he is, to put it frankly, rather bad in Episode 2.

Now I don't think it is actually his fault. Take a talented actor like Ian McKellan or the late Sir Alec Guiness from the original trilogy and give them Christensen's lines. George Lucas can create some very interesting stories, but he should leave the finer details to someone with a talent for dialogue. Portman's character is just as guilty for saying some of the silliest things to come around in a while.
Besides the bad dialogue, this love story just plain makes no sense. It is never truly explained how anyone like Amidala could fall for a weirdo like Anakin who seems to gradually lose his sanity throughout the film. I would think she would be terrified of a man who is both insistent on her loving him, and a maniac slaughterfest waiting to happen.
Now to escape from the negative I will say this: The last 45 minutes is incredible. It truly shows how far the special effects industry has come. It is amazing, breathtaking. I'm sure you've heard this from everyone, but Yoda does steal the show. From being a General in battle to showing off his badass jedi skills, Yoda is by far the greatest thing this film offers.
When you go (and you most likely already have) try to make it as best as possible through the inane dialogue. Laughing at it usually does the trick (just because it's Star Wars doesn't mean you can't make fun of it). The beginning is alright, the middle a little tedious (the stuff with Obi-Wan and the cloners is actually quite fascinating), but it is in the end that you can finally take your thinking cap off and just scream aloud, "SWEET!" It really is that incredible.
Attack of the Clones is not a terrible film. Sure, it has subpar performances and awful dialogue, but if you can put it behind you and enjoy the final, jaw-dropping battle, then you will leave not feeling that your time was wasted. I enjoyed the movie. It is quite an improvement over Episode 1. Yes, I was disappointed by the script, but the action is intense and extremely well crafted. Episode 1 contained too much empty space between its more entertaining scenes, but Episode 2 does keep the action coming in steady doses. If it didn't, you would surely be put to sleep by the antics of Amidala and Anakin.