Not quite as good as Empire, but not far off

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2002)

I'm a huge Star Wars fan so I pretty much knew I would like Attack of the Clones going in. And I did enjoy it. It's not a flawless movie, and there is always room for improvement, but my complaints are minor.
The first half of the movie is pretty "talky" with only sporadic bits of action but the chit-chat is necessary so that the viewers can get some idea of what has happened in the past 10 years (the amount of time that has passed since the events in The Phantom Menace) and what is happening currently. The love scenes do have some clunky, cheesy dialogue but Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman do the very best they can with some pretty silly lines. Christensen is at his best when he's angry and conflicted (the Tusken raider scene and the following "confession" scene blew me away). Portman is stiff at times but then again, this befits the always-in-control personality of her character. Ewan McGregor does a great job as Obi-Wan and Sam Jackson and Christopher Lee do their parts well. Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine will give you the willies. And in one particularly memorable scene, we see why Yoda is the Master. The CGI is fabulous. There are a couple of CGI scenes that are less than perfect, but not many. As for the much-maligned love story...well, if you can't tell that they are in love by the time the arena battle takes place then you haven't been paying attention. I thought Christensen and Portman had great chemistry by the way. All in all, I give the movie an 8.5/10. I definitely recommend it, especially if you are a serious SW fan.