a bunch of stuff

Rating: Null/10 (12 July 2002)

Attack of the Clones is a more energetic take compared to The Phantom Menace of the new trilogy but it still suffers from some of the same problems that take away from the Star Wars magic.
In this addition to the star wars saga, there is a lot of plot, but nothing really happening except to set up Star Wars for Episode IV yet again. I would call this the mystery genre Star Wars entry, in fact it might be more mystery than scifi. The best part of the movie comes from thinking about the mysteries, but not actually watching the visuals themselves. The Phantom Menace was far more artistic scene by scene than Attack of the Clones. This movie has too much inserting of famous icons and Jedi battles, force powers that so powerful they aren't exciting. In Empire Strikes Back, a whole new perspective of the force was created. It became telekinetic and there were moral lessons of its use. There is little nobility of the force displayed in this film, it's just there and is a weapon to be used.
Everything in this movie is so staged it's annoying. Though it is one of points of the movie, there was not much inventive in this movie, there was no big surprise of what will make Anakin turn to the dark side, despite the situations he is put in. I thought the biggest surprise of the movie was*SPOILER*

Anakin wielding two sabers, albeit briefly. That was cool, it showed how headstrong he was.
If this trilogy is supposed to be about Anakin, then why don't they show what's in his head. He just decides to do things and it's pretty unpredictable.
There are some good moments, like Yoda unknowingly talking face to face with supreme chancellor Palpatine in his office, but these occur early on and soon the movie turns into a chase of characters.

In this movie more than any other in the Star Wars series, the characters look like they have been cut into the scenes, and look like they have been composited into scenes instead of actually being in the environments.
The movie at times looks like was it is the realization of existing Star Wars video games, and not the other way around.
The Phantom Menace was more tragic than this movie, even though it was more playful in parts. A lot of stuff happens in this movie, but what does it show? It is more of a history documentary than a movie, and when some characters' origins are discussed, perhaps it is better to not even know about it. The biggest problem with this movie is the dealing with the clones near the end. All the sudden it's like the characters had a change of heart regarding them, it's as if a chunk of the movie is missing. Also two side notes from Episode I: Where are the midichlorians and their mystery, even if they didn't seem a popular concept? Anakin forgets his promise to "come back and free" his mother, though he sounded like he really meant it (Lloyd is more entertaining as Anakin than Christianson by the way). But in the time gap between then and this film, it seems he did nothing about it.