Give it a Second Chance

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2009)

While I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars Franchise I wanted to write an unbiased review to help those that haven't seen this movie.
Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the clones is about a young Jedi Named Anakin Skywalker and the beginning of his fall from grace from the Jedi Order, by deciding to pursue a love affair (Jedi are not allowed to fall in love). There is a subplot involving his Master(teacher)learning about the secrets that could lead to war. (For fans I know these are Extreme Generalizations)
Hayden Christensen plays the young Anakin Skywalker who falls in love with an older senator played by Natalie Portman. While they are both wonderful actors on their own, there was no chemistry between them during scenes in which they were supposed to be falling love. They seemed uncomfortable with each other and I couldn't help but feel an awkward tension watching the scenes. I don't believe that Lucas made a bad choice in casting them, but I do believe that he made a bad choice in allowing them to act out the scenes with out trying to build more chemistry between them. As a director he should have tried to bring something out of them would that would have made the love scenes (or falling in love) scenes believable.
Another problem is that the movie cuts back and forth between the two subplots. This is similar the original trilogy, but doesn't work quite as well here. The main reason is because there are two different plots happening at the same time, but they don't match. In many ways they seem parts of different movies.
The movie as a whole, however, is not as awful as some die hard fans want us to believe. There was a different chemistry between Han and Leia (Han Solo and Leia Organa play out a tit for tat love affair that blossoms over three films). Anakin and Padme don't have that luxury, which results in asking the fans to suspend disbelief for far to long.
The love affair is also far to melodramatic for the star wars series. There are lines that seemed to be misplaced in the movie, in other words they belong in a soap opera. This is simply bad script writing. But it doesn't destroy the movie.
Whew! that was a lot! All of that said, the movie is worth watching. There are plenty of space chases, aliens, and Ewan McGregor's wonderful acting (as obi-wan Kenobi). There is a sense of suspense during this interesting subplot in which you find yourself rooting for Obi-wan and wanting to learn the secrets.
For fans its a real treat to see the Jedi temple and the Jedi as they were before the Fall of the republic. For new comers, the cinematic CGI is beautiful and sometimes even deceptive. While some fans don't enjoy the CGI affects its very difficult to make a movie of this size and technical difficulty with out it. It keeps production costs low while keeping the integrity of the film. Lucasarts does some wonderful work and make leaps and bounds that made movies like I Robot possible.
*Also, if there are any fans of Seneca or Stoic Theory this movie is a fun exercise of Senecan stoicism.