Flawed STAR WARS film

Rating: Null/10 (13 October 2003)

Attack Of The Clones continues the story from 1999's THE PHANTOM MENACE-Obi-Wan Kenobi(Ewan Mcgregor) is now a Jedi Master, Anakin Skywalker(Hayden Christensen) is his Padawan, and Queen Amidalia(Natalie Portman) has decided to take Palpatine's place as the Senator from her home planet. However, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine(Ian Mcdiarmid), AKA "Darth Sidious" is up to no good, and is playing both sides in a galactic conflict between his Republic and the "Seperatists", led by Count Dooku(Christopher Lee) who is secretly working for Palpatine to start a war-the Clone Wars mentioned briefly in the original STAR WARS. AOTC attempts to address many of PHANTOM's flaws. There's less Jar-Jar, the henchman this time have a lot more to do and say, there's no scatological humor and the film is a lot more darker in tone. The film is also more visually and thematically linked to the original trilogy. However, there are still flaws. The two leads-Hayden and Natalie-give cringeworthy performances, and the love dialogue they're given to say doesn't help.(This is perhaps more Lucas's fault than theirs-both stars have been good actors in other films). Ewan Mcgregor, as Obi-Wan, tries to do his best but he's mainly stuck with bad wisecracks and exposition dialogue. The best performances come from returning old trilogy actors-Daniels(C-3PO) Oz(Yoda) and Mcdiarmid(Palpatine) as well as Christopher Lee(Who also plays a slightly similar villain in the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy) and Temura Morrison, who plays the "father" of the Stormtrooopers and Boba Fett. The direction is OK-Lucas's transitions and edits are a little better here than in TPM, but still are very sloppy, especially in the film's final battle sequences, which fail to capture the suspense of the similar ground battle in "The Empire Strikes Back". The special FX range from excellent to poor...particuarly with the Clonetroopers, who look excellent when we see one or two, but are obviously cut-and-pasted in assembly shots in the middle and end of the film. Overall, it's a passable "Star Wars" film, but still could have been a lot better.