The weakest of the trilogy

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2015)

In my opinion Attack of the Clones is the weakest movie in the prequel trilogy and the worse Star Wars movie we've had to date, if you discount the Holiday Special.
Not because it had any single element in it that was just awful, like Jar Jar or Saint Ani the Precocious, but because it just fails as a basic movie experience. The plot jumps around too much, the characters are the least interesting thing in the whole movie and the middle part syndrome of storytelling hits it quite badly. You've already established the characters in the first film, yet the big climax has to wait until the third. So what else is there to be done except character building. And the movie is awful at that, as already stated.
I think that the biggest problem has to be that there is absolutely no chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, playing Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, respectively. This is supposed to be something huge. A romance that tore the galaxy apart and doomed the entire Jedi Order, yet it feels exactly like what it is. Two young adults, teenagers quite honestly, falling to their hormones. Oh yeah, that has Star Wars written all over it. And I could buy that, possibly, if I could even buy the fact that these two even like each other. But they don't. Especially Padmé spends most of the film being visibly annoyed by Anakin, which I'm not sure was the intention. I think Portman simply had problems with the role, which is a shame because she can be really good in the right movie. I'm also annoyed that Padmé was reduced to this from the tough infiltrating, gun-toting, droid-destroying badass that she was in the first film.
But there is some good stuff as well. I still like Ewan McGregor a lot as younger Obi-Wan Kenobi. He has some hokey scenes as well, but I think I'm more inclined to blame the script rather than him in this case. Because in most scenes his dry wit is the only thing holding those scenes together. And naturally we have Ian McDiarmid as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who effortlessly hits just the right amount of over the top to remind us of the original trilogy. Because those weren't serious film, not really. They were deep enough to be taken seriously, but their tone was that of an adventure, of myth.
Plus, the special effects are still awesome, even today. The music is very, very good. And it's actually very cool to see the original stormtroopers. Kudos for that.
But, when it comes down to it, it's only an average movie at best. It has some really good elements in it, but it also has some really bad ones. It's worth a watch if you're into the franchise, but to me this is the low point of the story.