Better than Star Wars

Rating: 6/10 (15 May 2002)

I'm still deciding whether Attack of the Clones is the best Star Wars movie or the second best. All sentimentality aside, this movie literally took my breath away, something A New Hope never did. Before last night my favourite SW film was The Empire Strikes Back, then ANH, Return of the Jedi and finally, Episode I. Episode II fits either at the start or just after Empire. I read a few reviews before seeing the film and noted that critics tend to expect any film to be perfect in every way. Comments like "terrible scripting" and "bad acting" seem to be thrown around often but I'm sure if ANH was released today it would get just as bad reviews, maybe worse. In one line Attack of the Clones is as good as The Phantom Menace was bad. The special effects were freaky good and only one or two CG shots (out of hundreds) looked a tad fake. The rest is worthy of an Academy Award (although it may be forgotten by then). The sound was equally amazing from the seat rocking explosions to the bustling city of Coruscant to the quite waters of Naboo. I was especially impressed with the re-introduction of some of the old favourites (read: lasers). The score was fantastic and added so much to the film, plus picking up on the little themes from the original trilogy (Emperial March etc) weaved into the new score was a delight. The final shot was almost identical to the final shot in Empire Strikes Back except this time we have Anakin and Padme standing arm in arm while C3PO and R2D2 look on. Ahhhh, I just want to watch this film over and over again until Episode III comes out.