Attack of the clones is an improvement on its predecessor, but is nothing special, and very woodenly acted.

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2017)

Episode 2 is undoubtedly better than the Phantom Menace, and continues the strengths of the first film whilst cutting down on the weaknesses. It is not however greater than any Star Wars Films other than its predecessor. Positives are once again the action sequences and special effects, but the real way Attack of the Clones improves on Episode One is by trimming away some of the unpopular areas of the first film. For example, there is far less of the first film's annoying and embarrassing comic relief, Jar Jar Binks, and slightly more action. Now for what I disliked about the film. First of all, George Lucas' dialogue has deteriorated even further than in the previous movie, and his story writing is uninspiring. There are some lines in Attack of the Clones which were too dreadful to fully comprehend on a first viewing. Performances in the film are, in most cases poor; Hayden Christensen, who portrays an older Anakin Skywalker, produces some of the most memorably awful acting that has ever graced the franchise, although shoddy dialogue could be argued as a root cause for the robotic performance Christensen gives. He and Natalie Portman's Padme Armidala engage in one of the most unconvincingly written romantic relationships in cinematic history, not helped by Portman's disappointing performance. Character development is once again missing, and you still can't get behind any of the main protagonists. At least on a positive note, we see Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu and Master Yoda get action scenes, and an antagonist superior to Darth Maul in Count Dooku, as portrayed by the late Christopher Lee. Overall, a marginally better installment than the previous film, which is dull, but more convincing than Episode One.