An improvement...

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2002)

Entering the cinema my expectations for Episode II were extremely low, as opposed to three years earlier with 'The Phantom Menace'. Perhaps this is the reason I enjoyed this movie so much more, but then again, perhaps not...
'Attack of the Clones' has a lot more of the genuine Star Wars "feel" to it. Although Hayden Christensen's performance as an actor isn't too impressing, it's still interesting to see his character start growing into what one day will become Darth Vader. The love story is intriguing but unfortunately ruined by poor acting and dialogue... George Lucas could use some kind of help with this kind writing/directing as it certainly isn't his field of expertise.
Natalie Portman is gorgeous but surprisingly dull in her performance, I'm thinking this isn't her own fault, but the director's, Evan McGregor is solid but the dialect gets annoying, Samuel L does his job, as does whoever is playing Yoda.
Despite it's few flaws, the poor acting mentioned and in my opinion excessive usage of digital fx and animation, this film is very watchable for anyone who liked the old Star Wars trilogy, I tried to think of the STORY and imagine it being acted a lot better, basically this movie is essential to Star Wars freaks, not because it is an excellent movie in itself (not too bad either!) but because you want to know what happened before the first trilogy. Can't wait to see the third and final episode and find out how Lucas managed to tie it all together!