Weakest of the bunch.

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2015)

Disclaimer: I am 18 years old and until now I had never seen Star Wars. While most people's view on Star Wars nowadays is clouded by nostalgia, here is my unaffected take on these 'classics'. I'm watching in this order: IV - V - I - II - III - VI
I found The Phantom Menace to be quite enjoyable. This sequel feels merely like an extension of it, with similar decent humor, writing and acting. Not a bad by any means, but definitely not an improvement either.
If anything, I would actually say that Attack of the Clones is slightly worse than its predecessor. The cast feels like a downgrade. Liam Neeson and (in my opinion) surprisingly charming Jake Lloyd have left the cast and Hayden Christensen has stepped in. Christensen's Anakin Skywalker feels odd, unpredictable and quite confusing. One second he is acting like he is about to turn evil, and then the next I'm supposed to be rooting for him? Maybe that is just how his character is written, with Skywalker being of his rebellious age, but it is not appreciated in my eyes.
Also, Yoda seems a bit off. I don't know how to explain it. He was really charming in IV and V, and I hardly payed much attention to him in I. But in this movie, I've noticed that he is not as funny anymore and his knick of rephrasing sentences has really started to wear off as entertaining.
Though as mentioned earlier, in almost all other aspects, Attack of the Clones is just a 'clone' (heh) of The Phantom Menace. It is just the slightly weaker cast that drags it down by comparison.
Not a bad movie. McGregor, Portman and most of the cast still shine. So does the writing and the action. I did enjoy this movie. But out of the ones I've seen so far, (IV, V, I, II) this is the 'worst' one yet.
But being 'worst' is far from being bad in this franchise, needless to say.