An improvement from Phantom Menace but that's not saying much!

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2016)

As the title to this review states Attack of the clones is an improvement in the saga from its predecessor The Phantom Menace, however this film continues the common trend of problems that the prequel saga had. Although saying that there are some good and memorable moments in this film.
The first positive of the film is one specific performance and that is of Ewan McGregor. Who once again in the sequel to The Phantom Menace is brilliant as an aged Obi-Wan, but this time shows different qualities to his performance whilst building on the ones from the first film. He shows a great maturity in the character, due to the fact that he has been training Anakin and that the has sort of taken father like role to Anakin as well. This is especially seen in the chase from Zam Wesell when she hides in the bar, Obi-Wan tells Anakin to think and to remind him that his lightsaber is his life.
The next positive of the film is the expansion of the universe in the galaxy. Unlike any other Star Wars up until that point there hadn't been to so many exotic planets, from Kamino to Geonosis. Those worlds are new,exciting and a breath of fresh air for the franchise, it also shows the possibilities of the galaxy and what it can hold. The Arena battle on Geonosis encapsulates the imagination of George Lucas and the risks he was prepared to take in this new direction for the saga. Also the space battle between Jango Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi is fantastic especially the sound of the charges that Fett drops is mind blowing. All of this was widening the possibilities of the franchise and the different places and situations it could go.
The other positive to the film is brief but brilliant and that is of Christopher Lee and his fantastic portrayal of Count Dooku. This interpretation of a villain is similar to Darth Vader from the original trilogy in the fact that once Dooku was once a Jedi. However everything else about the character is different,new,menacing,witty and clever. There is also the brilliant mannerisms of Christopher Lee , which seems time fit straight away into a Star Wars film, a sort of grand lord or master of some kind.
Now onto the negatives of the film, number one, Hayden Christensen. Plain and simple this is a bad performance there is nothing that makes me feel for the character nor does it make me want to root for him during his battles. His acting is extremely wooden and bland, though saying that it is probably not helped by the infamous George Lucas dialogue. However saying that Christensen did pull off some consistency with the character of Anakin and that's the fact that majority of the audience will hate him and find him annoying, that's quite achievement.
The droids once again useless................*sigh*...................no more to say.
Anakin and Padme dialogue..............*sigh*........*vomit*...............*kill myself again*
The lightsaber battles. Yes you read the correctly the lightsaber battles in a Star Wars film were far to over the top and boring. At know point during them did ever feel that the heroes were in danger due to the lack of tension building or dangerous circumstances. You only feel bad for the heroes situation after the bad event has happen, such as Anakin 's arm being cut off. Although the lightsaber battles needed to be modernised from the original trilogy this was step to far, which is a shame considering The Phantom Menace pulled it off.
Another negative of the film is the CGI, and even for 2002 this looks dated. The CGI and special effects used in the original trilogy majority if not 80% to 90% still hold up today. For Attack of the Clones that number is more 40% to 50% just look bad and old. Especially with the droids and the clone troopers which all were an effect, no one could be bothered to put some extras in clone trooper costume, just a bit lazy if you ask me. The battle on Geonosis you can clearly see where the CG clone troopers have been added in afterwards due the position of the actors eye line. This is really sad to see considering that this is a franchise that was built on how good its special effect were.
The last negative and the most important is the story/script by George Lucas. Which needless to say is just bland,boring and in some places awful. This is and was the common problem with the prequel trilogy that the story around the characters and the dialogue they spoke was no where near as good as it was in the original trilogy. For some weird reason Lucas had lost some creative edge when it came to writing and no one at 20th Century Fox did anything to stop him, but you can't blame them really.
Finally this film does have its good moments and a few memorable performances, it also expands the Star Wars universe like no other film had done. Unfortunately the many negatives of the film outweigh the positives with the film, although saying that this film does leave off on a reasonable cliffhanger. This film is 60 out of 100 an improvement from the Phantom Menace but not by much, unfortunately the prequel trilogy probably can't recover from this!