Almost there to the coolest film in the prequels!

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2015)

After the mixed critical response from fans and box office success of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas returned to direct the second film in the prequel trilogy, -- which was released from 1999 to 2005 -- and the second film was titled STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES and it was released on May 16, 2002 to mixed to positive reviews.
The film is set ten years after the Battle of Naboo, when the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of renegade Jedi Master Count Dooku, thousands of systems threaten to secede from the Republic. When an assassination attempt is made on Senator Padme Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo. Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker is assigned to protect her, while his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi is assigned to investigate the assassination attempt. Soon the Jedi, Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan are drawn into the heart of the separatist movement, and the beginning of a new threat to the galaxy: the Clone Wars.
The story is fast paced, lots of stuff goes on in this 2 hours and 22 minute long film that really makes this movie an improvement over the last film. The thrills in this film are much more awesome.
The action is more incredible and I will say, there are more lightsaber duels and big battles. My favorite lightsaber duels are the Jedi and the Droids fighting on the planet Geonosis and the final fight between Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and Count Dooku.
I was surprised and this is my only main criticism and this is why this STAR WARS film, along with STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, appeared on my list of Top 10 Underrated Movies on IMDb on my profile: Despite this film being an improvement over the previous film, the ending was confusing for me. I'm not gonna give that away, but I will say that to have this movie end with Anakin and Padme getting married in secret, could have been done a lot more better.
From an acting perspective, this film does wonders. Ewan McGregor returns as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and he does an incredible job this time around, but he has his good parts and bad parts in the film. Natalie Portman returns as Padme Amidala and she does really good in both the romantic and non-romantic scenes, but the only romantic scene I actually have a problem with is her character and Anakin kiss at her home in Naboo. Hayden Christensen may not be good as Anakin Skywalker in a few scenes, but some scenes he does struggle.
Frank Oz returns as Yoda, but this time, Yoda is CGI and he does an incredible job with the voice. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Mace Windu and he does an incredible job in the movie, especially having a lot more screen time and is fantastic in the action sequences. Ian McDiarmid is good as Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious. Jar Jar is the one who gives Palpatine emergency powers and this would play a huge part in the next film.
The rest of the cast is amazing and Kenny Baker & Anthony Daniels does great once again as C3PO and R2-D2.
The other criticism that I have is some of the dialogue. Lucas wanted to make the romantic scenes old-fashioned, but there is one problem: This was in 2002 and no teen could understand this, but I can.
His directing is once again top-notch, and this was the film that was the first film to have a turning point in special effects together.
My next criticism is that there is just WAY TOO MUCH CGI used in this film. I don't mind CGI at all, but there is nothing practical in this film at all and this film had a $115 million dollar budget and you could not use anything practical.
The music by John Williams, is as always fantastic to hear and he was composing Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when he was doing music for this film and my favorite music cue is the romantic ballad, "Across the Stars". The orchestra was just amazing for this musical score and the choir in the action sequences were really amazing.
I think I have to bring up another criticism, which is gonna be my final one and that is some of the acting: The acting in a few scenes is a little stupid, but it is some scenes in the film where I think the actors tried their best to read George Lucas' poor dialogue. This film is a great improvement over the last film and really intense and fun.
Hayden Christensen's performance may have you say something bad about him, but he is a good actor overall.
Overall, STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES is really good and my favorite along with EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH and all three films in the original trilogy. The action is more better, the dialogue is still a problem, but works in this film, the visual effects and action sequences is really fantastic and amazing, the music and production values are incredible. It's very close to getting a 10 out of 10 stars, so overall, I give this an 8 out of 10 and definitely something I can re-watch again.
I will wrap up my STAR WARS prequel trilogy with the third and final chapter of the prequel trilogy: STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH.