Star Wars Reviews: Attack of the Clones

Directed by: George Lucas
Written by: George Lucas
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and Christopher Lee

The Phantom Menace was released back in 1999, and set new standards in motion picture disappointment. Truthfully, while I don't think it's a bad movie at all and that it's been vicitimised for having the Star Wars label and not meeting the expectations of enthusiasts of the original trilogy. I won't make the case for apologising for it. It's clearly apparent why it letdown so many people. Everyone deserves a second chance though, don't they? Three years in waiting and the excitement of a George Lucas having learned from his mistakes back on his game could only be leveled by the anxiety of not knowing what was in store. 2002 wasn't an astonishing year in film, but it had its gems. Gangs of New York, Chicago, Frida and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers made their mark on the cinematic year, so wouldn't it be great for another Star Wars to join the ranks? Attack of the Clones was what we received, and once again audiences were left feeling bitter. Is it better than the previous movie? In my opinion, it is marginally superior, but I'd be careless to not suggest that in some ways it's WORSE.

While viewing Attack of the Clones, there's a disconcerting vibe omnipresent through the entire film that George Lucas didn't do his homework very well. We hated Jar Jar, we hated Jake Lloyd, we hated the childish humour and we hated how seemingly isolated it was from our beloved trilogy of the past. It seems that Lucas listened to what critics had to say and ensured that what bothered us most about The Phantom Menace was used minimally, if at all, in Attack of the Clones. Unfortunately, that didn't mean there wouldn't be something else to get upset about. Personally, I enjoy this film, and it's also the longest Star Wars film by run time, but you really do feel that length.

Storywise, it takes place about ten years after the events of the previous installment. The Republic is facing a separatist movement led by a mysterious former Jedi. After an assassination attempt on Padmé Amidala, now a senator, Anakin Skywalker is tasked with being her protector and begins a forbidden love affair. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi chases up on the conspiracy and discover a clone army being raised for the Republic, which for years had been kept secret.

To summarise where the real flaws of Attack of the Clones sit, it's mostly in dialogue and character, but for the sake of being positive, I'll start off on the elements of this movie I really enjoyed.

Unlike its predecessor, I really like how its plot seems to finally begin construction towards something bigger, and specters at what's to follow. We get the see the beginnings of the Clone Wars mentioned in the 1977 original, we really get a taste of Palpatine's dictatorial ambition, and we finally get a bit of a sense of what's going on in the mind of the man who would finally become Darth Vader.

In some ways, the casting is brilliant. I've praised Ewan McGregor before as the ideal choice for a younger Obi-Wan. For a role that was made so iconic by Sir Alec Guinness, I feel that McGregor captures that character's wisdom and mentoring brilliance with great passion. I'd secondly also like to give praise to the late Christopher Lee as the villain Count Dooku. While not exceptionally well-written, I must admit I'm at a bit of a bias praising a man who played both Dracula and a James Bond villain earlier in his career. The fact is Lee is one of the all-time great screen villains and his performance here isn't an exception.

Attack of the Clones suffers from much of the same over-politicising of story that marked its predecessor for a scornful response, but at least here it seems like it's actually working towards bigger story goals as opposed to just creating context.

Effective these might be however, they don't act as a replacement for the fantasy that is Star Wars, which is greatly improved here. There's no mention of the science-centric 'Midichlorian' nonsense. Genre-wise I feel it's much more varied, making contributions (often uneven) in sci-fi, mystery, romance and the political thriller all at once. This ambitious mixture might best be shown during its final act, where the thrills of the famed arena sequence are complimented by some fine chuckle-worthy comedic relief in C-3PO. On action though, I'm compelled to say that the final duel against Dooku is disappointing. It just doesn't have the acrobatics that have become synonymous with these prequels, and the thirty seconds of Yoda duelling seem more like a useless fan service than something to really praise the film on. It's not the only example of this either.

The poorest aspects of Attack of the Clones and the ones that actually make The Phantom Menace look better comparatively are in Anakin, Padmé and their romance. It's just horrible on so many levels. While Christensen's Anakin supplies us with the image of a bitter, over-ambitious Jedi progressively falling under the influence of the Dark Side, he's directed very poorly and some of his exchanges with Natalie Portman are bordering laughable. How a motivated politician would fall for a damaged, egoistic and even creepy man like Anakin is beyond all belief I can muster. The only thing that's fortunate about this is it constitutes the very worst thing we've seen in Star Wars, and that's it. Lucas clearly needed to rush these two characters into a relationship to set the stage for the next film. It's been done and now it can be forgotten.

To summarise my thoughts? I certainly like this prequel more than The Phantom Menace, but not by very much. While it aims at greater experimenting, more thrilling action and it exploits its better qualities far more economically, it also walks itself into its own class of pitfalls which in turn shouldn't be easily forgiven, Star Wars movie or not. It certainly didn't hurt fans as much as the 16 year disappointment from 1999, and at least there's a sense that Lucas is structuring his story in favour of his finale planned in the next few years.

My Rating: 7.5/10