Star Wars Episode 2 : Attack Of The Clones (2002)

The original “Star Wars” trilogy is undoubtably the most popular sci-fi movie franchise in cinema history and when director George Lucas announced plans for a second trilogy of prequel movies there was much anticipation. Despite being massively hyped before release, 1999's Star Wars Episode 1 : The Phantom Menace was widely viewed as a disappointment with many people hating the film. Expectations were mixed for the second prequel - the cheesily-titled “Attack Of The Clones” - with some predicting another disaster, while many keen Star Wars fans anticipated a return to form for the Star Wars series. Upon arrival it’s fair to say that the quality of the movie ended up in the range between the two expectations.

One thing all the Star Wars films have been notable for is fully exploiting the available special effects techniques and AOTC is no exception. Although some might complain that CGI is over-used in creating the spectacular cityscapes and battle scenes the movie is certainly visually impressive. The action scenes are reasonably entertaining but, aside from the final battle, there is little here that is superior to the action scenes in any other big-budget Hollywood movie and as an action movie AOTC is completely outclassed by films such as “The Matrix” and “Terminator 3”, as well as the original “Star Wars” film. Many of the set-pieces seem overly familiar as well - the flying cars are straight out of “Blade Runner” and “The Fifth Element” - and there’s little real sci-fi speculation here. Star Wars has never been about pushing the boundaries of science fiction or making bold predictions of the future, it has always concentrated more on telling an entertaining story - but this is where problems start to arise.

An interesting plot and good, memorable dialogue were two things that were conspicuously missing in Episode 1. Episode 2 improves on the plot side - the machinations between the Jedi Council and the manipulative Senate Leader Palpatine has a great deal of potential for an interesting story - but the dialogue is possibly even more banal. Thankfully the immensely irritating supposedly comic CGI creation Jar Jar Binks has only a minor role but that’s still too much of a role. Jake Lloyd’s performance as the child Anakin Skywalker was also much criticised in Episode 1 but Hayden Christiansen’s performance here as the teenage Anakin isn’t an improvement. Christiansen’s acting is wooden and fails to convey any real emotion in what should be a fascinating role as the Jedi who would later become Darth Vader ends up looking like a petulant teenager. He isn’t helped by some truly terrible writing - the dialogue for the growing romance between him and Senator Amidala (Natalie Portmann) is trite and unconvincing. The dialogue in the rest of the film isn’t much better, with the exception of a confrontation between Ewan MacGregor’s Jedi master and a lowlife dealer of “Deathsticks” there is virtually no memorable dialogue apart from a few lines lifted from the original trilogy.

Most of the actors make a valiant performance to overcome the poor script but despite the best efforts of Portmann, MacGregor, Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee (in a virtual re-tread of his Lord Of The Rings role as Saruman) the writing still drags the film down. The direction is merely competent, wasting the opportunity provided by the excellent CGI - the final battle is a good example of this, although there are many action shots in it it’s difficult to get a coherent picture of the progress of the battle. The music is similarly uninspired - a casual listener would have problems distinguishing this from the scores of any other Star Wars movie.

Overall, Star Wars Episode 2 isn’t as bad as the first film, still manages to be quite entertaining if you don’t demand an intelligent plot and is probably worth seeing but is nowhere near as good as the original Star Wars film and the poor script ruins what could have been a great film.

Rating : 6 / 10

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All content ©2003 William Marnoch.

Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .