Review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) by Tom B — 13 Jun 2018

For the longest time, Attack of the Clones was considered my personal low point in the series, but after re-watching it during a palette cleansing session following the latest entry, I found that it held up a lot better than I thought.

The biggest problem with this entry were some of the casting choices, poor acting, and excessive reliance on CGI for the more nonsensical action sequences like the robot foundry. A lot of people complain that there were too many CGI sequences in general, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of the sequences people think are CGI were actually done with real sets and real props. The blending at that point had just gotten to the point that the two were indistinguishable.

Attack of the Clones fixed some of the problems from the previous entry, but added some new ones of its own. Regardless, I appreciate that George Lucas had an overarching story line for the trilogy and stuck to it. The story is consistent, and coherent, and even challenges your understanding of character motivations, such as with Dooku.

The visuals are still on par with what modern audiences expect. Locations are once again fantastic, and we are introduced to more new settings. It progresses the trilogy, but doesn't really blow your mind with any revelations.

Well worth watching, particularly if you have a soft spot for angsty CW quality romance.