Review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) by Jon G — 23 Dec 2017

The romance stuff is weird and cringey, though not completely unexpected given Anakin's psychological makeup. The chase on Coruscant and the detective subplot with Obi-Wan are the movie's highlights in my opinion.

The scenes with Anakin's anger regarding the Tusken Raiders (both the scenes at the camp, and when he rages to Padme) are frightening in how real everything feels. You get a little glimpse into Anakin's mind, and Hayden Christensen does a phenomenal job there channeling his inner darkness.

Dialogue like "slaughtered them like animals. I hate them" is brutal in its viciousness, and very thematically necessary to properly understanding the Anakin character. The final third act on Geonosis starts out pretty cool, but then it goes a little too far over the top with CGI overkill (though, this IS the Clone Wars.

..). The lightsaber combat is underwhelming, with half-baked fights. It would have been nice to see a longer fight between Obi-Wan and Dooku (specifically, I wanted to see more of how Anakin would fight against the Count), and I honestly would have preferred seeing far more of that fight than the Yoda one (which felt too contrived).

Not as good as The Phantom Menace or Revenge of the Sith (Episode III is my favorite of the prequels, and probably my second favorite Star Wars movie behind The Empire Strikes Back), but still entertaining enough (also, it's a highly original affair, in contrast to the ridiculous sequel trilogy).