Review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) by Ken S — 21 Dec 2015

Arguably the worst of the Star Wars saga, Attack of the Clones proves that George Lucas completely misses the point of the prequels and after the pointless and terrible Phantom Menace, this movie focuses on the romance between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala more than anything else, instead of the friendship of Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi and the corruption and seduction of Anakin like how it was explained in the original Star Wars trilogy. The Clone Wars begin too late because of the pointlessness of The Phantom Menace, and misses the opportunity of improving Anakin and Obi-Wan's friendship so it can matter more in the next movie. The pointlessness of The Phantom Menace also forces the last film to begin at the end of the war which shows that the whole Clone Wars angle is a missed opportunity. It doesn't work as a Star Wars movie because of these.

Despite all this, it also doesn't work as a movie on its own either. The story is basically a horrible love story, and the parts that aren't part of the love story (which is the Clone Wars arc) is quite stupid.

The characters aren't interesting either. Our main character, Anakin, is a whiny, murderous, creepy stalker, and I hate him. His romance with Padmé is written horribly, and it's arguably the worst love story ever put on screen (yes, even worse than Twilight). Most of the other characters are boring stereotypes. The only good characters in this movie are Obi-Wan and Yoda.

Without a good story or characters to be invested in, all the amazing visual effects, thrilling action or another amazing soundtrack don't matter at all, which makes this movie another dull Star Wars movie. Try to avoid the official movie at all costs. Watch a fanedit of this instead.