Review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) by Theapplegnome — 06 Dec 2015

’Attack of The Clones’ is another example of George Lucas’s recent attempts of basic storytelling. The vast amount of dry, forced and bad expositions (and dialogs) are one of the film’s worst aspects. The characters often have to express and explain their feelings and exactly what they're thinking, even in situations where there’s no need for that because we already understand what they’re going through. The romance between the main antagonist; Anakin, and the senator of Naboo; Padmé, are at some moments somewhat okay presented, meanwhile in other scenes total rubbish. Romance should be relatable, understandable and wonderful; not forced and non-existing like in this flick. The problem is in the script, it’s not the actors fault that for example; the romance didn't work out in a better and more ”The Empire Strikes Back-ish" way. And speaking of the actors performance’s; the cast is very good even though they’aren't perfect. Nathalie Portman has improved in a more nuanced way than in ’The Phantom Menace', where her performance was way too one-dimensional. It’s a bit the same with Ian McDiarmid, who continues to impress on the big screen as Palpatine! The main protagonist Count Dooku is a somewhat wise and of course menacing villain, but there’s no feeling nor any real depth to him. But is it still a somewhat okay film? That depends strongly on how well you can notice and embrace the flaws. It does have a lot of eye-candy though; like stunning cinematography. Other great aspects are excellent (but sometimes vague) CGI, great scenes of action and intensity, intriguing music and even some artistic moments here and there. But there’s still not that much of what the film is supposed to be about; the attack of the clones. Because we continue to see our heroes, sitting in circles, talking with dry and forced dialogs.

I grew up to this prequel-franchise, and I still enjoy to watch it from time to time.