2002
Clearly the main thing that Attack of the Clones will be judged on is the performance of unknown Canadian actor Hayden Christenson, as future Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker.
I’ve heard a lot of people write him off as a bad actor, but I don’t think this is the case. I find him a good actor, playing an intrinsically unlikable character. Personally, I think a lot of us were hoping that Darth Vader when younger would be a lot cooler than this. As it is, he whines about how Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is holding him back all the time, and his pursuit of the gorgeous Padme (Natalie Portman) is cringe worthy.
For me the weakest part of the movie is the love story. Clearly, it is essential to the overall Star Wars story arc, but the way Lucas has gone about it here makes a Meg Ryan film look sophisticated. It just doesn’t ring true. On the one hand we’ve got Padme. Beautiful, supposedly some four years Skywalker’s senior and an accomplished diplomat and politician. Then we’ve got orphan Annie. He humiliates himself as soon as he meets her again (in quite a well-acted scene) by arguing with Kenobi and having to be told off in front of everyone. Even arch-numbnuts Jar-Jar Binks looks embarrassed for him at this point.
For the remainder of the movie his pulling technique consists of whining that he loves her. She would never go for him, ever. When she does, suddenly, declare her love for him, when she thinks they’re about to be killed it’s a total reversal of her character. The only way it could have worked that these two characters would have been a one-night stand in their cell before the execution.
Up until then she just seems to enjoy teasing him. She tells him they can’t be together, while wearing the sexiest clothes she can find, like a tight black leather basque-thing, in a really romantically lit room with a big fire, while sitting right next to him on the sofa.
These are minor complaints, though, with Attack of the Clones far exceeding it’s predecessor is every way. One big change in this movie is that Yoda is computer-generated for the first time. This means he can get up and walk around with other characters much more effectively. And, superbly, he can fight. The climactic battle between Yoda and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen in a movie. What better person for us to see Yoda fighting first than uber movie villain Christopher Lee? Dooku’s last line before he runs away with his tail between his legs is “This is only the beginning.” Let’s hope that means the two will get to another battle again in Episode Three. It’s great the way Yoda goes back to hobbling along on his walking stick just as everyone else turns up.
The whole massive climax to the movie is just superb. Battles have never, ever been seen on this scale on the screen before. The fight between the Jedi (and their storm trooper army) and the droids is amazing. There are some great handheld camera shots, right in the middle of the fighting, and fast zooms that work particularly well, giving the battle a grittier, more realistic edge than the huge, loads of things happening at once wide shots.
As in The Phantom Menace, the Emperor, hardly seen here, is a powerful presence throughout. Every single character shown is ultimately working for him. The ending is particularly good, with Palpatine surveying his army. The Imperial theme tune, hinted out earlier on, is finally belted out to hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-raising effect.