Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Directed by George Lucas
Starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, and Samuel L. Jackson
Rated PG for sustained sequences of sci-fi action/violence

On May 19, 1999, I stood in line for more than an hour outside of the movie theater waiting to enter and see what I believed would be the most exciting movie I had ever seen. I was a huge fan of the original Star Wars Trilogy, and, like many, I anticipated great things to come from this new prequel trilogy starting with the film I was about to see, The Phantom Menace. But only a few hours later I felt so amazingly betrayed and cheated that I was no longer excited about the possibility of more Star Wars films to come. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, was easily the biggest Summer Movie disappointment ever. It had none of the excitement and action that characterized the original series and I felt as if my whole childhood had just been betrayed. So as I stood in line on May 16, 2002 waiting to see Star Wars: Episode II –Attack of the Clones, which is possibly the worst title for a movie ever, I was anticipating only bad things to come. Everything I had seen about the movie smelled of the failure of The Phantom Menace. But only a few hours later, I was again surprised by what I saw on screen, this time though it was a pleasant surprise. Attack of the Clones, despite a title which Ewan McGregor described as "terrible," is just what I expected to see three years ago from The Phantom Menace, a fun, action-packed movie in the tradition of its original trilogy forefathers.

I will be fully honest with you, I was expecting to truly not enjoy Attack of the Clones. The ads, especially the trailer about the love story between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, made me sick. But this movie, much like Spiderman two weeks ago, is a Summer Movie that fulfills its hype. Attack of the Clones was able to recapture the fun, excitement and action that

the original trilogy was filled with and that The Phantom Menace so clearly lacked. And the best part of all is, Jar-Jar Binks is barely in this movie! Now I admit, I would have been much happier if they had killed him in this film, but almost eliminating him from the story was nearly as good. While this film is not up to the standards that The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi set, it is at par with the original Star Wars (aka A New Hope).

The main problem that I had with this movie was one that I also had with The Phantom Menace, that being the use of computer graphics. The CG effects in this movie are very detailed and lifelike, but there is just too much of them. It is okay to use the computer graphics to create some characters and locations that are not possible to obtain in real life, but Lucas doesn’t know where to stop

using them. Most of the film I was trying to figure out which things were real and which were computer graphics, and I would say almost every single scene was designed by computer graphics, even the interior scenes. One of the great things about the original trilogy was that they had to invent amazing technology and do difficult things to create the amazing fantasy world of Star Wars. But now it seems like Lucas has gotten lazy. Instead of building sets and finding exotic locations, they just get some computer geek to make them. Instead of designing bizarre costumes and elaborate puppets, they just turn to the geeks. And it feels like very little about this film is real. And while the effects of the original series are cheesy by today’s standards, at least you believed that things were real. You knew that Jabba the Hutt and Yoda were real because they looked real, now they are just animations and so they don’t have the same life that the once had.

As for the acting, I have to say it was again not as bad as expected. Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker had a few really crappy moments where he whined and complained too much, but overall he managed to hold it in enough to keep me interested in him. Natalie Portman was also pretty good, despite the terrible line she delivers near the end of the film (When you see it, you’ll know what I mean). She doesn’t really do much as an actress in the film, but at least she doesn’t go overboard with emotions. And I was very glad to see that the love story between Christensen and Portman was much more downplayed than I had expected. Ewan McGregor is truly excellent as Obi-Wan. Ewan has an amazing range as an actor and he really plays this part well and keeps Christensen from being overly whiney all the time. And as for Samuel L. Jackson, well he really isn’t a big deal in this movie. His character is an important guy in the movie but not in the story of the movie. Although it was quite cool to see him with a lightsaber, there was one time when I really wished he had added a "mother-fucker" at the end of the sentence. But I guess that doesn’t work in a PG movie.

This film is exactly what Summer Movies and Star Wars films should be, a silly, fun, action movie. As a Star Wars dork, although I am not as dorky as the guy who brought the two lightsabers to the film when I saw it, I can say that I am very pleased with the way this film turned out. Attack of the Clones provided me just what I wanted from the Star Wars series, despite the overuse of the CG effects. And the battles at the end of the movie are truly not to be missed. So forget how bad The Phantom Menace was and how bad the title for this movie is and check out Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. It is just as fun as Spiderman and probably more fun if you are a huge fan of the series. Now just tell me when Episode III comes out, I probably need to get in line for that one now.