Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

As perpetually uneven as its underwhelming predecessor, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones follows a now-adult Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) as he embarks on an illicit affair with Natalie Portman’s Padmé – with the narrative also detailing Obi-Wan Kenobi’s (Ewan McGregor) investigation into a failed assassination attempt on Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). It becomes clear fairly early on that writer/director George Lucas intends for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones to correct the mistakes of Episode I, as the movie, for the most part, boasts a more adult-oriented sensibility that proves a refreshing change from the almost non-stop silliness of the earlier film – with the most obvious example of this a severely (and appreciatively) reduced role for Ahmed Best’s pointless, annoying Jar Jar Binks. There’s little doubt, however, that the heavy emphasis on the burgeoning relationship between Anakin and Padmé hardly fares well at all, with Christensen and Portman’s total lack of chemistry together merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of this subplot’s ineffectiveness. (It doesn’t help, of course, that Lucas floods the proceedings with ill-advised instances of dialogue, including Anakin’s infamous “I don’t like sand” line.) The less-than-enthralling narrative is compounded by Lucas’ overuse of computer-generated effects, as there’s a pervasive lack of reality to many of the movie’s action-oriented moments – with, for example, a flying car chase through a busy cityscape more cartoonish than anything else. It’s ultimately the ongoing emphasis on Star Wars-specific elements that sustains one’s interest through the far-too-long running time, with the inherently-compelling nature of many attributes ensuring that Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is, at the very least, a watchable big-budget extravaganza. (It’d be nice for a little more substance, of course.)

**1/2 out of ****