Customer Reviews
rubbish - By: martin thomas, 06 Jun 2008 
after the awful phantom menace this is if anything worse,the acting is awful as is the scripting & the film is also very boring.one of the worst star wars films
Perhaps George Lucas's Most Advant Garde Stars Wars Movie? - By: P. Partridge, 03 Jun 2008 
*Contains spoilers for anyone that hasn't seen the film*
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the Star Wars movie that possibly divide's Star Wars fans the most. With The Phantom Menace, most fans are united in their indifference to down right loathing. With Revenge of the Sith, most fans agreed that it was a huge step up in alll departments. But with 2002's Attack of the Clones opinion was varied widely between those that hated it more then Phantom Menace right through to those that thought it was a masterpiece on a par with The Empire Strikes Back. Why such a range of opinion? My feeling is that this is perhaps the movie of the series that is closest to Lucas's personal desire to be a truly experimental film maker. Indeed, there's almost something of the advant garde about the style of Attack of the Clones, but at the same time Lucas has gone out of his way to listen & respond & correct much of the criticism of The Phantom Menace.
In a story sense, Attack of the Clones is closest to The Empires Strikes Back. It's a bridging movie that must act both as pathway from Episode I to Episode III & at the same time it must be an interesting & entertaining movie in its own right. It must deepen & flesh out the characters & take the plot in new & surprising directions - Clones achieves alll of these things to varying degrees of success. Clearly Lucas realized this film was in some ways connected in story terms to Empire, because he put in a couple of elements from the 1980 movie. So, we have incredibly cool looking Bounty Hunters, a very youthful Boba Fett & his father Jango Fett & a chase through an asteroid field (though the CGI asteroid chase of Attack of the Clones is not a thrilling or exciting as the asteroid chase in Empire)
Attack of the Clones is basicallly a love story set against the backdrop of war & this is where a lot of the complaints come from. The love story is played out as a very old fashioned, formal courtship, almost in the spirit of King Arthur or Romeo & Juliet. The dialogue is deliberately flowery & over the top. Unfortunately Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman do not have the range to pull off some of the lines they are given. The actors should have had a sense of humor about the guff they have to say, & that would have helped the audience relax into the scenes. As it is, everything is played out very seriously & on one or two occasions the scenes simply become a bore. Listen out for a stunning, melancholy love theme (Across The Stars) composed as ever by musical legend John Williams. This sad piece hints at the tragedy that will await Anakin & Padme....
Juxtaposed to the love story we get a mystery story, where Obi-Wan Kenobi goes off on his own to investigate who is trying to kill Padme. The mystery deepens when Obi-Wan stumbles across a Clone Army that is being developed for The Republic, supposedly at the behest of the Jedi Council. Soon Obi-Wan finds himself caught up in a war beat that explodes into life on the hot & dusty planet of Geonosis. This story is much more interesting than the love stuff & on a number of occasions when the movie is with Anakin & Padme, you'll find yourself wishing to get back to Obi-Wan. Ewan McGregor has a much expanded role, & he shines. This is McGregor's movie & he completely steps up to the plate. Rumor has it that Ewan wasn't particularly happy with this movie, but in my opinion he delivers his best work of the Prequel Trilogy in Attack of the Clones.
As the movie develops Anakin & Padme leave the safety of Naboo (Lake Como stands in for Naboo in this film & looks absolutely beautiful) & travel to Tatooine. This is the part of the film where Clones truly comes alive. The acting level rise's alll round as we return to the Lars Homestead (the places & sets so famous in the original Star Wars movie) We meet up with C3PO & find out that Anakin's mother has been kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. As his beloved mother later dies in arms, Anakin lashes out in an uncontrollable rage (listen out for a ghostly voice crying out at this moment) & his downward spiral to his ultimate fate has begun. These scenes & a confession scene (set in the Lars garage - another famous set from Star Wars) are played out excellently. Christenson & Portman reallly act well in these scenes. The movie rise's to a whole new level at this moment, & the rest of the film just fly's by.
The final action scenes take place on Geonosis as Obi-Wan, Anakin & Padme join up & take on monsters & Battle Droids. They are then joined by Clones Attacking (fancy that) & 500 Jedi Knights, including much expanded roles for Yoda & Mace Windu. All this is overseen by evil Count Dooku, played with great style by horror legend Christopher Lee. Indeed, the climax of the movie is an iconic face off between Dooku & Yoda. The lightsaber fight itself leaves a lot to be desired, but the build up is masterful. The roof, literallly, comes down! As we go from one action scene to another in true cliffhanger/Saturday matinee style, the action becomes breathtaking & you'll be exhausted by the end. Finallly people get to see why Star Wars is such a special series of movies.
The acting is generallly better in Clones than Menace. I've already picked up on McGregor, but Portman & Christenson also do good work outside of some of the love scenes. Ian McDiarmid is again solid as ever as Palpatine (look out for the now Supreme Chancellor to take a further step towards Galactic Domination in a scene that actuallly justifies Jar Jar Binks's presense in this series) Samuel L Jackson enjoys his expanded role. Tem Morrison as Jango Fett & Christopher Lee both enjoy their villainous roles.
So, what are those experimental elements? Well, firstly the film was the first ever motion picture to be shot entirely with digital cameras. This is problematical as it adds a shiny, somehow false element to many of the scenes. Almost like everything is a little bit too clear & clear - Only when the action moves on to the grimy location of Tatooine does it finallly look like a proper camera has been used.
The editing is also done in a very abstract way. This was Ben Burtts first movie as a solo editor & many of the cuts, whether deliberately or not, do stand out. There's almost something about this film that jerks you around - This is almost entirely deliberate. Right from the pan the camera motion is up rather than down (or is it just that the camera is up side down????) & from that moment on its clear that nothing is what it seems.
There's a water planet (Kamino) where the Clones are being created. Inside the building on Kamino, everything is brilliantly white & sanitized & this environment definitely evokes memories of Lucas's first film, THX-1138. That, set against the hot & mechanical world of Geonosis & the droid factories (where Anakin & Padme have a long action scene) these environments are both much more abstract than any other enviro's in the Star Wars Saga.
Lucas has always said Star Wars is a silent movie, but with Attack of the Clones he pushes that to an absolute limit. The last 40 minutes is essentiallly a silent movie. Yes, there is still some dialogue, but out of 40 minutes, I would guess the total amount of dialogue would come to less than 5 minutes. Instead, the story is told entirely through movement, sound & music. This is absolutely the heart & soul of George Lucas the film maker. Telling stories visuallly & through sound & music. NOT dialogue. There's a fabulous moment during the lightsaber duel between Anakin & Dooku, where alll you see is a black background & the protagonists faces, lit up by the red & blue of their lightabers. No music, no dialogue, just the iconic sound of their sabers & the striking visuals. Almost like a little tone poem. This is surely the most advant garde scene in the whole of the Star Wars Saga?
As well as pushing the silent movie element to its limit in the last 40 minutes, George Lucas also pushes the cliffhanger style to its limit. The final 40 minutes is basicallly one cliffhanger ending after another after another after another & its alll done in true Saturday Morning Matinee style.
So this is definitely George Lucas's most abstract Star Wars movie. And this weird blend of the abstract & the commercial makes for an odd combination. As I said at the start, some people love Attack of the Clones & it now has a cult following among a smalll number of fans. At the same time some people loath it. Like alll the Star Wars movies it should be seen at least once & watch with an open mind.
The production is as good as ever. The costumes look great; the CGI (whilst not to everyone's tastes) is as expertly done by ILM as ever. The musical score is better than on The Phantom Menace, despite some poor editing from Burtt. The acting is better. The script is generallly better (though Star Wars is NOT about dialouge & if more people understood this they would probably appreciate the Sage more)
As far as extra's go, we have the usual deleted scenes, trailers, music video, full commentary, web-docs & featurette's. The main documentary; From Puppets To Pixels is sadly NOT of the standard of The Phantom Menaces: The Beginning. Nevertheless, it's well produced & is worth a look. Look out also for mockumentary R2D2: Beneath The Dome - A very funny look at the life of R2D2.
Attack of the Clones itself is much darker than The Phantom Menace & has a melancholy feel about it. The ending is a true downer. First we have the realization that the Clone Wars have begun & the Sith are in total control of events. Then we get our first true blast the legendary Imperial March, followed by a doomed wedding set against the symbolism of a setting sun. As Anakin & Padme turn their backs to the camera, their fate is sealed. Episode III awaits....
Speaking for myself (and I can only do that) I highly recommend Attack of the Clones. The movie is better than The Phantom Menace at a very good **** whilst the extra's are slightly worse than those included with The Phantom Menace, but still a solid ***. Please note that this movie will most certainly not be to everybody's tastes.
*PS, Attack of the Clones has a multitude of references to other films, so if your a movie buff, its worth watching purely to see how many references you notice*
Decent in parts, but still a disapointment. - By: N. Thompson, 18 Jan 2008 
Well this film is certainly better than 'The Phantom Menace' but it still has plenty of bad points. The acting is still dodgey but the biggest crime is the script. At times the script & acting are cringefully bad. The romantic scenes between Anikin & Padame are very poor & at times embarassingly bad. In this film there are a few contenders for 'worst actor of the decade' award (if there was one). That being said, there are some good points ..... Chrisphor Lee is excellent as a Sith-Lord & Jar Jar Binks is hardly in it (thank the lord). The battle scene at the end is excellent & the appereance of Boba Fet's father is enjoyable. This film has some good points & is worth a viewing but sadly the bad points out weigh the good.
..... Also, Haden as a teenaged Anikin is terrible & needs to go back to acting school, either that or he just seriously struggled with acting in front of a blue screen. Honestly, at times his acting is shocking.
not great, not even good...but still better than the Phantom Menace - By: Mr. Rwj Nixon, 10 Dec 2007 Hype, or hyperbole to give it its full title, is defined as a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated, & is used to evoke strong feelings & create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literallly. Lets be honest here, with that definition I could have described any of the Star Wars movies, & if anything has been associated with so much hype it makes your head spin, it has been these movies, in particular the so callled prequels. However, other words are also associated with these films, words such as disappointment & anger, especiallly after the travesty of a movie that was the Phantom Menace, so it was with some trepidation that I came to the second of the movies.
To briefly sum up, Attack of the Clones deals with the ongoing attempts by the dark lord of the Sith to fracture the federation so that he can step in & sieze power, using a rebel jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) as his cats-paw, whilst the true jedi attempt to hold things together & stave of the inevitable war. Along the way we are treated to several bits of Star Wars history, including the precursor to the infamous storm troopers in the shape of the Clones, a huge army that is being secretly built by agents unknown, & the romance between Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), & Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christenson), a romance that we know will only end in tragedy.
Unfortunately, the film is just such an ungodly mess that it is hard to reallly give a damn about any of it. The plot rattles along at such a pace that it is sometimes dizzying, with revelations coming on top of revelations as deep dark secrets are exposed & plots uncovered with such ease that it makes you wonder how they have remained secret for this long (apparently, no one in the Star Wars universe understands the concept of security). The cast do their best with some hackneyed dialogue (even Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan does not come out of this looking or sounding good). Samuel Jackson as jedi Mace Windu is pretty good, but the real problem with the film is the love story between Anakin & Padme. Instead of a gradual, believable romance, these two spell their feelings out in long winded conversations, laying everything on the table & spouting some of the most cringe worthy platitudes I have ever heard in a movie. Portman looks great but spends an awful lot of the movie staring wistfully of into the distance or at Anakin, & whilst I have seen Hayden Christenson in Shattered Glass, so I know he can act, in this movie he has alll the acting ability of a lump of wood.
Even the special effects grate after a while. The battle between the clone army & the droid army of Dooku never looks anything less than impressive, but this is exactly what we have come to expect, & the speeder chase through the towers of the Coruscant cityscape is annoying in its frivolousness. Even watching a smalll army of jdei's cut loose cannot lift this film above at best the mundane. On the plus side this film is better than the simply awful Phantom Menace, but once again this is a film that does much to damage the reputation of the cherished originals.
Part 2 damages the Star Wars films even further - By: Jim Smith, 09 Dec 2007 The dependency on computer generated images gives the whole film a slight cartoon film, with few real backdrops actual used. The computer generated imagery already appears dated. The script is reallly bad, & the love story one of the worst committed to film.
