Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Director: George Lucas

Year of Release: 2002

Lead Actor: Ewan McGregor

Running Time: 142 mins

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure

Review by Fraser Green

Star Wars Episode 1 laid out a strong foundation for the path of Episode II, but was a bit of a failure. A new actor for Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen, has been cast giving a pretty low grade performance. The film also features Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, The Island), Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta), Samuel L, Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings) with Ewan McGregor carrying most of them on his back, but even he could have done a bit better.

Set ten years after the events of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace“, not only has the galaxy undergone significant changes, but so have our familiar heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). They are thrown together again for the first time since the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo. Anakin has grown into the accomplished Jedi apprentice of Obi-Wan, who himself has transitioned from student to teacher. The two Jedi are assigned to protect Padme whose life is threatened by a faction of political separatists. As relationships form and powerful forces collide, these heroes face choices that will impact, not only their own fates, but the destiny of the Republic.

The film is a bit more of a “story-telling” movie and sets up the next film at a satisfactory level. This is marred by the ongoing long and boring scenes of the relationship between Padme and Anakin. The action sequences are very entertaining, well filmed and put together with great special effects but are very limited and really only occur towards the end of the film. Even the standard of the lightsaber fight is no where near as good as Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, although seeing Yoda pull out his lightsaber for the first time is a spectacle. I also think that George Lucas may need to find someone else to write the script for him – it does display the anger of Anakin and the story well, with some good humour from C-3P0, but the film is a bit of a disappointment.

My Rating: 2 and ½ stars

~ by cade14 on August 2, 2007.