“Attack of the Clones” Review
“Attack of the Clones” sees the Jedi Order uncover a plot that results in the famous Clone Wars. In this war, Jedi and Clone Troopers fought for the Republic against the armies of battle droids fighting for the Separatist Alliance in a galactic civil war.
While many “Star Wars” fans proclaim that “The Phantom Menace” is the worst film in the saga but, in my opinion, that distinction goes to the second of the prequels: “Attack of the Clones.” My main issue with the film is that this is the second act of the story, where things get interesting but, by the end of the film, very little has been accomplished. While “The Phantom Menace” wasn’t a good film, the film was still entertaining to watch. “Attack of the Clones” is a dull film with some interesting character development and action, none of which saves the final product.
Taking place ten years after “The Phantom Menace,” the film sees former Queen of the planet Naboo turned Galactic Republic Senator Padme Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, nearly assassinated by a mysterious bounty hunter. Suspecting a bigger plot, the Jedi Order sends Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor, and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, to protect her.
After another assassination attempt, Anakin and Padme go to Naboo to keep her safe and develop a romance while Obi-Wan investigates the bounty hunter. As Obi-Wan investigates, they discover that a former Jedi named Count Dooku, played by Christopher Lee, has been massing a droid army to fight the Republic and that a mysterious Clone Army has been made to fight for the Republic. Meanwhile, Anakin begins to have visions and thoughts that foreshadow his eventual turn to the dark side of the Force.
When Obi-Wan gets captured by Dooku, Anakin and Padme, along with a reunited C-3PO and R2D2, played by Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker, travel to rescue him only to get captured themselves. When our heroes are about to be killed, the Clone Army with many Jedi arrive to fight Dooku and his droid army in an epic battle that begins the Clone Wars that Luke mentioned in the original “Star Wars.”
Unlike “The Phantom Menace,” the plot seems more focused on action and a good versus evil struggle instead of political turmoil. However, the political struggle manages to rear its ugly head once again with Senate debates and government talk appearing in the film. When most people think of “Star Wars,” most viewers don’t want to watch a science fiction version of C-SPAN, they want to see good character drama, high quality action, philosophy surrounding the Force along with a bit of political drama.
The film’s biggest sin is that it is dull, the entirety of “Attack of the Clones” feels lifeless. One of the biggest examples of this is the romance between Padme and Anakin. The “romantic” dialogue that they exchange is not the least bit convincing, especially lines like “I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.”
In “Attack of the Clones,” Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, (Left) develops a romance with Senator Padme Amidala, played by Natalie Portman.
Just like “The Phantom Menace,” the computer generated effects of “Attack of the Clones” are starting to become dated, especially when it is used unnecessarily. For example, the Clone Army is entirely computer generated because they were all cloned after a bounty hunter named Jango Fett, played by Temura Morrison.
Using CGI to make many of them is fine when you get to see their faces, but, when the Clones are wearing their full armor, they are generated with CGI too instead of having extras wear armor. When Jedi Master Mace Windu, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is addressing a Clone Trooper, it feels like he’s speaking with nothing as opposed to a real person. CGI is good for creating worlds and illusions but when a filmmaker becomes too involved in CGI instead of branching out to different effects, the world becomes less real to the viewer.
The reason why the effects of the original trilogy hold up is because the filmmakers used real, tangible things like puppets and models that were really there. They also used a variety of effects like blue screen, stop motion and some computer effects to fool the eye and convince the viewer that the world existed. CGI is a useful tool but it shouldn’t be the only tool.
“Attack of the Clones” also is too self-contained for being the second film in the trilogy. The original “Star Wars” trilogy was continuously building upon itself with the second film, “The Empire Strikes Back,” ending on a cliffhanger.
But each one of the prequels exists in its own world which makes it hard to see “Attack of the Clones” as the second act of a story. This is supposed to be the part of the story where things get interesting and darker with things going south. While the film has dark moments, “Attack of the Clones” remains exceptionally dull.
The constant use of CGI in “Attack of the Clones” results in a dull experience where many of the effects feel lifeless.
The film does have some positive merits like several of the actors including Ewan McGregor, who continues to astound as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee and even Hayden Christensen. I know that Christensen gets a lot of hate for his performance and a lot of his delivery is nothing spectacular, especially with his constant whining. But, to be fair, a lot of the dialogue he has to speak is unnatural. It’s difficult to make some of the lines Anakin say believable so it’s understandable why his acting isn’t strong.
However, when Christensen doesn’t have to speak and act with his facial expressions, he’s surprisingly effective. One of the best scenes in the film is when he goes to Tatooine after having visions of his mother dying. When he discovers that she’s been kidnapped by Sand People and tracks her down, she has a minute of dialogue with him before dying in his arms.
This sends him into a rage and his facial expressions actually reflect the beginnings of Darth Vader. He begins to kill the Sand People and wipes out the entire colony. Unfortunately, we don’t see too much of this and when Anakin tells Padme what he did, he whines about it which makes the scene less effective. This massacre was a brilliant way to express how Anakin has this darkness in him, but the film never goes all the way in depicting his inner struggle.
The climax of the film also has a lot to enjoy with Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan in a Colosseum-like environment having to fight against intimidating alien creatures. The battle breaks out between an Army of Jedi and a droid army which is escalated when the Clone Army arrives to fight alongside the Jedi. Then, when it seems that Dooku is escaping, Anakin and Obi-Wan engage in a duel with him which results in both Jedi being incapacitated.
Then Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz, comes in and fights Dooku with a lightsaber. This climax is entertaining and continuously builds upon itself. If the rest of this film was as exciting as it’s ending, this wouldn’t be my least favorite “Star Wars” film.
“Attack of the Clones” is a film I rarely watch except when I’m watching all of the “Star Wars” films every few months. Unlike other “Star Wars” films, including “The Phantom Menace,” where I can watch them on their own, “Attack of the Clones” is the film that I try to watch as little as possible just because of how unremarkable it is. However, like its predecessor, it’s still not nearly as bad as other science fiction films I’ve seen. But as a “Star Wars” film, it fails to grab me as a fan and as a film lover.
