Monday, 14 March 2011

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

After the lukewarm critical reception to Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace you might think George Lucas would revisit the script for Attack of the Clones to ensure that the same mistakes wouldn't be made again. But really, who can honestly say that nearly a billion dollars in ticket sales wouldn't enthuse them to charge forwards, full steam ahead?
Attack of the Clones is a fairly dire film in all aspects. All the mainstays of the Star Wars franchise are included solely to satiate the appetite of the general fan but few of these aspects work within the structure or runtime of a two and a half hour movie. To say that Attack of the Clones is the worst Star Wars film is an understatement; the only way you can do this trainwreck of a movie justice is to simply accept that it is a bad movie.

Set approximately a decade after the conclusion of The Phantom Menace, Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) is now a young woman and concluded her term in the royal seat of Naboo. Now an Senator, she finds herself in a state of constant peril, following an assassination attempt which claims the life of a decoy. Due to her close ties with current Senate Chairman Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) the Jedi council agrees to place her under the care of two of their most trusted agents, Obi-Wan-Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his young padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), both of whom have a history with Amidala from the events of The Phantom Menace. Following a subsequent attempt on Padmé's life, Anakin is sent to guard her on Naboo whilst Obi-Wan follows a lead which suggests that the Republic or the Jedi Council may have ordered for an army of clones to be manufactured on a secret distant planet called Kamino. As Obi-Wan uncovers a conspiracy regarding this army, Anakin struggles to deal with the guilt of leaving his mother on Tatooine a decade prior, as well as accepting how to deal with his reignited affection for Padmé.