Originally written November 27, 2015

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I feel like the Star Wars prequels are a special entity that need to be examined a little more closely. The original trilogy is typically unanimously declared as being amazing, but people dismiss the Star Wars prequels a little too harshly. Out of the prequel trilogy, the only one I consider a truly bad movie is The Phantom Menace. I reviewed that and carefully analyzed what exactly made that a bad movie rather than just taking easy shots at it. Attack of the Clones generally seems to receive the same amount of hate, but I think it’s a little unwarranted.

Let’s start with the plot. Episode II is set 10 years after Episode I, and so now the child Anakin Skywalker we saw in Episode I has become a fully grown adult. Anakin has been training with his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi to become a Jedi. The two are sent to protect Senator Padme, who Anakin fell in love with when meeting her as a child and has spent every day since thinking about her even though he hasn’t seen her. An assassination attempt is made on Padme, and so Anakin and Obi-Wan are sent to do different jobs. Anakin must take Padme back to her home planet of Naboo and guard her, while also trying to prevent a forbidden romance between the two of them from sprouting. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan must investigate the assassination attempt made on Padme, which brings him to a secret planet that isn’t found in the Jedi Archives. It’s here that he discovers a secret army of clones has been being produced for the Jedi for nearly 10 years, unbeknownst to any of the Jedi.

Already the story is easily more enticing than it was in The Phantom Menace. The Phantom Menace’s story revolved around taxation on trade routes and other things that no one really cared about. Also, as far as prequels go, it had very little to do with events leading up to the original trilogy besides simply introducing us to both Anakin and Obi-Wan. In Attack of the Clones, the story of investigating an assassination attempt and finding a secret army being manufactured is a much more interesting idea to get behind. I’ll admit, the romance between Anakin and Padme is definitely the weak point of the plot, but I did find it much more tolerable than other romances in movies.

Aside from a more interesting story, we actually find elements in Attack of the Clones that make it a true prequel. We finally begin to see development in Anakin’s character, with him being pushed into making dark decisions that would eventually lead him to become the famous Darth Vader. His relationship with Obi-Wan is seen to be going under some strain, giving further evidence of how Anakin will inevitably turn from the Jedi. We see the beginning of the famous Clone Wars that are referenced in the original trilogy. We even see introductions for other famous characters from the original trilogy, such as Boba Fett and Lars. While I wasn’t necessarily completely impressed by how everything was handled (most notably for me being how Boba Fett is portrayed), the elements are there, and so it feels more important than The Phantom Menace ever did.

In my opinion, The Phantom Menace is just awful and is a chore to watch, while Revenge of the Sith (Episode III) is genuinely a good movie. However, Attack of the Clones manages to be a different kind of enigma. There are definitely traces of a bad movie in Attack of the Clones, and the flaws become more apparent every time I watch it as I’m getting older. However, I don’t know if I’d classify it as a “so bad it’s good” kind of movie necessarily, but somehow despite its flaws I still feel that the movie has charm, and that goes a long way with me as far as entertainment is concerned.

Aside from plot, let’s get down to some of the good and bad aspects of the movie. I think the worst thing about Attack of the Clones is that it probably has one of the biggest miscasts in movie history. Hayden Christensen plays Anakin Skywalker here, and the guy simply can’t act. He just can’t. When dealing with who is probably the most important character in the entire Star Wars franchise, you need a solid actor that can deliver his lines and portray a character who is struggling between his good intentions and dark temptations. Christensen simply wasn’t the man for the job, and sometimes it’s simply laughable watching him deliver a line. He has his moments, I’ll admit, but for the most part it’s just bad. This also translates to zero chemistry between him and Natalie Portman, which is probably what makes the romance so notoriously bad since it’s not really their story that’s the problem.

Aside from Hayden, I felt like the movie jumped around a bit too much. We’d spend 3 minutes with Anakin, then 3 minutes with Obi-Wan, then repeat. This became a problem when Obi-Wan’s story was easily more interesting. Call it bad direction on George Lucas’s part, I suppose. Also, in retrospect the movie does definitely rely on CGI a bit too much. It doesn’t look as terrible as it did in The Phantom Menace for the most part, but it’s still pretty bad looking and there’s a little too much of it. Also, like I mentioned before, Boba Fett. I don’t know what it is, but the kid that plays him just makes me hate watching him every time he’s on screen.

The movie does have things that are great about it too though. For starters, the music in the prequel trilogy was very much on point, and Attack of the Clones is no exception. Everything sounds awesome. While Hayden Christensen might have been bad in his role, other people do pretty good. The big standouts for me are Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku. Those guys are just great. Also, as mentioned earlier, I did find the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin to be engaging, and particularly I like all of the moments where we start to see glimpses of Anakin’s dark side coming out.

For the most part, while the entire package might have some problems, Attack of the Clones does have great individual moments. Many scenes stick out to me, and while most of them are action scenes, not all of them are. Anakin’s time on Tatooine sticks out in particular. However, the action scenes are where the movie excels for sure. Even if some of them do look pretty fake, they’re just fun. From the high speed chase in the beginning of the movie to the amazing fight with Count Dooku in the end, it’s all just really fun. The arena scene in particular is probably one of the most memorable scenes to me in the entire prequel trilogy.

However, as a viewer I do need to recognize my own potential bias when reviewing a movie. See, I feel it’s important to mention my story with Attack of the Clones. I was only 9 years old when Attack of the Clones came out, and at that point the only other Star Wars movie I had seen was The Phantom Menace. While I enjoyed The Phantom Menace as a child, I was blown away when I first saw Attack of the Clones. The action scenes truly stepped it up from Episode I, and so Episode II was one of my favorite movies to watch as a child because the crazy action was so cool to me. So it could be said that I cling to nostalgia a bit when reminiscing on Attack of the Clones, but I think there’s something more to it than that.

See, like I said, I did enjoy The Phantom Menace as a kid too. But I keep rewatching these movies as I’m getting older, and the more times I watch The Phantom Menace, the more I hate it. However, the more I watch Attack of the Clones, I also begin to see more of its flaws, yet at the end of the day I still enjoy it on some level. I think this says something about the movie as a whole. Yes, it’s an extremely flawed movie, yet I still enjoy it. A lot of movies are brought down entirely by their flaws. With Attack of the Clones, I’m somehow able to look past them and still be entertained when I watch it. I know it’s the “cool thing” to hate on the prequels, but I don’t really care. The Phantom Menace sucks, but I’m a fan of Attack of the Clones. It’s far from perfect, but in the end I still genuinely enjoy watching it.

3.5/5