Review: Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

Sorry for the lack of updates, but it's time to finish off Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones week with my review of the movie. I went last night to the AMC16 Multiplex on Olive hoping to see a long line of fans dressed in crazy costumes. The line was there, but unfortunately the costumes were not. Instead of a gaggle of Chewbaccas and Boba Fetts, I saw only 2 people wearing the robes of the Jedi Knights and carrying plastic light sabers.

Disappointing fans aside, I thought the movie was an excellent continuation of trilogy number two. My biggest complaints about Episode 1 were that everything in Phantom Menace looked too fake and that the plot was not a good Star Wars-esque plot. Both of these problems were rectified this time around. I'll try not to include any spoilers, but the plot returned to a good-old whiz-bang adventure story like the originals. Sure there was that whole love story aspect, but there was also the mysterious clone army and the chase of Jango Fett across the galaxy.

The fakeness was also somewhat removed, although it seemed to be different in different parts of the movie. The chrome spacecraft looked cool but looked more "futuristic" than the crafts from the original movie which were supposed to have taken place at a later date. After the shootout with Jango Fett, though, Obi Wan's ship was charred and damaged, and C3PO and R2D2 looked sufficiently worn out. Some of the scenery still looked like it was just painted on a computer screen, but for the most part the foregrounds were realistic without being "too good looking".

My only real quibble with the movie was Hayden Christensen's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. There seemed to be no motivation for a lot of his moodiness, and his lines weren't really delivered very well. Then again, he had some classicly bad lines, especially the one about how he didn't like sand but Padme was beautiful. I don't know who wrote the dialogue, but it made me wish the wisecracking Han Solo was there to smack Anakin around when he said something stupid to her.

All in all the movie was very enjoyable and a fitting continuation to the series. Now the question remains: what happens after Episode 3? If Lucas doesn't make movies 7, 8, and 9, then someone will. May not now, but someday, in a galaxy far, far away...