FanUnity B(uzz)log

“Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones” inherits many of the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessor, “The Phantom Menace.” The good news is that many of the strengths are stronger, and some of the weaknesses are less weak. Accept for one critical weakness, which just gets worse, but we’ll get to that later.If “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack Of The Clones” were beautiful women, “The Phantom Menace” would be just about the prettiest lady you have ever seen, and “Attack Of The Clones” would be her impossibly hotter sister. “Clones” contains so many stunning visuals from start to finish. The most breathtaking of these take place on the waterworld called Kamino, where Obi-Wan finds himself in the middle of the film, and where George Lucas’ camera gives us our jaw-dropping original trilogy deja vu shot in the form of the introduction of the clone army.

Where “The Phantom Menace” lacked a strong, central villian to set the context for the action throughout the film, “Attack Of The Clones” is carried by a mystery. Set up in the beginning by a series of attempted murders on now-Senator Padme Amidala, Obi-Wan tracks the source of the evil-doing while Anakin watches Padme’s back. By the time Obi-Wan completes his sleuthing, he finds himself on the barren, mountainous planet Geonosis, lurking in the shadows as fallen Jedi Count Dooku, played by Christopher Lee, conspires with a cadre of alien villians to trigger a civil war in the galaxy and overthrow the Republic.

“Clones” gets more good performances from its actors than “The Phantom Menace” did. Ian McDiarmid is the standout in the movie as Chancellor Palpatine. His warmth and wisdom are so convincing that, to avoid liking him, one has to keep in mind that behind it all he is the evil Emperor. And that doesn’t even really work, even while he bends events to his will with an iron first covered by a velvet glove. The groundwork for Anakin’s fall is expertly laid in this film, as the bond of trust built by Palpatine is wonderfully portrayed in a scene between the young Jedi and the Chancellor in the future Emperor’s office. McDiarmid makes every one of Palpatine’s scenes great.

Ewan McGregor, as Obi-Wan Kenobi, has much more to do in this film, and as result, he’s much better than he was in “The Phantom Menace.” His sarcastic charm is particularly effective, because you can see this same sense of humor in Sir Alec Guinness’ older and wiser Obi-Wan eyes in “Episode IV”, and you can get the sense that the humbling events of “Episode III” had something to do with reigning that sarcasm in to the point were he doesn’t give voice to it. McGregor’s Obi-Wan displays the compentancy one would expect from the powerful Jedi we see in “Episode IV”, along with the arrogance it would take to get such a Jedi to that place.

As Obi-Wan’s main foil in the film, Jango Fett makes for a villian that shows rare depth for these prequels. A bounty hunter and self-described man just trying to make his way through the galaxy, Fett is a formidable warrior whose contracts have at the same time pit him against the Jedi and in a way for them as well. The relationship between him and his son Boba give a humanity to them that makes one regret their fate.

Christopher Lee conveys a gentlemanly charm as Count Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, who sees himself carrying out a noble deed by overthrowing the corrupt Republic. Like Qui-Gon Jinn, who was his apprentice, Count Dooku isn’t afraid of walking the line between good and evil, but unlike Qui-Gon, he’s fallen over to the wrong side. His attempt at seducing Obi-Wan to the Dark Side is one of the best scenes in the film.

Yoda, fully computer generated for the first time, looks much better in “Clones.” The character’s performance is seemless and complete. Unlike “Phantom Menace” where a fake-looking puppet was used for Yoda, here there’s no sense that anything is amiss with the green guy, to the contrary, he’s one of the fullest characters in the movie. Samuel L. Jackson, as Yoda’s partner in crime Mace Windu, together with his little green guru bring a hubris to the proceedings that makes the fall of the Jedi seem inevitable when pitted against the masterful manipulator Palpatine.

Where these performances were strong, the film suffered at the hands of a few key subpar turns. Individually, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen aren’t awful in the film when not in scenes with each other, but together they have zero chemistry. For two extraordinarily good looking young people of the opposite sex, there is no spark between them. Where Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford crackled with sexual tension in the original films, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen are awkward together. It’s in these scenes that the film’s glaring weakness reveals itself. The dialogue in this film is worse than “The Phantom Menace”, particularly in the courtship of Padme. The Naboo sequence literally has some of the worst dialogue ever put to film (ex - Anakin: “I wish I could just wish away my feelings.”) The wooing process is painful to watch and hard to believe. In retrospect, one has to wonder if George Lucas would have been better off casting Keira Knightley, who played Queen Amidala’s handmaiden/double in “The Phantom Menace”, in the role of Padme. Knightley brings a spunk to her roles similar to what Carrie Fisher brought to Princess Leia, where Natalie Portman tends to be more reserved in her screen presence. In this film, Christensen and Portman just aren’t a very believable couple. They get better once we get past the actual courtship on Naboo and onto the action on Tatooine and Geonosis, but regardless, their pairing is the weakest part of the film.

The final battle of the film is sweeping and epic, with more blazing lightsabers on screen at one time than ever before. From the arena monster tussle, to the clone invasion, to the showdown between Mace Windu and Jango Fett, to the duel pitting Obi-Wan and Anakin against Dooku, and later Yoda against Dooku, the battle on Geonosis is grand Jedi action. It’s pure cinematic eye candy, in more ways than one thanks to Portman’s bare midriff and quasi-translucent top.

The closing sequence of the film is at once beautiful and poignant, with the sense that events have no been irreversabley set in motion so that the Republic will fall and the Empire will rise. As Palpatine gazes from his balcony upon legions of stormtrooper-like clone warriors, with proto-Star Destroyers in the air, and Anakin marries Padme in secret behind the backs of the Jedi, the table is set for the “Revenge Of The Sith.”

3/5 Stars.