Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002, DVD)

Unfortunately, I was never able to see Attack of the Clones opening weekend because of a conflicting schedule, and had to wait until June to finally see it (and the theater was still packed to maximum capacity). When I did finally see it though, I felt a sense of redemption run through my body as even only through the first scene of the movie, it had already redeemed itself from the first movie. The Phantom Menace is by no means a bad movie, I mean it was very interesting what George Lucas did to continue the series (or re-continue?), but I was really let down in almost the whole movie except for the pod racing scene, which of course inspired me to buy the video game on the Nintendo 64 called Episode 1: Pod Racer as soon as it came out (ok, actually I borrowed it from my cousin and forgot to give it back). Nonetheless, although The Two Towers clearly was best picture of the year, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a great continuation leading up to Anakin's turn to the dark side of the force.

Movie Synopsis
While The Phantom Menace dealt with setting up the stage for the rest of the movies to follow on, mainly how Anakin's strong force powers are noticed by Qui Gon Jin - Attack of the Clones was able to continue on that stage that the first movie built by way of how Anakin starts to turn into Darth Vader, and the beginning of the clone wars mentioned in A New Hope ("You fought with my father in the clone wars?" - Luke Skywalker).

Attack of the Clones takes place 10 years after the end of The Phantom Menace, where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin are on their way to meet the now defunct Queen, Senator Amidala, who is the target for many assassination attempts. From here, the movie splits into two sub-plots that flash back and forth between each other, the majority of the movie focusing on how Anakin begins to turn into Darth Vader. Anakin's formation of Darth Vader starts to be seen quite clearly through the hatred that runs through his eyes during certain scenes throughout the movie, most notably after mutilating a herd/group/colony/whatever of Tusken Raiders after seeing what they had done to his mother.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi travels to Camino in search of questions that need to be answered (10 points if someone guesses the name of the movie that's from), he'll eventually be in pursuit of the inferior bounty hunter to the superior Samus Aran - Jango Fett - who has something to do with the creation of the clones on the water planet of Camino, and the assassination attempt on Senator Amidala. While Obi-Wan is hard at work getting to the bottom of all this, the romance between Anakin and Senator Amidala start to rise, and now the story of the Star Wars series is starting to unfold.

While making Attack of the Clones, there was much more space left that could be used to put more action scenes in the movie which were very scarce in The Phantom Menace, the better action sequences being the final scene of the movie with the commencement of the Clone War. Speaking of the Clone War, it was very interesting to see what will in the future be the army of the dark side, the transformation from Clones to Storm Troopers.

C-3PO also gets a little bit more action in Attack of the Clones, usually in scenes where he's getting into some sort of trouble, which then leads to a series of comediac moments, and a bunch of puns that kind of add a little more humor to the movie.

Character Overview - The force be used, let it be
Most of the characters in Attack of the Clones have returned from The Phantom Menace, including the dreadful Jar Jar Binks, who however, has only one or two lines in the movie, plus a speech near the end of the movie. The new 16-17 year old Anakin is acted by Hayden Christensen, whose whiny attitude acts as a key role in the transformation from a padowan learner to his future corrupt future as Darth Vader. Ewan McGregor, who is Obi-Wan Kenobi, does a tremendous job of portraying Obi-Wan Kenobi's eventual attitude in the first three movies (or last three?), and has a very shocking resemblance to his future character (or past?). Oh so hot Natalie Portman returns as Senator Amidala and is in a lot more scenes in the Attack of the Clones, and she also opens up more personally to Anakin than was shown in The Phantom Menace.

While not having a giant role in The Phantom Menacee, Samuel L. Jackson returns in Attack of the Clones as Mace Windu, and Christopher Lee comes in as the evil Count Dooku, a very fitting role indeed. And then there's Frank Oz who does the voice of the old (young in this movie?), but wise Yoda. Each character did a wonderful job at acting out their characters and bringing the Star Wars world alive, but as a whole, the entire cast did a great job, give or take a few cheesy lines here and there.

Special Effects - Special FX of the next century
Having a even larger budget than The Phantom Menace had due to the more advanced special effects, the amount of technology able to be used in Attack of the Clones wasn't too much greater than the first movie, but the "maturity" of the special effects are evident in all of the many action scenes. Instead of using the puppet for Yoda like in the first three movies, in Attack of the Clones Yoda is done in CGI in order to show that these movies precede the movies of the 1970s, where he would obviously be younger.

The advance in technology and such is most evident in the amount of speed that the action scenes include, as in fights are so fast and intense that if you blink, you could very well miss something that could be the best part of the movie.

For a movie to be entirely blue-screened, basically, Attack of the Clones does a MAGNIFICENT job of bringing the Star Wars universe alive, giving the viewer a sort of epical adventure as they watch what's happening on-screen.

Sound - John Williams
Of course, what would any Star Wars movie be if it didn't have the legendary composer John Williams doing the sound end of the movie. Well I can tell you one thing, it wouldn't be anything. As the creator of the classic Star Wars theme, John Williams is a masterful composer no matter what he does, and it's no different in Attack of the Clones.

DVD Extras - 7.5
Most of the DVD extras include different featurettes that have to do with the general storyline, action scenes, and love story - while 3 very interesting documentaries await to be watched also. The only thing to lower the score of the DVD Extras is the eight deleted scenes, which I'm glad weren't added, as they lack any life in them (most of them have to do with nitty gritty love details between Anakin and Senator Amidala).

Overall - 9.0
Attack of the Clones is almost all that and a box of chicken gizzards, and will surely be a complete movie as soon as Episode III is released, which is currently the movie I anticipate the most. Attack of the Clones is full of enough freshness to please almost any Star Wars fan, however there are a few who are displeased with the direction that both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones have gone. I however, love them both, and of course eagerly await the release of Episode III.

happy viewing