So the Star Wars prequels have seemed to come off a rocky start with The Phantom Menace. While it wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life, it was very lackluster compared to the quality of the original trilogy. Many fans were hoping that the next movie called Attack of the Clones would marginally better. Alas though, it was met with a similar amount of reception as many moviegoers complained about its underdeveloped characters and confusing plot points. Is there any hope for this sequel in my eyes, or will it be doomed with the same results as The Phantom Menace?
Ten Years after the events of The Phantom Menace, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and his master Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) are sent to investigate someone who tried to assassinate Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman). After finding out the killer Anakin is tasked with protecting Amidala which results in the two of them forming a romance. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan is sent on a journey to investigate further who is behind the recent assassination attempt that could further jeopardize the rest of the galaxy and the Jedi order.
Like the Phantom Menace, this is not one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, this movie boasts too many lingering problems that kept me from enjoying the story of this movie. There is a good chunk of political talk that takes over a part of this movie and it is for the most part very uninteresting and it does not lead to any interesting story threads or unique ideas. The story also skips on ideas that could have made for interesting storylines such as Obi-Wan training Anakin as a Jedi Knight as that could have been more interesting to take part in. instead we are mainly focused on a romance that is unfortunately very mediocre and an evil plot by an antagonist is very forgettable and uninteresting. I will give credit that the film gets slightly more interesting as we do get to see for Sci-Fi action, but you, unfortunately, have to sit through a lot of uninteresting material just to get to that.
The Characters are slightly better in this movie than they were in The Phantom Menace, but they still don’t have the same amount of charm and likability from the original movies. Hayden Christensen as a much older Anikin Skywalker does do a better job than Jake Lloyd did from before, but his performance seems rather unemotional at times even when it really feels like he’s trying to emote his feelings. Natalie Portman as Anikin’s love interest is not much better as she seems bland and uninteresting as a love interest and her relationship with Anikin feels drained and emotionless. Ewan Mcgregor as Obi-Wan is honestly okay just like before yet it seems to me that he could use a little more push in character growth to make his journey at being Anikins master more interesting. Other characters show up here and there like Yoda who does a decent enough job, The Droids C-3P0 and R2-D2 who’s comedy are still just as fun and lovable that it somewhat saves part of the movie, and even Jar Jar Binks who thankfully gets a much smaller role and is not as annoying as he was before. Although the characters don’t save the weak storytelling, they do a fine enough job to compensate even if it means they don’t leave a good enough impression.
Last time audiences experienced an abundance of CGI effects that overridden the use of the practical effects. It’s unfortunate to say that this movie is about the same except somehow it's even worse. The CGI for the creature characters still look fake and lifeless and the backgrounds while some of them are beautiful, most of them are very off and some of them don’t even feel like a Star wars background as they feel like they are from a different sci fi movie. I also felt like it was pointless to make Yoda completely CGI instead of using a puppet that would have looked so much more lively and full of expression. I give them credit that they want to try something new with the visuals, but when the original trilogy already has established a style that was already tried and true, I would expect the locations and characters to of course be different but still have the distinct features that we loved from the original movies. Still, the action scenes, particularly the lightsaber battles, are quite good and in some cases a step up from the original trilogy which is something that can not be denied. Overall they aren’t the worst visuals ever, but they are missing that extra amount of wonder and imagination that was shown in the original trilogy.
The Music is once again helmed by John Willams who honestly does a fair job at trying to recapture the glory days of when Star Wars movie music was iconic and awesome. I do like how they brought back the famous “Imperial March from “The Empire Strikes Back”, but other than that, the music is for the most part pretty standard which is unfortunately disappointing seeing that it’s coming from a legendary composer.
While it technically is a better movie compared to The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones uncourtly still doesn’t live up to the standards set by the original trilogy. There were a couple of cool action moments and sometimes the visuals can be impressive, but the movie as a whole still feels lacking with a mediocre romance and okay characters and story. I remember when I first watched the movie and remembered hating it. Times have changed now and in all honesty, this movie was not as bad as I remembered. It’s still not good, but I’ll at least say that it wasn’t without some good moments. Lucasfilm seemed to be in a rut with these prequels, here's hoping that their next prequel movie, Revenge of the Sith, could be the Star Wars movie to bring the franchise back to its prime.
(Final Grade: C)