Attack of the Clones had its work cut out against it when it hit the theaters. It needed to fix audience perception caused by the poorly received Episode 1. The movie immediately fixes most of the issues that plagued The Phantom Menace but remains marred as problematic because of people’s hatred of that first film in the prequel trilogy of Star Wars. It is marred for that reason and for the continuation of politics in what’s supposed to be a space adventure. The ongoing politics as Palpatine maneuvers to manipulate everyone so he can end up in charge continued to drag down the chances of adventure, but at least the political plot showed movement towards its conclusion.
Other issues, though, saw major improvements. For one, talk of midichlorians was drastically cut back. The Force was always supposed to be mystical, not scientific. It was something anyone could learn if they were devoted to its teachings. Taking the mysticism out of the Force and making it scientific was a mistake.
Anakin grew faster than every other cast member as he was replaced by Hayden Christensen, making his presence in the movie much more enjoyable and believable. Jar Jar, quite thankfully, was reduced to a cameo. With the problems fixed, Episode II was much improved.
But wait, people constantly question Hayden’s acting ability, right?
Yes, it’s true, Hayden seemed to struggle in the always brooding character of Anakin. The guy can act, though. If you don’t believe that, check out the movie called Life as a House. Instead of inability when it comes to acting, he must have simply been out of his element. Sadly, it showed. Regardless, he was the one major failing point in an otherwise decent Star Wars installment.
Star Wars should be more than “decent” though. Attack of the Clones still has plot issues. Many claim that much the movie was boring as it bogged down into politics and Anakin and Padme’s love story. The love story was necessary, the politics weren’t. Again, Star Wars is a space adventure, not a political thriller filled with intrigue. While it was interesting to see Palpatine deftly maneuver his way to the top via deceit and manipulation, it could have taken less screen time.
Once the plot sludges through the slowness, Attack of the Clones really picks up. Obi discovers Jango Fett, none other than Boba’s father (kind of) and battles him. Anakin, Padme, and Obi get trapped in an arena and have to fight giant creatures just prior to a full-scale battle where the clone troopers were on the good side fighting against Count Dooku and the droid army. Dooku for a good villain, defeating both Obi and Anakin in lightsaber battle. Then, his fight against Yoda was legendary. When seeing it in the theaters, the crowd cheered when Yoda brought out his own lightsaber!
A lot of time went into creating Jango Fett. With Boba being a fan favorite, that makes sense. However, audiences are once again given a badass villain who was a one and done. Darth Maul died in Phantom, Jango bites it in this one. With Palpatine always slithering around and Dooku surviving to come back for the 3rd movie, there are a lot of villains to deal with, but it seems Maul or Jango could have lasted a bit longer.
An issue I had, that confused me, was the name of the movie. The clone stormtroopers don’t “attack” till Revenge of the Sith. They’re good guys in this movie, so why the name? They attack Dooku, I guess that’s enough. Most Star Wars fans had heard of “The Clone Wars” mentioned first in A New Hope, so the promise of seeing the famed battle on the big screen got many people excited. Luckily, the story gets expanded in the animated The Clone Wars and continues into Revenge of the Sith.
Once again, the entire prequel series receives hate, I think, due to the issues of The Phantom Menace. Yet, people don’t acknowledge all that the prequels got right. The story slowly ties everything together to build the Star Wars universe everyone knew and loved from the original trilogy. Attack of the Clones moves slowly till about the last half hour when it speeds up tremendously on the action. During that slow time, however, it fixed many issues left from the first movie. While fixing those issues and audience complaints, Attack of the Clones paved the way for the much better, darker Revenge of the Sith.
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