Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

The release of Episode I: the Phantom Menace in 1999 was met with a mixed reception. That mixed reception made George Lucas a bit leery about doing a sequel. With that said, there was still a significant demand for another adventure in a galaxy far, far away.

Ewan McGregor reprised his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen was cast as an adult Anakin Skywalker. The filmmakers also cast Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi master Mace Windu and British film legend Sir Christopher Lee as the film's antagonist - Count Dooku.

Attack of the Clones used a lot of CGI which wasn't exactly well-received. That said, the effects were quite impressive and made some major technical advances. Additionally, John Williams was brought back to do the music for the film - as he had for all of the previous Star Wars films.

The Story

10 years after the events of the previous film, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect Padme Amidala after a failed assassination attempt. It doesn't take long for the two to uncover quite an intricate plot by former Jedi master Count Dooku.

While the two Jedi knights are working to sort out the plot and keep the senator alive, the Galactic Senate is at a stalemate about a vote to give Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers.

What I Liked

• The music is great, John Williams did a very good job setting the scene with the musical score.
• Visually-speaking, the film looks great with the various environments looking rich and colorful. Now, I will admit that there are some points where the CGI are a bit obvious, but it doesn't really harm the viewing experience.
• Much like the previous film, the lightsaber choreography is wonderful to watch.
• The costumes were also nice.
• We finally got to see Yoda in a duel, and it was epic!

What I Didn't Like

• There were moments where the lightsabers don't really go anywhere. This is something I noticed in the previous film as well, but the choreography is more like a dance than a fight. As such, there are points where the sabers don't go anywhere near the other person.
• Okay, the dialogue in this one was even cornier than it was in the last film. It was typical fantasy nonsense in a lot of cases but it was cringey to listen to sometimes.
• As epic as the fight between Yoda and Count Dooku is, it's very short and I really wish it lasted longer.

Interesting Trivia

• Mace Windu's purple lightsaber was a personal request from Samuel L. Jackson who wanted to be able to find himself in one of the larger battle sequences. Purple is Jackson's favorite color.
• Attack of the Clones has seen a lot of political analysis with specific comparisons to Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler was originally the chancellor of Germany, and then was granted emergency powers...which happened in the film as well (thanks Jar Jar). After Hitler got his emergency powers, well, we know what happened. There are also comparisons to Napoleon Bonaparte who ruled France from 1796 to 1799 and Octavian, the first emperor of Rome. There are a few other comparisons to be made, but these are the ones I found the most interesting.

In Closing

At the end of the day, Attack of the Clones is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a sequel. The film did a lot of things right, it's visually striking and the fight choreography was really good. With that in mind, there was a lot of wasted potential.

With all that said, as corny as it is, I kind of enjoy it as a sort of guilty pleasure film.