Rewatching The Phantom Menace took some off the shine of the apple of my first-watch memories, even though I still saw the reasons why it appealed to me so much when I was 12. By the time Attack of the Clones came along, I was a little older and more cynical. The name was the first strike for me – compared to The Phantom Menace, which I felt evoked mystery, Attack of the Clones sounded schlocky. Upon seeing the movie, I wasn’t a fan, and as I watch it again now, those flaws are apparent. However, it also jogged my memory of its good parts.
When Padme Amidala’s life is threatened, her old friends Anakin Skywalker (now all grown up and training to be a Jedi) and Obi-Wan Kenobi are called in to protect her. The plots against Padme lead Obi-Wan to unearth a surprising conspiracy on a hidden planet, while Anakin wrestles with his feelings for Padme, which are forbidden by the Jedi.
Okay, does Hayden Christensen light up the screen as Anakin? No, but that would’ve been a tall order for any actor. Plenty of Anakin’s dialogue is absurd, and much like Ahmed Best getting saddled with Jar-Jar’s portrayal in the first movie, there’s not much Christensen could’ve done to make it work. The romance angle is hokey, the angst is cranked up to 11, and the “hints” of Anakin’s coming descent are way overbaked. Anakin is probably the trickiest aspect of the whole prequels, because he’s the big question the viewers had going into this story, but the films continually insist on providing unsatisfying answers.
The political intrigue isn’t done well enough to make it engaging or entertaining. I get that there’s some commentary on the Bush era here and amassing power through the people’s fear of an enemy, and Ian McDiarmid is reliably good as Palpatine, but these scenes grind the story to a halt. Also, there’s little point in making Padme a senator after her reign if she’s going to have so little involvement in the Senate, but I suppose I should be happy she dodged that bullet (not that what she’s given is considerably better.)
The scenes that work best for me are the ones involving Obi-Wan’s secret mission. I remember how intrigued I was watching the stuff on Kamino in the theater, and the Ewan McGregor of it all aside, those scenes are able to keep my interest. I like watching him investigate, I thought the Kaminoans were pretty cool CGI for 2002, and the “rescue” from Anakin and Padme that lands all three of them in the arena on Geonosis is probably my favorite action scene in the film. While some of the action feels too video-game (the aerial high-speed chase after the assassin) or like it’s trying too hard to be a Big Moment (Dooku’s climactic fight with you-know-who,) the arena scene has a mix of cool action and fun character moments, which I like.
In additional to the usual suspects I already mentioned, the film features Samuel L. Jackson as a motherf**king Jedi (he’s in The Phantom Menace too, but his scenes here are more fun,) the late Christopher Lee doing what he does best, and Temuera Morrison as Jango. (Side note: after watching season 2 of The Mandalorian, I had a greater appreciation for Morrison’s appearance here.)
Warnings
Violence, language, a little drinking and references to space drugs, and thematic elements.
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