Attack of the Clones

Our Review

Attack of the Clones is the prequel where the romance is supposed to carry the weight, and it lands like a Hondo delivery. Anakin and Padme’s courtship plays as two people reading greeting cards at each other on a picnic set, and the film’s central tragedy, watching a good man tip toward the dark side, keeps getting interrupted by sand monologues.

What works: the Coruscant chase, Obi-Wan’s noir detective storyline, and the Geonosis arena, which finally delivers the Jedi army spectacle the prequels promised. Ewan McGregor grows into the role properly here, and Christopher Lee makes Count Dooku feel like a threat in about nine minutes of screen time.

Temuera Morrison’s clone army raises questions the film is smart enough to seed and never dumb enough to answer on screen. The Clone War begins, Yoda fights, and the pieces move into place for the best of the prequels. Our score: 5/10. Worth it tonight for the last forty minutes; keep your phone handy for the rest.