Rating: 
Summary: Special effects features on the DVD are way too long.
Review: Disk Two goes into way too much detail about the CGI effects done for this movie, they talk left and right about how each shot was done and it is a little too overwelming. There must be 500 to 700 cgi effects shots in this movie, greater then anything we have ever seen before more then the other four Star Wars movies, or Star Trek, or Jurassic Park, or a movie like Spider-Man. George and his producer Rick McCalluim say that CGI and ditigal film is the wave of the future, but so far other film makers and Hollywood in general have not fully seen that. They still use practical effects and more traditional film technology in movie making. They only put CGI in where they really want it, and not just for the sake of putting it. The few full CGI movies that have been made have turned out to be disasters. They still use models and mitiatures for many effects shots. In fact there has been something of a public backlash against going full CGI in movies, to many it looks too much like a large video game and nothing more. It's reported that Episode III will have even more CGI effects in it, and it remains to be seem wither the public will be pleased by what they see or get up and leave the theater in frustration.
Rating: 
Summary: Star Wars has turned into children's fodder
Review: Great movie for kids. As an adult, I am disgusted with the whole Star Wars franchise at this point. Between Episode I and this over digital produced kiddie flick, I won't even bother with Episode 3. I think what I miss most from the original series is Harrison Ford. A real actor. Not a computer generated Jar Jar Binks. Bring the kids! Any adult who finds this fodder "great movie making" probally loves "The Muppet Movie(s)" and "The Goonies" The ruining of a perfect trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: enjoyable with a lot of setting up the Original Trilogy
Review: A film by George Lucas"Attack of the Clones" takes place ten years after the events of "The Phantom Menace". Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is an Apprentice in the Jedi order and is studying under Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). When Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) from Naboo barely survives an assassination attempt, Kenobi and Skywalker are assigned by the Jedi Council to protect her and eventually to look into who is trying to have her killed. This sets the events of the film into motion. Senator Amidala intended on speaking out against the Republic raising an army. There has been unrest in the Republic and thousands of star systems have already left the Republic and have formed an Alliance under a former Jedi named Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). The army would be to help the Jedi keep the peace in the galaxy, but many do not feel it is the role of the Republic to have a standing army. I do not give this background information to bore, but rather because this is the set-up that the movie is presenting us with. Anakin and Obi-Wan are able to track a subsequent attempt on Padme's life to a bounty hunter. Obi-Wan follows the trail of the bounty hunter to a planet where he discovers there is a clone army being created, apparently at the orders of a Jedi ten years ago. He also meets the bounty hunter who is being used as the stock for the clones: Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison). Kenobi believes that Fett is also the Bounty Hunter who was trying to kill Padme Amidala. We also get to see the child: Boba Fett. While Obi-Wan is investigating the bounty hunter and now the clones, Anakin has been instructed to return Padme to Naboo for safety reasons. It is during this trip that romance blossoms. There is a courtship, intense on Anakin's part, and our knowledge of the original trilogy tells us how it is going to end. This movie serves to set up several important points in the Star Wars universe. We see the relationship between Anakin and Padme which will eventually provide us with Luke and Leia. We see Anakin begin his descent into the Dark Side and also have him start to become as much machine as human (as Vader is in the Original Trilogy), and we also see how Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) gains so much power as well as the clone army, which is the precursor to the Imperial Stormtroopers. Is this movie perfect? By no means. Much of the dialogue feels stilted and awkward, and I can only imagine how difficult it is to act against a blue screen because the creatures will only be digitally added later. Still, this was an enjoyable movie with excellent effects and more of a feel of "Star Wars". Besides, there is a certain sense of justice in Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) being indirectly responsible for the rise of the Empire. This is a science fiction "Star Wars" movie. We're not going to get classic cinema, but we will get a fun trip to the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Star Wars-Episode 2, Attack of the Special Effects
Review: I did not see the movie in theaters because I am not a real die hard Star Wars fan. I bought the movie recently on DVD. Personally I think 'Attack of the Clones' was worse than 'The Phantom Menace'.
It seems to me that George Lucas spent too much time working on the special effects and creature effects rather then crafting an interesting story.
The movie is allright but becomes rather dull during certain sequences. There was not much (if any) improvement from Episode I to Episode II as far as the screenplay is concerned.
You as the buyer would be better off to purchase the VHS version and save some money.
If Episode III is not any better a box set of the first three episodes will really not be worth buying.
So far I think Episode I and II could use some extensive editing and some major re-writes.
Save your money. Buy it on VHS (and preferebly used).
Rating:
Summary: Attack of the...wait, what's going on?
Review: I guess the problem with announcing you're going to make a trilogy is that you can't really back out of it once the first movie sucks. So "Attack of the Clones" is the fifth and (hopefully) penultimate Star Wars movie, and in many ways it does feel like all concerned are merely churning it out. That said, Part II is light years ahead of Phantom Menace in terms of entertainment value. Large parts of Part I were spent listening to the Senate of the Republic debate utterly pointless stuff, about as interesting as watching the real US senate on CSpan and presumably you haven't paid money to watch CSpan.
Anyway, this movie cuts out the boring senate stuff and has a lot more links to the original trilogy. It's really interesting to see Anakin begin to lose it, and the Emperor beginning to take control of the Republic. The new plot, set 10 years after Phantom Menace is equally unfathomable. Instead of a trade blockade we have an impending succession over some unmentioned topic (slavery anyone?). It's never really explained that well, and a few subplots and double-crosses muddy the water even further. Still, it's not "The Matrix II" level garbage, and hopefully Episode 3 will clear some stuff up.
Overall I thought the movie was pretty good, and much better than the last one, mostly due to the lack of Jar Jar Binks and the increased amount of Ewan McGregor, however I have 3 main issues with the film (besides the convoluted plot, which I Trust the final film will elucidate).
First - Anakin and Padme. Dull dull dull!! The Anakin kid can't act and we already know what happens, why belabor a good sci-fi movie by throwing in shots of them rolling in meadows?! Puke-tastic!!! It shocked me even more to see that the deleted scenes section had even more of the same nonsense!! Lucas really thought we wanted to see that?? Urgh...
Secondly, the CGI is now waaaaay over the top. It's frankly unconvincing when it's over used. Yoda and the Clones made me feel like I was watching someone else play a computer game, and a lot of the sets in the factory looked designed to be recreated in the Video Game of the Movie. Whatever happened to real sets and real actors? Particularly appalling is when the clones are in the background - they all have these set "look inconspicuous" routines that a human actor would never do. It's fake, it's distracting and it's unnecessary. Also, since when could R2D2 fly? That'd have come in handy later (...In the first trilogy. My head hurts...)
Finally, I'm still puzzled by the timeline here. Anakin has to father Luke and Leah before he gets corrupted and goes over to the dark side. Lets say Padme is 26. That gives her 10 more childbearing years. She gets knocked up at 36, Anakin becomes Darth at 28, Luke is born, the Empire rules the galaxy for ABOUT 20 YEARS and then Luke and Leah team up to destroy the Death Star (twice). Overthrow the Empire, kill the Emperor and save Darth. It all seems a little bit too fast. It also requires some rapid aging on behalf of Obi Wan, Yoda, The Emperor and Darth to leave them as old as they are in A New Hope, 30 years later.
Anyway, the movie's ok, can't wait for the next one so it'll all be over. Then perhaps someone can invent a time machine and go back to a long long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away and stop the Phantom Menace ever being conceived...
Rating:
Summary: titled wrong
Review: One of the things that bug me here is that thigns are titled wrong. They tell me that I shouldnt get angry about that, that I cant controll what people title thigns, but I think my titles are so much better its frustrating. So here are my titles for the series:
Episode I: A Jedi is Born Episode II: The Jedi Comes of Age Episode III: The Fall of the Jedi (This is guessing because I havent seen Ep III yet...but maybe George Lucas will read this and see i'm right and this will be the title...here's hoping...) Thanks for reading my review.
Rating: 
Summary: The Dark Times
Review: Set 10 years after THE PHANTOM MENACE, Lucas again throws us into a mix that includes speeder chases, clone armies, and death arenas. Yes, it's EPISODE II! The Republic is divided. Due to the corruption in the Senate, many star-systems have left. Led by former Jedi Count Dooku, this Separatist movement has made it uneasy for the Jedi Knights to keep the peace. Palpatine, the new President of the Republic proposed creating an army, to aid the Jedi, but many Senators, including Padme Amidala of Naboo, opposed such laws. Upon arrival on Coruscant - the film's opening scene - she was set to vote against this law when death threats against her life were made. After she met with Palpatine and Yoda, the decision was made for Jedi Anakin Skywalker to take Amidala back to Naboo to hide while Skywalker's master, Obi-Wan Kenobi was to track down Padme's assassin(s). Little does Yoda know that the Sith are still in action. If you'd like to know what happens to Anakin, Padme, Kenobi, the Senate, the Jedi, and the rest of the story, you'd just have to watch the film. May The Force Be With You EPISODE III
Coming May 2005
Rating:
Summary: A bit confusing
Review: The biggest attractive of the movie are the Jedis, we finally see them really in action, and we see plenty of them from different wordls. The love scenes make of this movie a bit heavy, and combats a bit confusing. Wasn't Anakin too young for Amidala? And why a fight between combat robots and Clone troopers? I don't understand that.
Rating:
Summary: It was...
Review: I have to say, this was not much fun to watch in most parts. The great thing about the original trilogy was it was fun. It was dark in parts, which was great, but it was fun. Episode 2 was not much fun (except for the Yoda fight). I read the review about the whole courtly love thing, but I don't think this is a movie that you should have to research to understand. The dialogue was just plain awful, whether it was courtly or not! The most important component of a movie is the story, but apparently, George Lucas missed that lesson. Why would Padme fall for such a whiny brat, but who even cares after seeing this? The only redeeming features of this movie are Ewan McGregor, who continues to do good work, in spite of Lucas; the imaginative art department who, again in spite of Lucas, came up with some cool looking stuff; and Christopher Lee, who is having some great roles at last!
Rating:
Summary: frustrating
Review: I was immediately apalled at the sterile performances by most of the cast. Hayden looked embarrassed to convey any realism to the lines he spoke. Natalie Portman was better in the Phantom Menace, which isn't being kind. A lot of what was on film felt like rehearsal dialog rather than script trying to move a story along. The production team seems to only care about technical issues rather than having the audience care about the drama.
The movie also goes back to Tatooine again(!). How does Anakin totally neglect to look for Luke there as Vader when he seems to frequent there a lot?! :P Not only Tatooine, but Coruscant and Naboo. Part of the appeal of the original series was all of the worlds that were visited.
Anyway.....Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee did what they could to save a movie that unfortunately was neglected by Lucas and McCallum to all of the technological issues,a fate similarly shared by the previous Phantom Menace.
I tried to be objective after a number of viewings, but it didn't happen.
In addition, all the obvious inside jokes and homage references littered throughout devalue the legacy of the original Trilogy. On the good side, as with the Phantom Menace, the content of the DVD double disc is plentiful and insightful. Lots of extras about technical issues and the filming process. Summarily, this has to be my beef about the Prequels: You can make great movies that *appeal* to kids without having to cater to them. I believe that was Lucas's philosophy with the first Three. Please don't make the mistake with the conclusionary film Episode III. P.S.- If Padme didn't initially want to respond to Anakin's advances, why was she wearing wardrobe that was either barebacked or having her breasts exposed like a Renaissance festival? *wink, nudge*
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