Rating: 
Summary: I Love You Hayden Christensen
Review: Star Wars is not just a series of films. They are a cult legend, a culture on its own. I know that there has been so much debate on the difference between the prequels and the original trilogy, but because I am a biased Star Wars fan, I am not one to mess with.Phantom Menace parallels A New Hope in the fact that both films represent a beginning. In "Attack of the Clones", this is very much akin to "The Empire Strikes Back" because of the cliffhanger ending which makes us wish that Bill Gates or some other guy can invent a real time machine so we can go to 2005 and see the last prequel. "AOTC" is set 10 years after "TPM", and the Republic is falling apart because of the mysterious Count Dooku. You'll have to be a little blind or deaf not to see the conspiracy that is going on in this film, but a clone army has been made for the Republic to defend them from those who have proven themselves traitors to the Republic. Anakin Skywalker is a restless, adventurous, reckless padawan Jedi who falls in love with the wise, mature, and balanced Senator Padme. They travel because of a safety threat to the Senator, and in this process, they do fall in love and before the Clone War begins, they eventually give in to their feelings. Hayden Christensen, I'm in love with you. You're a brilliant actor and although your acting in this film was rather below your real level as I've seen in your other film, you make the perfect Anakin Skywalker. Natalie Portman is equally good. The DVD itself is a treasure. 20 years from now, this will appear on ebay auctions, so better get your copy now. And the easter egg which features the outtake reel will make you realize how clumsy Hayden is.
Rating:
Summary: Yoda Strikes Back! Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Review: Star Wars Episode II: The Saga Continues... In 2002, Star Wars fans celebrated the silver anniversary of the release of Episode IV: A New Hope (the first film actually released) in various ways...by going to the Cincinnati Celebration...by purchasing 25th Anniversary memorabilia (such as Hasbro's trio of Silver Anniversary "two-pack" mini dioramas - which I happen to own)...and by going to the local multiplex to watch Episode II - Attack of the Clones. This movie has everything Star Wars fans love. A good screenplay, awesome visual and sound effects, a fantastic John Williams score...and...Yoda fights in this one! Considering the undeserved "bad movie" reputation of its predecessor, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones was received by most Star Wars fans with "This is more like it!" I think Episode II - with its more grown up Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and its depiction of the beginning of the Clone Wars - is the film most fans wanted The Phantom Menace to be, without Jake Lloyd's "good little Ani" and certainly far less of the much maligned Jar Jar Binks. Yet, the more one watches Episode II (and the DVD's existence certainly makes this possible), the more one appreciates The Phantom Menace as a necessary piece of exposition. As some of my fellow customer reviewers have pointed out in their reviews of The Phantom Menace, all of the cornerstones and plot lines in Attack of the Clones were laid down in Episode I. Episode II is set 10 years after the events of The Phantom Menace. With the defeat of the Trade Federation, Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) has served her terms as Queen of Naboo and is now representing her home system in the Galactic Senate. A firm believer in democracy and peaceful negotiations, she is committed to saving the Republic from disintegration. It will not be an easy task, however, since a secessionist movement led by a renegade former Jedi Master has caused several thousand star systems to leave the Republic. Meanwhile, ex-Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), now Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, is mulling over the creation of an Army of the Republic to confront the growing threat of the separatists. Given the relatively small number of Jedi Knights in the galaxy (less than 10,000, which is tiny indeed given the fact that the Republic spans nearly an entire galaxy), this on the surface seems reasonable, even though viewers who saw the Classic Trilogy know that this is simply one more step to the transformation of the Republic to the evil Empire. The plot of this movie revolves around a plot to assasinate Senator Amidala to prevent her from voting against the Military Creation Act now before the Senate. It fails (otherwise there would be no Luke or Leia later), and Palpatine suggests that Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker protect Amidala from further attacks. Of course, we fans know that this is just another clever plot-within-a-plot by Palpatine/Darth Sidious . It puts Anakin in close proximity to Padme again, which causes the young Jedi Padawan's emotional ties to the former Queen of Naboo to resurface with a vengeance. It is a win-win scenario for Palpatine: if Padme dies either at the hands of bounty hunters or the secessionists, he removes the political opposition to the Army of the Republic. If Obi-Wan and Anakin do manage to protect her, they are out of the way and so is Padme, which is, of course, what ensues in Attack of the Clones. The DVD version of Episode II was made from the purely digital version of the movie, which means that some scenes (particularly the fight on Geonosis and the secret wedding on Naboo) are subtly different from some versions seen in non-digital movie theaters. Unlike the DVD release of Episode I, no deleted scenes were restored (but are included in the Extra Features disc), and there is no complete "Making of" documentary feature such as "The Beginning" in the extra features disc of The Phantom Menace. The audio commentary (by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow) is heavy on the production side but light on the lore side. (The main weak point I see with the Star Wars DVDs as a whole is that unlike the Star Trek Director's and Collector's Edition re-releases, the only way you can get text commentaries is by going online. This is fine for those of us who have Internet Service Providers, but not so great for those that don't...plus you have to remain connected to read it!) The usual assortment of trailers, John Williams music video (why don't they include JW on the text commentary? Or give him a feature documentary?) and behind the scenes material fill out the extra features supplementary disc. The nicest, if rather unexpected, bonus was how fast Attack of the Clones was released on DVD. Most of the time, early home video release meant (and still means) that the film did poorly at the box office. Attack of the Clones did quite well at the box office last year, outpaced only by the well-made Spider-Man feature (and it did better than Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Trek: Nemesis). Some cynics suggested it was exactly for that reason that Attack of the Clones came out in 2002 rather than 2 years later (as The Phantom Menace did): that it had done badly. I think it was the fact that it was shot digitally (no need to transfer from film to digital video) and a further 25th Anniversary gift from Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and George Lucas to us fans. --This text refers to the DVD edition
Rating: 
Summary: Barely passable improvement over Episode 1
Review: The prequels continue to prove to be an unnecessary addition to the Star Wars Universe. "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was quite a debacle for everyone except George Lucas, who laughed all the way to the bank with a huge box-office. In terms of acting, plot development, and expansion of the Star Wars mythos, it failed miserably and disappointed a legion of fans. The second prequel, "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" further damages the overall mystique of the original trilogy (though, it's not a half-bad stand-alone movie. Hence, it's 3-star rating). It's a shame that the magic and mystery of the original trilogy has been undermined by these prequels. It's nearly impossible to watch the original now and feel the same sense of wonder.
As with "Phantom Menace", there were many areas where Lucas went wrong. The first one, obviously, is with the title. "Attack of the Clones" is impossible to take seriously and doesn't even truly represent what the movie is about. A title like this instantly invites ridicule and derision. The number of "It sounds like 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'" comments were innumerable. One of the other working titles for this movie was "The Clone War". That title would have made much more sense than "Attack of the Clones", as the Clone War was an important historical reference in the original trilogy. In addition, the plot of the movie deals primarily with the establishing the beginning of that war.
Throwing aside the dumb title, there are other glaring weaknesses in this movie. One of the worst is the alleged 'history' of legendary bounty hunter, Bobba Fett. Despite his ignoble death in "Return of the Jedi", Fett was one of the most popular characters in the original trilogy. The air of mystery surrounding his identity and his origins enhanced such popularity. Now, we find out that he's the child (really a clone) of another bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Not only does seeing Bobba Fett as a 10-year old kid make him seem as unthreatening as showing Darth Vader as little 8-year old brat did, this origin doesn't mesh with other past references to his history.
Another area of weakness is the arctic cold romance between Queen (now Senator) Padme Amidala and an older (compared to "Phantom Menace") Anakin Skywalker. Part of what made "Empire Strikes Back" so good was the understated budding romance between Han and Leia. It was subtle and brought along slowly, reaching a zenith with the Leia/Han classic exchange "I love you", "I know". In "Attack..." this comparable romance feels like it's being hammered into our skulls that these two are supposed to be in love, despite the fact there is exactly zero chemistry between them. The dialogue they share is even more atrocious. There's not a single memorable line between them and it's probably best to tune the two of them out when they are speaking to each other. Supposedly this illicit romance and other events are supposed to foreshadow Anakin's eventual turn to the Dark Side of the 'Force', but there's really no sense of that happening. Even at the end, he seems too much like a happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care teenager, not some brooding individual scarred by the events life has thrown at him.
The biggest problem with this movie, though, is its continued abuse of a realistic timeline for these events. This movie is supposed to take place 22 years before "A New Hope" and we're supposed to believe that characters such as Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, who appeared to be in their upper 50's in "A New Hope", were just a young (late teens, early 20's) married couple here. We are also supposed to believe that a galaxy and government that had no standing military of any kind was turned into such an overwhelming military society in such a short period of time. It's well known that George Lucas intended the rise of the Empire and Emperor Palpatine to be an allegory of the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler in Germany. The difference is that Germany had the military/industrial infrastructure in place and Hitler merely co-opted it for his own purposes. There's no such thing in this galaxy. Yet, we're supposed to buy into the fact that this all-pervasive Empire with such a menacing military could be developed in less than 20 years. Even suspension of disbelief doesn't allow one to make that kind of leap in logic. It's impossible and it's aggravating that Lucas would try to imply otherwise.
Problems aside, there are a couple of redeeming elements to "Attack of the Clones". The vicious battle that takes place at the end of the movie is a truly visual treat. The rain world that is home to the clone-producing facility in the first prequel world that matches fascination produced by such original trilogy worlds as Hoth and Tatooine. The character of Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus (played menacingly well by veteran Christopher Lee) is badly needed charismatic addition to this moribund group of actors. Dooku's lightsaber battle with a certain Jedi Master is quite a highlight, if a tad incongruous. There's even a great quote by Jango Fett who says, "I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe".
In the end, these good points balance the bad just enough to make "Attack of the Clones" and barely recommendable movie. As long as you're not too obsessive and analytical a Star Wars fan (like I am), you should be able to enjoy this movie as a good Saturday popcorn flick.
Rating: 
Summary: Me thinketh this stinketh!
Review: to quote Alf. Better words were never used to describe this overbloated affair. Give us better George!
Rating:
Summary: Wow, that was bad
Review: How can I say this? I despise this movie in all it's forms. Five star reviews? Nay, nay!
Rating:
Summary: Not
Review: Keep real yo. This movie did not! I am , like, never waiting in line for another ridiculous movie again!
Rating:
Summary: Distressful
Review: I am extremely perturbed at this lack of effort on the director's part to elicit acting from the actors! What a disgrace. With all that talent on board, how about a little dialogue?
Rating:
Summary: If you liked whiney little Luke Skywalker...
Review: The only reason why I can see someone actaully liking this movie is if they really like the special effects and if they really really like Luke from the "first" movies, where he whined insesantly, and basically was just plain iritating...his father shows you where he gets it from. I'd give this no stars if I could...I tell you though, this and episode one make me fear the next movie and the Indiana Jones movie Lucas is thinking about doing...*shudders* Nothing like having your favorite movie franchises from Childhood ...
Rating:
Summary: What the HELL is wrong with you people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This is one of the BEST movies EVER made!!!! Grow up, you Lord Of the Rings geeks!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Waaaa!
Review: I am giving this a five-star review to offset the detractors. I feel mildly warm towards this movie.
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