Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of The Clones
Sometimes we must let go of our pride, and do what is requested of us
Summary:
After an attempt on Senator Padme Amidala’s life she is assigned two Jedi guards by Chancellor Palpatine. Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padawan Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect the former Queen due to their previous relationship with her. One night another attempt is made on Padme’s life which leads to a separation of the group. Obi-Wan tracks her attempted assassin and discovers the planet of Kamino where he learns of a cone army being created for the Jedi. Anakin and Padme travel to Naboo where a forbidden romance begins to form.
Characters:
Ten years after the events of Episode 1, the characters return for another adventure. Keeping his promise to Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan is a Jedi Master teaching his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan is now a patient and wise man. On the other hand, Anakin is rash and arrogant. Still a padawan, he does not have control over his emotions as his Master would have liked. Finally, Padmé returns as well, but as a Senator. She is clever and hardworking, being dedicated to her position.
Nathanyal: 8.5/10
As I am watching these movies in order of release, so original trilogy then the prequels, I will have to say that this movie by far has been my least favourite. That being said, it was still a good movie. I just had a few gripes with it that I will explain now.
I guess the first thing that I didn’t enjoy as much was the pacing. For some reason, this movie felt slower to some degree compared to the rest. Besides the first chase scene, there wasn’t too much apart from that that I didn’t get bored with. Sure, there were some moments that were great, like the fight between Jango and Obi-Wan, but the rest of the time, the pacing felt slow. Another aspect that I didn’t enjoy was Anakin’s character. The way he was portrayed, and his arrogance really bugged me. Not to mention, his interactions with Padmé felt pretty creepy. Just gave me a real weird vibe.
The best part for sure was the final battle scene in the colosseum. The way the battle panned out and the amount of Jedi cutting through droids brought a smile to my face. It felt good watching droids being cut up left and right. And the reinforcement comes in adding to the destruction. I also liked the personal duel at the end. It was entertaining seeing even more different styles of fighting.
Overall, this is probably my least favourite Star Wars movie. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it missed some marks to be a great movie. The movie does have a nice action and battle scene at the end though and it would be worth the wait.
Austin: 8.2/10
Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones takes the slower pacing of Episode I and goes in the wrong direction with it. We get a much slower pace in this movie, and it takes a lot away from an otherwise decent movie. I would argue this is the worst Star Wars in the first six movies.
The plot of this movie is a little bit bizarre, due purely to the pacing. The pacing isn’t terrible but in terms of Star Wars, it is super slow. We get a relatively fast-moving opening, with some emotional scenes and some high-tempo scenes. Then it slows to a crawl. An absolute crawl. And then the end picks right back up and sends the movie off with some really great scenes. They are action back, they close the book on this movie yet leave it open for the third movie. We do get a lot of character and plot development that turns out to be important later on, but while watching this movie it feels slow. I would have loved to see this as an hour and a half movie, or a little bit more spice in the middle.
We get relatively the same characters as the first movie, but they have changed a ton. Anakin is now grown, and his lesser traits have started to show themselves. Obi-Wan has grown into a great Jedi Master, and Padmé has relinquished her role as queen to become a senator. These character changes are pretty substantial, and with the 10-year time-lapse, most of this development occurs off-camera. I did appreciate the way the writers explain these developments throughout the movie, some in passing and some in more detail because it all made sense. There are no character holes, which jumping 10 years can do that, and there are very few question marks about our main protagonists. Anakin continues to grow throughout this movie, leaps, and bounds, with a drastically changing personality and outlook. His development, and the way you can watch his character deteriorate, is one of the better parts of this movie.
The Attack of the Clones is still a decent movie, regardless of how it compares to the rest of the Star Wars Universe. We get some really entertaining scenes right from the beginning, and the ending is awesome as well. The middle is pretty slow, but the events end up being important later in the series. Disney + is your home for all things Star Wars, so go check this one out.
Sebastian: 8.0/10
This is the Star Wars film that I have enjoyed the least. On my ranking this is definitely last and though we aren’t reviewing them yet this falls below any sequel trilogy film as well. My biggest problem is probably the pacing as where even the last film had a better balance between dialogue and the action, this film has few action scenes and they are so spread out with the in-between sections being filled with some not-great dialogue. The story is another aspect that I found was inconsistent as I did find some of it interesting like the Obi-Wan investigation but the other sides of the story did not grab me nearly as much. Again, as with the first film in the trilogy, there is some weirdly written and spoken dialogue throughout with the infamous “I don’t like sand” speech being part of that and once again I do tend to blame the writing as there are still many scenes where I believe the actors were doing a great job. Now for the positives, like I said I enjoyed the Obi-Wan storyline and Ewan McGregor really does well in the role. I like Anakin’s first step towards the dark side with him killing the Tusken Raiders as I thought it was a really good amount of character development that he needed. The action in the back half is pretty solid with all the Jedi action being cool. I would also say that seeing Yoda fight is awesome. John Williams’ score also continues to be excellent throughout these films. Honestly, the best thing I can say about this is that it is still Star Wars and you still get lightsabers and space battles to make you feel you are in that galaxy.
All in all, this is an okay movie that I would really only recommend to people who are doing a marathon or are Star Wars fans already otherwise you don’t need to check this one out. So hop on Disney+ and check it out yourself.
