Right time for part two of my look at the Star Wars prequels and this will cover Episode II Attack of the Clones, which would introduce Hayden Christensen as the young Anakin Skywalker. So let's gie this sad mother a look.... ;-)
The story is set ten years after the events of Episode I and the Galactic Republic are still in turmoil after their invasion of Naboo by the Trade federation years earlier. And a former jedi knight, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) has organised a separatist unit against the Republic and the senate is trying to put forth a plan to create an army to help the Republic against the separate threat. Meanwhile former Queen of Naboo, now a senator, Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) has Obi-wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice jedi, or padawan, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are assigned to protect Padme after an assassination attempt is made on her. Obi-wan and Anakin chase the would be assassin and corner her, but she is killed by her employer, with a poison dart. Obi-wan soon learns that the dart was manufactured out on a remote ocean planet called Kamino and he goes out to investigate. Meanwhile Anakin is assigned to escort Padme back to Naboo where they spend time together and soon fall in love.
In the meantime Obi-wan arrives on Kamino where he discovers an army of clone troops are being created in secret for the Republic by using a bounty hunter named Jango Fett as their genetic template. Obi-wan soon realises that Jango is the employer of the would be assassin and after a brief fight with him, Obi-wan tracks them after he places a tracking device on Jango's ship and follows them to the planet Geonosis. Meanwhile, Anakin is suffering from premonitions of his mother in pain and he decides to go against Obi-wan's orders and he travels with Padme to Tatooine to save her. Anakin eventually finds his mother, Shmi (Pernilla August) in a sand people camp, and she has been badly tortured, barely breathing she acknowledges her son and dies, leaving Anakin in a blind rage, he goes and slaughters all the sand people in the camp and he returns Shmi's body back to her original home. Obi-wan meanwhile on Geonosis learns that Dooku is creating a new droid army to fight against the Republic and that Dooku also gave the order on the attempted assassination of Padme. Obi-wan then relays this info to Anakin via a hologram and Anakin transmits the message on to the jedi council, however during the transmission Obi-wan is captured by Dooku, which prompts Anakin and Padme to go and save him. However Anakin and Padme are also captured shortly after their arrival and sentenced to death alongside Obi-wan on a colosseum type pit where they must fight against large monsters. But they soon manage to release themselves and are saved by the arrival of Jedi Master, Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) along with a team of jedi knights and soon the arrival of the clone army, they begin their battle against Dooku and his droid army...
It has to be said that for me Attack of the Clones is easily the weakest of the three prequels and one of the main things that hampers the film are the poor characterisations, particularly of Anakin Skywalker and Padme, but I will get to that a bit later. However its not all bad with Attack of the Clones as it still has some engaging fight sequences, such as Yoda's showdown with Count Dooku, the battle between the clone army and the droids on Geonosis, and Obi-wan's encounter with Jango Fett on the sea planet Kamino. The film also was quite innovative in terms of film technology as it was one of the first films to use digital video cameras and HD digital 24-frame system and the cameras even proved to work very well in intense heat, as certain sections of the film were shot in Tunisia. Lucas who was concerned by the critical reception The Phantom Menace met with in regards to the script and dialogue brought in another writer, Jonathan Hales to co-write the screenplay with him, although the dialogue is still pretty cringeworthy in places, but more on that soon.
Getting onto the performances, there is no doubt that Attack of the clones is a mixed bag, starting with Hayden Christensen, who is very wooden in his performance as the young, arrogant and somewhat tormented jedi apprentice, or another way of putting it is that Anakin is a whiny little bitch! Christensen physically is right for the role but his performance however is just hampered by some corny dialogue and under Lucas's direction he simply cannot make a decent impact with his character, yet Hayden himself has proved in other films that he is a very capable actor (just look at the drama film Shattered Glass and you'll see that for yourself). Hayden's performance also isn't helped by the fact he has to play his part in a very contrived love story with Natalie Portman and their dialogue is like something out of a Mills and Boon novel! One such example is when Anakin tells Padme of his true feelings for her when they are on Naboo and he says "Now I'm with you again... I am in agony. I'm haunted by the kiss you should never have given me. My heart is beating.... hoping that kiss will not become a scar. You are in my very soul.... tormenting me!". Achhh shut up ya fanny!! Christensen however does fair well enough with the physical fight sequences and he does have a good moment when he fails to rescue his dying mother, Shmi, from the sand people as she dies in his arms, he looks up and his lip trembles with rage and goes outside and slaughters the sand people tribe. And he confesses to Padme later "I killed them. I killed them all. And not just the men, but the women and children too. They're like animals and I slaughtered them like animals! I hate them!!". On a lighter note Hayden does somehow manage to have relatively decent rapport with Ewan McGregor in their scenes together. Hayden also has one amusing moment as well where on Geonosis he fights the natives and his lightsabre is broken in half and he says "Oh not again! Obi-wan is gonna kill me!".
Ewan McGregor fairs better however in his reprised role as Obi-wan Kenobi and this time McGregor has sprouted a beard, as he starts his physical resemblance toward Alec Guinness. McGregor must have enjoyed playing the part of Obi-wan in this film as he get's to really patronise and keep Anakin down and in his place with his somewhat highly critical tutelage. McGregor has some good moments in the film such as the scenes where he arrives at Kamino and finds the secret clone army being built and he later fights against Jango Fett, the bounty hunter. McGregor also manages to one or two good lines in the film as well (yep there are some!) such as the scene where Anakin jumps into their ship and Obi-wan asks Anakin "What took you so long?" and Anakin replies "Sorry Master I couldn't find a speeder I liked with the right cockpit and the right speed capabilities". And Obi-wan snaps back "If you spent as much time practising your sabre techniques as you did your wit, you'd rival Master Yoda as a swordsman!" and Anakin says "I thought I already did" and Obi-wan says "Only in your mind, my very young apprentice!". And later on when Obi-wan is captured by Count Dooku and sentenced to death and put out on display in a large pit, chained to a post, he sees Anakin and Padme brought who are chained up as well. And Obi-wan says to Anakin "I was beginning to wonder if you got my message" and Anakin meekly says "I retransmitted it, just as you requested, Master. And then we decided to come and rescue you" and Obi-wan looks up at his handcuffed hands and says "Good job!".
Natalie Portman, while she is by far the better performer than Hayden Christensen and does what she can with her role as Padme, she too suffers from having to try and deliver a convincing love story, and in the end it is anything but as it is rather flat and one note. Natalie also get's some cringeworthy dialogue, especially in the scene where after Anakin and Padme have been sentenced to death, Padme declares her love for Anakin. And Padme says to Anakin "I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you come back into my life. I truly.... deeply.... love you and before you die I want you to know that". Awwww jeeezzzzz!!
As for the supporting cast, Christopher Lee fairs alot better in his role as the villainous Count Dooku, former jedi knight, who is now sided with the federation and creates a robot army to take down the Republic. Lee doesn't get many good lines either but he does have a couple of good scenes, one being where after having captured Obi-wan he asks him to co-operate but Obi-wan refuses. The other scene is his last one where he has his showdown with Yoda, which is a bit a comical but its worth watching to see Yoda dance around like a whirling dervish! Samuel L Jackson also reprises his role of Mace Windu well enough, although Sam doesn't have the luxury of great dialogue either, but he does get to do a bit more here than in Episode I as he get's to kick some ass in the film's climactic battle scene on Geonosis. And Sam does deliver the film's best line when Mace Windu arrives on Geonosis and he ignites his lightsabre and holds it threateningly close to Dooku and Mace says "This party's over!". Temeura Morrison however doesn't fare so well in his role as the bounty hunter, Jango Fett, who is used to create the clone army, as he gives a pretty lame and wooden performance and is also given some naff dialogue to deliver. And a prime example of this is when Jango meets Obi-wan on Kamino and Obi-wan says to him "You're clones are very impressive. You must be very proud." and Jango says "I'm just a simple man trying my way in the universe". Gaaaawwwwd!
Ian McDiarmid once again provides another fine performance in his dual role as Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious although he does take a bit of a back seat in Episode II and he would feature more heavily in Episode III. And McDiarmid nicely hints at his dual character's manipulative schemes Palaptine at one points speaks to Anakin alone and he tells him "In time, you will learn to trust your feelings. Then you will be invincible. I have said it many times, you are the most gifted Jedi I have ever met. I see you becoming the greatest of all Jedi, Anakin. Even more powerful than Master Yoda." And lastly Frank Oz does a good job with his voice acting skills again as he voices Yoda and he delivers one of the film's best lines when Yoda fights Dooku and at the point where they try and outpower each other with force lightning, Yoda manages to absorb Dooku's lightning and says "Much to learn you still have!".
Getting to George Lucas, direction wise he does a decent job in directing the action scenes which are once again visually very impressive and the CGI effects are largely great, especially the scenes involving the clone army construction on Kamino and also seeing them in action on Geonosis. Lucas however again misdirects his actors and he is guilty of providing a rather uninspiring and vapid love story between the two lead perfomers in Hayden and Natalie. Music wise however, John Williams once again provides a fine score for the film, keeping in tradition with the familiar Star Wars themes he composed for Episodes IV-VI and adding in some newer tracks aswell, although I wouldn't say it was one of his most memorable soundtracks though.
So getting on Clones flaws, does it have any????? Yep. To start with the love story between Anakin and Padme as I've already stated is really insipid and it leaves you cringing at the awful dialogue the actors are given to say, and their love story simply isn't that believable, although with a better script maybe it could have been. Anakin and Padme's story also at times drags the pace of the film down as well and it could have done with being excised a little bit in order to keep the film a little tighter (or just get rid of it altogether! ;-)). The story itself overall is also a bit dull with the creation of clone army, which is done secretly on the behalf of the Republic, although I think more realistically what happened there was Palpatine gave the go ahead to create the army and he of course would later plan to use it for his own selfish ends in Episode III. Jango Fett is also a bit of boring character too and he really isn't give much more to do then sit around in the facility on Kamino, before escaping and heading to Geonosis, and putting on his familiar bounty hunter gear, which his son, Boba Fett, would later probably inherit (as Jango has his head lobbed off by Mace). I also thought the climactic fight scene between Obi-wan, Anakin with Dooku and eventually Yoda was a bit anti-climactic, especially the way in which Dooku easily deals with the two young Jedi before facing off the master old yin. And Yoda's fight scene with Dooku visually is also a bit silly and cringeworthy and its funny how Yoda NEEDS a cane to walk most of the time, yet he can jump and somersault around like nothing else when he fights Dooku! And after their fight scene Yoda uses his force powers to regain his cane and limps slowly away, and you think.... is this the same guy I saw a moment ago????!!! To be fair though Yoda and Dooky's fight scene works OK in the close up shots but in the far away shots, it looks just ridiculous!
Anywayyyyyy despite all that Attacks of the clones is still an entertaining film even if it is the weakest out of the three prequels, and it would have benefited from a better script and a shorter running time overall.
So that's it for Episode II, next is up is Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Back soon!
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