The Skywalker Saga: Attack of The Clones

Next on the list of my Star Wars movie marathon was Attack of The Clones, now compared to The Phantom Menace, I could not remember a single thing that happened in this movie; besides from the introduction of the clones.

And just for that reason, the clones, I was looking forward to this movie. Having seen the Clone Wars series, I grew to love the clones and I’m a sucker for any clones’ media. So, to know this is where it started was pretty fun.

However, I want to get into my main criticism of the film pretty quickly. Why is a movie called Attack of The Clones only featuring clones attacking two hours into the movie?

This movie is two hours and 30 minutes in total and yet only at the two-hour mark do we actually get to see the clones in action. It felt like a waste of time having them in the story at all, and without focusing on the Clone Wars show or the next movie, what purpose do they actually have in this film?

Sure, they show up for a battle at the end and that’s it. To say they were constantly referenced to during the movie and seen being created, we don’t actually get to see how good they are. And even when we do get to see them fight, most of the shots we see of the final battle are of the Jedi.

With that out of the way, I want to focus on the characters. Ewan McGregor returns as Obi Wan Kenobi and somehow, I like him less in this movie than I thought I would. All the fun of the character in the previous movie has sort of disappeared, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to become more serious, but it just feels like such a dramatic shift from the last movie.

Anakin Skywalker is still a character I find awkward to watch on screen. No longer a child but a 19-year-old, he still has clunky dialogue and barely any emotion.

Whenever he tries to seduce Padme it makes me cringe, it’s very clear at the beginning of the movie that she isn’t interested in his advances and yet he still outwardly makes her uncomfortable anyway.

If your main character, the supposed good guy, is making your audience feel uncomfortable then I think you’ve done something wrong.

I just couldn’t get behind the relationship they were clearly forcing, it didn’t at all feel natural and like the actors actually liked each other either. Where their relationship felt weird but child-like in the first movie, this one just feels awkward and unwanted, and I don’t see how they could get married at the end.

Depending on how many days the movie takes place over, that’s not much time to rekindle a friendship, fall in love and get married; it doesn’t feel deserved.

I did like the reintroduction of a much younger Uncle Owen, I felt like it expanded on what we already knew and was a nice touch.

The majority of the time watching this movie I completely forgot Jar Jar Binks was even in it, he plays such a minor role and I’m actually thankful for it. The last movie gave him so much only to pay off as him being a hindrance and annoying. Yet in this movie, he was out of the way and actually had an impact on the story.

With Attack of The Clones, we also get the addition of a new villain, Count Dooku. Played by Christopher Lee, he only appears towards the end of the movie but has such dominance in every scene that you barely notice.

Comparing my issue of backgrounds in The Phantom Menace, I can say Attack of The Clones does a lot better job at the space and sci-fi element. We see more planets, more aliens and more ships and I like it a lot; we also get to see more battledroids!

Another fan-favourite character that shows up in this movie is Jango Fett, the original DNA that all clones are based off of and the father to Boba Fett. We learn of his work with the clone army and that he wanted a perfect copy of himself, though the reason why is never explained.

For some reason I thought Jango would live on to be in the next movie, but no, he dies in the same movie he was introduced in. And this seems to be a running theme for these prequel movies, in the first movie we have Darth Maul introduced and killed and now in this one we’ve had Jango Fett introduced and killed.

There isn’t really much more to say on the matter, the story isn’t that great, it has its highlights but a lot of scenes with Anakin really drag out.

There are many scenes that are unnecessary such as the shots of Padme just staring at things in the distance.

Some plotlines presented don’t really go anywhere, we get told about characters that we never see, it’s a mess. But the clone battle at the end is the most solid part of the movie and the most entertaining.

Obi-Wan has the most interesting storyline but it still isn’t something I’d actively search for if it was a movie all on its own.

Attack of The Clones is a step up from The Phantom Menace, yet it still isn’t anything mind blowing. I went into it not knowing much and finished it feeling like I still hadn’t learned anything.

As always, the clones are the best part of any Star Wars media and with the end of the animated series, I fear we won’t be seeing them until the second season of The Bad Batch. I’d love to see more clones in live action, show me a Captain Rex, give me Fives or Cody, heck even Tech; it’s not like you don’t already have the actor.

Attack of The Clones gets 3 out of 5 blaster shots from me.

Attack of The Clones is streaming on Disney +.