May 2002 brought our next chapter of the prequel trilogy to the screen. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones hit the silver screen as many fans hoped that it would eliminate the bad taste left in their mouths from The Phantom Menace. A lot of hopes were pinned on Attack of the Clones. On this 40th anniversary of A New Hope let’s take an honest look at the second episode of this galactic opera.
The crawl opens the movie with descriptions of a possible civil war and a rebel faction led by Count Dooku. Fan hopes are at an all-time high for the movie. The movie starts on Coruscant. The clear skies of the past movie are filled with fog. This visual is a great continuation of the already uncertain times that the Republic lives in. The Queen and Senator of Naboo have come to the center of the republic, and a bomb goes off. Someone is trying to kill the now Senator Amidala, and they failed.
Attack of the Clones brings Chancellor Palpatine front and center and within the first few minutes you watch as he has manipulated the situation and made Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the now older Anakin Skywalker, Senator Amidala’s bodyguards. Jake Lloyd is gone and Hayden Christensen is playing the older and more conflicted Anakin Skywalker. Hayden Christensen does a good job reintroducing us to the saved former slave who would become Darth Vader, but criticism has been unfairly laid at his feet, when in fact the script has failed the actor. Christensen has to deliver lines that focus on the fact that he hasn’t seen Amidala in ten years, but he has thought of only her for the last ten years. Really? Is that plausible that a 10-year-old from The Phantom Menace would fall in love and then only think about this girl over the next decade? Remember your mom that you left behind when you were freed from slavery? Did you not think about her once? Hayden Christensen didn’t write it he just had to say the words.
It’s less than fifteen minutes into the movie and another assassination attempt takes place on Amidala while she is sleeping. Obi-Wan and Anakin chase after the assassin which turns out to be a Coruscant car chase. One can just imagine that Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen spent days hanging from a wire to green screens as the chase was filmed. The digital background looks more real than the background of The Phantom Menace, but we know it’s fake, and the suspension of disbelief is hard to fathom when so many unbelievable things happen at once. Anakin jumping out and freefalling through miles of traffic on this busy planet and then landing safely is questionable at best; but when Anakin and Obi-Wan fly through a power coupling electrocuting both of them, that didn’t hurt them either. Apparently Jedi can only be killed by laser blasts.
The chase concludes on the planet surface where the assassin is killed by another assassin and the Jedi are left to plan their next move. Only a half hour in and it’s already a better movie than The Phantom Menace because this is a film that is about the people and not trade deals. It looks less like a kid’s movie pushing merchandise and more about furthering the saga.
Coruscant is not a safe place for Amidala and our two Jedi split their duties. Anakin will travel with Padme incognito as refugees back to Naboo, while Obi-Wan chases after the next assassin, Jango Fett. Chancellor Palpatine is brilliant at this part. Now that he has conspired to remove Amidala, her representative is none other than Jar Jar Binks. The annoying klutz of the first movie is now a minor background character, where he belongs. The gleam in Palpatine’s eye is evident. He has plans to use the innocent Jar Jar to his advantage.
To convey the feeling of angst, anxiety, and anger, an actor needs to be inspired by what they say. Even though Hayden Christensen complains to Padme like a six-year-old, “It’s not fair,” you can see the intensity in his eyes, and you don’t doubt that he could eventually lose all control. Natalie Portman is forced to make Senator Amidala condescending and view Anakin as still a child. These early interactions in the movie make the eventual romance seem creepy and wrong. Portman is only a couple of years older from her first appearance in Episode I while Christensen’s character has aged almost a decade. Hayden Christensen should have started off playing Anakin Skywalker in Episode I, it would have taken the icky factor out of the relationship we are now watching.
Obi-Wan has spent the time investigating clues and has finally found a planet name Kamino, where the assassin Jango Fett has gone, but he can’t find any record of it in the Jedi archives. Even with Yoda’s help, the best they can both establish is that it was probably erased from the archives. But neither one of them can make the connection that it was probably Count Dooku the rebel former Jedi introduced in the opening crawl, that he might be behind all of this. Speaking of which, when are we going to see Dooku? He’s the bad guy and we only have a passing mention of him in the opening introduction and we are almost half way into the movie.
Where Episode II excels beyond I is the propelling of Obi-Wan and Anakin. Here we get to see the two best-known characters in the saga in main roles. Sending Kenobi to Kamino to investigate the assassin and fighting with Jango Fett shows us the capability of Obi-Wan and how much he has grown since the first movie. Anakin’s role as bodyguard to Padme lets him grow too. Yes, we see the childish behavior of Anakin but we get a closing on the mother issue for Anakin. While on Naboo, not only does the reminder of remembering Anakin as a child gets put behind her, Padme falls in love with Anakin. We also learn that Anakin is being called to by his mother. She is in danger and Anakin must go to her. Padme comes too, so back to Tatooine we go.
Anakin learns his mother was freed and goes to her home, a moisture farm that would become very famous in Episode IV. Shmi Skywalker has been captured, her husband is wounded, and she is believed to be dead. This is not good enough for Anakin, so he takes off to find her. The boy who is impulsive is finally trying to right the wrong from the decade before. Though he wants to save his mother, it would be too late. The orange fiery red sky that Anakin speeds off into with the soundtrack of John Williams’ Duel of the Fates is a perfect match for the mindset of Anakin. The rage that is brewing inside this young Jedi is incredible. Emotion is supposed to be ignored by the Jedi, but when he finds his mother and she dies in his arms, there is no way he can control his feelings. He emerges from the tent, and Anakin proceeds to slaughter every one of the Tusken raiders that held his mother captive, even the women and children.
The violence he inflicted has affected him and when he returns to Padme, you can see the emotional scar that has been left on Anakin. Anakin has lost his mother, has no parental figure and now is entering a complicated relationship with Padme, he doesn’t know how to respond or act since he has butchered so many people. Hayden Christensen is perfect in trying to convey the emotions that are boiling inside this guy. The script doesn’t help him, but he does his best, and he should be applauded for the intensity to his performance. You might here the bad lines like “I wish I could wish away my feelings.” It sounds bad, but based on the life that Anakin has had, slavery to freedom while abandoning his mother, his one protector Qui-Gon dies far too soon, and the Jedi order which now tell him to ignore his feelings, and now having his mother die in his arms, yeah I bet he could wish away his feelings. A lot of 18-year-olds are like that. Emotions and feelings tend to suck sometimes, and no one has experienced the life of Anakin Skywalker.
The movie concludes with Palpatine manipulating Jar Jar Binks, into getting the Galactic Senate to give the Chancellor special powers, and now the clone army that Obi-Wan found, but no one ever questioned why it was built for a dead Jedi is expropriated by the Republic, and the attack on the Rebels and Dooku will begin.
However, Obi-Wan has been captured, and almost three-quarters of the way into the movie we finally meet Count Dooku. Christopher Lee is a brilliant actor that brings the gravitas of his career to this movie. He looks and sounds like a wizened old Jedi that has finally had enough.
My question is, that when Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme are captured why were they tied up in a Roman Coliseum type structure filled with flying bugs and three monsters that would devour them. I mean, yes I understand their needs to be a setup for the battle with the Jedi and the Republic Clone army, but still it looks sooooooo stupid. I mean, couldn’t they have thought of anything else to set up the climactic battle.
The Jedi arrive with Mace Windu and when things look bad the clone army shows up with Yoda leading the charge. The next 10 minutes is filled with Jedi, droid, and clone deaths, until we see the final battle where the CGI Yoda fights Dooku. As great as it is to see Yoda fighting with his lightsaber, the wow factor is eclipsed by the many flips and turns that turn Yoda into a whirling ball of green.
The galaxy is safe for now, but there are seeds of trouble planted. The Jedi are organizing the fight with the now Republic Clone Army, and Darth Sidious meets in person with the escaped Count Dooku on Coruscant. Sidious is manipulating the whole galaxy, and there is no way to stop him.
Final Thoughts
Attack of the Clones is a better movie than The Phantom Menace. It’s more mature and the themes explored fall more in line with the Star Wars universe that fans have known since late 70’s. The problem with this movie is not the acting, or even the CGI. It’s greatly improved since Episode I. The problem is the script, which is too bad because it takes away from the whole importance of the movie.
Hayden Christensen is great as Anakin Skywalker, but he gets unfairly blamed for lines like “Sand its course, and rough and irritating.” Christensen didn’t write that, he just had to deliver it. It’s not his fault, to borrow a line from Han Solo of later movies.
I also have to question the logic of the Jedi in this movie. I know they have been the guardians of peace in the galaxy for over a thousand years, which means they could become complacent and not see the real danger that is under their nose. Seriously though, how do the Jedi not know that Padme and Anakin are married at the end of the movie? How can that relationship ever be concealed from people who can essentially probe your mind for information?
The complete stupidity in regards to how information could be missing from the Jedi archives and the fact that the rebel Count Dooku is not responsible is beyond belief. The wise Yoda doesn’t even make the connection.
Attack of the Clones is the middle chapter of the greatest power grab in the galaxy. Ian McDiarmid is yet again brilliant as Palpatine. Taking control of the Senate in the last movie and now having special powers and control of a special army of clones, Palpatine by all accounts looks like and acts like a good guy. I mean this is the guy who states proudly that he loves democracy. No he doesn’t, and that will become evident in the next movie.
The relationship that is established between Padme and Anakin is clunky and silly. There is even a scene of them rolling around in the grass. Clichéd, this scene could have been cut from the movie. Thankfully when Padme does show her feelings for Anakin, we stop hearing about how she still sees him as a kid. Once all reference to the age difference is abandoned, the relationship doesn’t seem silly.
Attack of the Clones is a great movie that is often maligned because of bad dialogue. When you pair this movie with The Phantom Menace, you can see how well it establishes the fate to come for Anakin Skywalker. Here is a boy that was a slave, had no father, left his mother, trained by the repressive order of the Jedi, finds love who rejects him at first and then loses his mother just when he has the ability to save her. Sure it’s awkward at many parts, but Anakin Skywalker has not had a stable upbringing. Life is awkward for him. Anakin has endured so much and the one thing that he has in his life is the blossoming relationship with Padme. He’s a guy bordering on the edge of darkness, and if he loses his last anchor to the good side, who knows what Anakin will do.
This is what Darth Sidious/Chancellor Palpatine is going to exploit.