Attack of the Squeaky Jedi

Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the clones is a film of halves. The middle of the film can be divided in two. Much like The Empire Strikes Back, the other middle trilogy entry, the established heroes Obi Wan (Ewan MacGregor) and Anakin & Padme (Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman) split up with diffent goals. Unlike Empire, the two story paths are not as engaging as each other.

The Obi Wan plotline, as he unravels the mystery of Padme's attempted assasination and the creation of a clone army is brilliant...taking the lively MacGregor to interesting fantasy locations, cool encounters with Borgnine inspired cafe owners, greyskin prime ministers, dangerous asteroid belts, devious ex-Jedi and grumpy bounty hunters. The flipside is Anakin and Padme travelling to Naboo where they picnic, fall in love and have nightmares about Mom. Portman comes out of her shell more in this instalment, making Padme more human in the process. Christensen follows in Jake Llloyd's footsteps perfectly as he misjudges a teenage Anakin by making him a whiney, immature and moody teenager. Christensen naturaly talks with a deep voice in interviews, so why he decides squeak with a high-pitched girly drone is beyond me. The result is a stiff, chemistry free, unconvincing love story that's a little uncomfortable to watch as Anakin stalks the lovely Portman (the blokes in the audience are thinking' "Yeah mate, she is hot. But don't freak her out by being a moody, cocky twat")

In the second half of the film, things pick up, especially when the plot shifts to Tattoine for the young couple. There's some spark between the two as Anakin finally goes bugnuts after losing his Mum to Sand-people and Anakin's descent towards the Dark Side begins properly. The Anakin and Obi Wan threads are brought together for a relentless series of supurb, ever escalating action sequences on Geonosis as the heroes escape capture, the Jedi are ambushed, the Clone War begins and Dooku faces of with Yoda.

This is a vast improvement over Episode I. The actors are looser in their roles (apart from the squeaker Christensen) and the characters have bonded and are emotionally invested in each other. Anakin weds the mother of Luke and Leia and further highlights his fear of loss and his internal anger. The stakes are higher as Palpatine/Darth Sideous manipulates the galaxy into war, giving him, the chancellor, the political powers he needs to eventually single-handedly rule the galaxy.

Visually, the film is richer than Episode I as the advances in CG make the Star Wars universe even more textures and realistic. The art direction is much more powerful too, as the composition of shots is improved and the vehicles linger in frame longer (like the atmospheric opening Corasant landing sequence). The individual action set-pieces don't match the pod-race but are still imaginative and fun, like the car chase in the films first third. The Jedi battle in the Geonosis arena is a technically flawless adrenalised kick in the balls which has hardly been matched in subsequent blockbuster epics.

While still not perfect, Lucas showed he could listen and learn from his critics and produce better work. The only let down is the casting of Anakin, but that pays off down the road.