Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones (2002), PG, ★★

Anakin and Padme fighting in the arena against the enemies.

And, we move on to Episode II.

Love is weird. I mean, writers in Hollywood try to engage us in romance or melodrama that can get us lost in a particular relationship between two people we like on-screen. I mean, Casablanca, When Harry Met Sally..., The Princess Bride, Titanic, etc. But, this movie is not one of them. George Lucas' latest installment has some nifty action sequences in the middle and near the end that are well-crafted but there are many flaws and many scenes that are underwritten or underdeveloped that are poorly executed or just not exciting. And, I'm specifically talking about the romantic scenes between Anakin and Padme.

Ten years have passed since the Trade Federation had invaded Naboo, the Galactic Republic is threatened by a Separatist movement organized by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), which kills one of Padme's (Natalie Portman) decoys. Senator Padme Amidala comes to Coruscant to vote on a plan to create an army to assist with the Jedi with the threat. Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) assigns both Jedis, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his Padawan, adult Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), to protect Padme but Anakin is a bit struck to meet her after 10 years. Love may be in the air.

The two Jedi thwart another assassination attempt as both Jango Fett (Temeura Morrison) and Zam Wessell (Leeanna Walsman) try to kill her with venomous worms. What the hell? Why don't they just shoot her again? It allows to have Obi-Wan Kenobi to go on this device when they unleashed the worms and go on this action sequence on a Blade-Runner type of a video game set. After killing the assassin, the Jedi Council assigned Obi-Wan to identify and capture the bounty hunter, while Anakin is assigned to escort her back to Naboo. That's basically the majority of the movie until when Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme get in trouble.

Obi-Wan vs. Jango Fett. 

Ugh. Ok. I'm deciding whether this one is as painful to watch as its predecessor. There are many flaws with this movie in terms of character, story, editing and screenplay. Let's start with the lack or inconsistency of character development. In the action sequence in the beginning where Anakin and Obi-Wan chase the assassin, there are character inconsistencies in which Obi-Wan jumps out to hold on to the probe in the city and then later, Anakin and Obi-Wan lost the assassin in the speeder and Anakin jumps off to catch the assassin and Obi-Wan replies, "I hate it when he does that." Obi-Wan just jumped out of the window to hold on to a flying probe. It reduces his character role and the screenplay does no service to his character at that point.

Now, we go on to the cringe-inducing romantic portion of the film between Anakin and Padme. There's absolutely no chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in this movie and it looks like they are having fun on-set and not playing their characters in the movie. The romance is poorly executed because for the majority of the movie Padme resists Anakin's temptation to love her and then in an arbitrary scene, which is poor in plot structure, Padme and Anakin are having a picnic near a waterfall that looks like an ad and when the romance develops in Naboo, it is rapid and forced and there's no realistic dialogue that can maintain my attention to both of these characters. And, is it me or does Natalie Portman's costume design gets more risque as the movie continues on? I will admit, despite the laughably bad dialogue, that the scene where Anakin and Padme confessed their love before they go to presumably die is not that bad.

Ewan McGregor gives a good performance as usual but most of the time, he has to play off of digital characters standing and sitting and talking to them. It is basically him investigating and observing the clone army. The weakest performance is no doubt Hayden Christensen's, his acting, facial expressions and line deliveries are humorous. Not all of that weakness is his fault due to George Luca's poor dialogue. Also, I wanted to see a bit more interaction between him and McGregor, because the latter has some occasional humorous jargons in the movie.

What are some scenes I liked in this movie? I did like all the fighting scenes between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett in Kamino but it makes me laugh every time that when he and his son, Boba Fett, attack him with some explosion, he just jumps up in the air and groans and does not get badly injured. And, the set-up to the action sequence in the asteroid field is not there but it is cool. The battle scene in the "Gladiator-like" area on Geonosis is quite entertaining too.

Now, let's talk about the lightsaber duel between Yoda and Count Dooku. When I saw that scene for the first time in theaters, people were cheering and clapping. It kind of does a disservice to Yoda, as a character, because he is a wiser Jedi Master than a flying Mortal Kombat kind of Jedi fighting a body double of Count Dooku. It does not work.

So, there you have it. Even though it is basically even with The Phantom Menace in terms of badly written dialogue and uneven storytelling, there are moments of cool action sequences and visual effects that are quite compelling. And, the only good scene with Anakin is the first transition of pain in when he, spoiler alert, loses his mother to Tuscan raiders and kills all of them, even the women and children. But, we have to hear that from him and it is painful to watch and listen to from an entertainment standpoint. This movie is another glossy sci-fi opera that is basically a misconception to what the movie could have established for the next and darkest installment. There are no memorable moments in the movie in my opinion.

**