**THE WACPINE OF ‘STAR WARS: EPISODE II – ATTACK OF THE CLONES’**

WRITING: 2
ATMOSPHERE: 4
CHARACTERS: 2
PRODUCTION: 4
INTRIGUE: 3
NOVELTY: 5
ENJOYMENT: 4

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**The Good:**

Christopher Lee is never bad in anything, and he brings much-needed experience and authority to this film.

The Jar Jar Binks scenes have been cut to a minimum.

The Geonosis sequence is long, but it's rewarding. The mega-battle at the arena and the duel with Dooku are high punts of the film. We finally see multiple Jedi in action.

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**The Bad:**

Let's get this straight. Hayden Christensen is atrociously awful from his first scene until his last scene in Revenge of the Sith. He is the definition of wooden, terrible and unnatural.

Natalie Portman is marginally better when compared to the phantom menace, but only when she is not forced to speak more than two lines.

I'm annoyed by how plastic-y and fake the surroundings look most of the time. The original trilogy and sequel trilogy managed to capture the gritty, flashy and futuristic much better, by mostly relying on partial effects and sets.

George Lucas cannot write dialogue. The lines he gives to his character, the leading ones, in particular, are so unnatural that not even a skilled actor like Ewan McGregor could pull them off without sounding overly theatrical or wooden.

George Lucas cannot write a compelling story, with drama, romance, comedy and action. Most of what he has written falls apart, either intentionally or because the actors cannot deliver what he wants without looking stupid. Lucas' world-building serves no real purpose and his secondary characters are just unnecessary chess pieces on an overstuffed chessboard.

Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship is at the centre of the film, and it's terrible. Anakin is whiney and erratic and Obi-Wan is patient with him for no reason at all. It's pretty much given that Anakin goes and ruins everything with his childish tantrums.

What hurts me most is how Lucas has ruined Anakin's journey, He goes from bad to worse in no time, and we never see that true fall from grace that we had hoped for. He is annoying from the start.

This is also e of the stupidest political plots I've ever seen in anything. How could everyone be so stupid that they don't realize that Palpatine is slowly taking power?

The film is too long. By the time we arrive at the endgame, I'm already feeling fatigued.

Christopher Lee wasn't fit for lightsaber duels at age 80, which unfortunately shows since his presence during the final battle is very stiff whenever he's not replaced by his stunt double. The final battle lacks any of the epicness from the first film's climactic showdown.

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**The Ugly:**

Obi-Wan is pretty stupid. He had to see Yoda realize that Kamino was deleted from the planetary archive. A little child could see that. Come on!

Oh.

AND I DON'T LIKE SAND!

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**WACPINE RATING: 3.43 / 10 = 1,5 stars**