STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES

By: MICHAEL TUNISON
Review Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Now, this is a little more like it!

After the widespread disappointment that greeted George Lucas' fun-idea-packed but dramatically underwhelming STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE three summers ago, a reviewer would like nothing better than to shout from the rooftops of Coruscant that EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES is, at last, the movie STAR WARS fans have been waiting for all these years. Well, consider it shouted. While the plot occasionally trips over its own feet and it's all the actors can do to navigate the creakier sections of Lucasian '40s adventure serial dialogue, the film's nonstop action, humor and bar-raising special effects deliver in such a big way that even the crankiest original trilogy purists will find it hard to resist this entertaining ATTACK.

While PHANTOM MENACE suffered from a scattered, trying-to-please-everybody narrative and the fatal lack of a strong central character (one word: "Yippeee!"), CLONES boasts a protagonist worthy of being the fulcrum of the greatest space fantasy saga of all time. Ten years after spooking the Jedi Council as a midi-chlorian-loaded Force prodigy, Anakin Skywalker (now played by Hayden Christensen) is back as a spectacularly talented young Jedi Knight whose natural rebellious streak makes it increasingly difficult for him to choke down his own evolving ideas about how the galaxy should be run and toe the line laid down by Council leaders Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson). Faithful-soldier Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) does what he can to keep his too-powerful Padawan learner in check, but the angst-ridden former slave Anakin basically James Dean with a lightsaber is obviously a galactic disaster looking for a place to happen.

The trigger that sets off CLONES' action is a mysterious attempt to assassinate Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), the former elected queen of Naboo (and we were under the impression the Naboo were stinking monarchists what a relief to find out the planet is actually a democracy, albeit a slightly stuck-up, overly fashion-conscious one!). Assigned to investigate the assassination plot, Obi-Wan and Anakin shift into Jedi detective mode, though Ani has understandable trouble keeping his mind on work now that he's once again within arms reach of the "angel" he's had the hots for ever since he was an ankle-biting Podracer back on Tatooine.

Things really heat up when the trail of Padmé's would-be assassins leads Obi-Wan off on a side adventure of his own, while Anakin accompanies the svelte young senator for an unchaperoned (if you don't count the ever-discreet R2-D2) secret trip back to her homeworld. While the latter pair's hormones are kicking in, however, that sneaky Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is at work setting things into motion that will eventually result in the fall of a certain Jedi, the rise of a certain Empire and the balancing events of EPISODES IV-VI.

So much advance speculation about CLONES has centered on the prominence of the forbidden love story element that it's with no small measure of relief that one learns EPISODE II is not, in fact, some kind of interstellar Harlequin romance, but that the Anakin/Padmé relationship exists mainly as a means of driving the man fated to become the all-time great space villain Darth Vader down the dark path of his destiny. (Fill in your own Vader mechanical breathing impression here.) While Lucas and co-screenwriter Jonathan Hales (TV's YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES) give the romantic thread the old Skywalker Ranch try, let's face it: this somewhat clunkily staged section of the story is no GONE WITH THE WIND or, more to the point, no EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Han/Leia eye-scratching hook-up. It doesn't help that Portman is saddled with the weakest of the prequel trilogy's heroes; the most memorable development to her character in CLONES is when, in the middle of a fight, her tunic is torn away to reveal a view of her midriff.

Then again,

who really cares if the romantic subplot of a STAR WARS film fully kicks in or not? This is the series that reinvented sci-fi adventure, not subtle character interaction, and on the fun action level it's off the chart. A generation of genre filmmaking techniques has come and gone since Lucas set a new standard for such films in the late '70s and early '80s, and it's with the utmost pleasure that a fan sees the ways in which the old Jedi Master has updated his groundbreaking saga for the MATRIX era. The reviewer is even willing to sign off on the newly mobile CG Yoda, though admittedly with a certain nostalgia for Frank Oz's old-fashioned Muppet from EMPIRE and RETURN OF THE JEDI. While PHANTOM MENACE sequences such as the Podrace and Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Darth Maul lightsaber duel hinted at how cool turn-of-the-millennium STAR WARS action could be, in CLONES we finally get to see all four barrels of the laser cannon blazing, if you will.

With all the complex setup for the prequel trilogy storyline dispensed with so laboriously in PHANTOM MENACE, Lucas is free to jump straight into action in the new installment, and we know we're in for an extraordinary ride from the moment Obi-Wan and Anakin find themselves in a hair-raising flying car chase through heavy traffic in the canyonlike "streets" of the city-planet Coruscant. From that point on, the set pieces come thick and fast, from a fan-pleasing melee between Obi-Wan and the familiarly armored bounty hunter Jango Fett to the memorable series of lightsaber and blaster battles that makes up the all-action last act. Nods to the movies of Lucas' youth are many, including a World War II-style land battle and a humans-versus-monsters arena scrap that plays as an extended homage to stop-motion effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen.

By the time the story reaches its final crisis, Lucas has so much joyful momentum going that he's able to break one of the cardinal rules of this kind of storytelling and have his principal heroes temporarily off-stage for what turns out to be the climactic fight! Without giving away too much about what seems destined to go down as one of the saga's great moments, let's just say fan affection for a particular supporting character carries the film through this enjoyable twist.

With the newcomer Christensen confidently stepping into the pivotal role of Anakin, an expanded part for Jackson's Mace Windu and genre great Christopher Lee popping up halfway through the film as the nefarious Count Dooku, CLONES has the kind of power cast that can pull effective bits out of thin air, a big help in an action-driven film that needs to make small character-establishing touches go a long way.

After being criminally underutilized in PHANTOM MENACE, the terrific McGregor gets the chance to show how far he can go with Obi-Wan while still remaining locked into his dead-on Alec Guinness impersonation. Especially welcome is his knack for dry humor, which brings much-needed adult appeal to the proceedings ("Good job," he deadpans to a chained-up Anakin when informed the Padawan was captured in an attempt to rescue him). While Han Solo is under no immediate danger of having his position as the overall saga's official coolest character taken from him, McGregor's young Obi-Wan looks well-positioned to emerge as the prequel trilogy's Most Valuable Player with a film to go.

As for the much-maligned digital abomination Jar Jar Binks, he's back, but in a dramatically smaller role that cleverly plays on his status as fan culture's favorite whipping boy. Lucas has dreamed up a part for him in this installment that not only allows him to exit gracefully from the main action, but should also have even the most rabid Jar Jar haters applauding from their seats. And with the Gungun sent off to the sidelines, C-3P0 has a clear field to resume his traditional role as slapstick comic relief, thank goodness.

Perhaps most pleasingly of all, the way things play out at the end of CLONES sets us up for what promises to be a powerful final chapter (er, that is, halfway point) to Lucas' phenomenally popular space opera sextet. For one thing, EPISODE II's more foreboding developments suggest the filmmaker won't be shying away from the darkness inherent in what, after all, is ultimately a classical tragedy the story of a powerful young warrior-wizard who falls victim to his own flawed character and goes the way of the evil Sith. While it's safe to say the prequel trilogy so far hasn't achieved the same level of unadulterated movie magic the original did, if EPISODE III turns out to be as fun as II is, it may at least land closer to the mark than any of Lucas' countless imitators.