Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones-A Failed Attempt at Turning Star Wars into a Shakespearean Drama

Episode II has its merits, but for me, it's mostly George Lucas's failed attempt at turning Star Wars into a Shakespearean drama. The action is entertaining, with some inventive set pieces in the opening speeder chase and the Geonosis battle in the third act. The one moment where George Lucas's Shakespearean aspirations work is in the scene with Anakin and his mother, which is the one moment in the film I find genuinely emotionally impactful and feels like a genuine Shakespearean tragedy.

Otherwise, though, Attack of the Clones is an incredibly dull movie. The movie's central mystery, involving an Assassin, a Clone Army, and a lot of Space Politics, has never clicked with me. The film spends so much time on it, but aside from some somewhat interesting ideas of government corruption, I never feel any reason to care. The romance between Anakin and Padme has also never worked for me, mainly because of the clunky dialogue that's trying too hard to feel Shakespearean and because Hayden Christenson and Natalie Portman have no chemistry together. Anakin also seems needlessly creepy towards Padme at points, and their scenes together do not feel like the operatic romance that George Lucas intended. The only aspect that feels genuinely romantic is John Williams's theme for Anakin and Padme, which is this beautiful, sweeping, romantic piece of music.

I've also never been too fond of Lucas's green screen-heavy look for the film. It looks alright during the more CG-heavy action scenes and the scenes on the mostly CG locations of Tatooine and Geonosis. But when it's just standard dialogue sequences, the shot/reverse shot between greenscreens, combined with the poorly blended CGI that ages more and more as time passes, the film can be pretty ugly.

It all makes for a film that, aside from a select few scenes and commendable aspects, I find mostly a tedious slog to sit through. One half of the story is a mystery I don't care about, and the other is a romance between characters with no chemistry. However, I can see why many people look fondly at this film. The action is quite good, and among the boring bits, there is a fascinating exploration of government corruption driving the conflict. But even if the ideas the film attempts to explore could be interesting on paper, their execution is incredibly dry, making for a movie I find pretty dull.

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