Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones

Cast: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman
Direction: George Lucas
Showing at: Priya
Quite in keeping with our expectations of the Star Wars cycle which kicked off 25 years ago, here’s a $120-million extravaganza saturated with state-of-the-art special effects. Ceaselessly smothering the viewer with digital razzle-dazzle, Episode II—Attack of the Clones is an eye-boggling experience all right.
Disappointingly, the story and the characterisations take a back seat to the display of in-your-face pyrotechnics.
The puerile plot grinds its way through vast stretches of intergalactic tedium. Going back in time, Darth Vader is now depicted as a teenage Jedi warrior-in-training (Christensen).
Shot entirely with digital cameras, the narrative concerns the trainee’s gradual descent into a vortex of greed and evil. Accompanied by his hirsute mentor (Ewan McGregor), the wannabe Jedi is assigned to protect a former queen-turned-senator (Portman) from a fiendish faction of separatists.
Working from a cliche-ridden script, director Lucas criss-crosses between the young Jedi’s forbidden romance with the attractive senator and his master’s tireless bid to safeguard the Republic.
The two disparate strands of the story are brought together awkwardly to wrap up the proceedings. The climax, showcasing a huge army of clone warriors running amuck in a desertscape, is a sore let-down.
Admittedly, some of the action set-pieces, like an airborne chase, are filmed with breathtaking virtuosity. On the other hand, an extended combat between all sorts of critters in a gladiatorial arena is outrageously campy.
Throughout, the banal dialogue is unintentionally comic. A supposedly lyrical romp on an idyllic hilltop appears to be an unwitting tribute to The Sound of Music.
Loyal fans of the long-running series will welcome the presence of regular habitues like the scheming supreme chancellor (Ian McDiarmid), the seasoned Jedi warrior (Samuel L. Jackson) and the delightful, diminutive yoda (expressively voiced by Frank Oz).
Ewan McGregor as the heroic Jedi knight and Canadian newcomer Hayden Christensen as the pre-evil version of Darth Veder are fairly efficient. But French actress Natalie Portman is embarrassingly inept as the romantic interest. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameo, Ayesha Dharker shows up as a heavily cosmeticised space oddity.
Neither entirely dismissible nor exhilarating, Lucas gives us a mammothly mounted production that’s full of sound and fury signifying precious little. It just about makes it to the goodish grade for those seeking eye candy.