Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)

This film has a vast advantage over the other two prequel films: it has parallel stories. The Anakin stuff is again pretty bad, with Christensen putting in a career-mutilating performance as he and Natalie Portman utter uncomfortable “romantic” dialog. But with this film, if we removed the bad material, there’s still something left. Obi-Wan has his own quest with no Anakin in sight and that stuff is all pretty good. There’s huge swaths of the film that aren’t embarrassing, which is a triumph for a prequel film. It also helps that segments near the beginning and at the end that do involve Anakin are large ensemble action scenes, thus he can’t completely destroy those. Yes, every time Christensen says anything “dramatic” it is cringe-worthy, but we aren’t stuck with him, and when we’re off on the water planet, I can just sit back and enjoy the movie. And as an added plus, there is Yoda with a lightsaber; when he broke that out, the entire theater cheered.

I also have a better view of this film than others because of how I first saw it. In 2002, IMAX films were shown on 2 hour reels and often if a film went over 2 hours, they would cut it. So my first viewing of Attack of the Clones was an IMAX version with 20 minutes cut—and they did a good job of cutting. It was 20 minutes less of Anakin. If I was ranking just that version, I’d move it up at least one place. That shows that this film, unlike The Phantom Menace and Revenge Of The Sith, is still savable. A good fan edit turns it into a very good film.