Lucas still strong with the Force

Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones -- PG
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen
Directed by: George Lucas
Showing: Showplace East 11 Thank God George Lucas didn't 'Menace' us again with another disappointing "Star Wars" flick. "Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" towers over its predecessor, "The Phantom Menace," in every possible aspect of movie making, and almost brings us back to the glory days of the first three "Star Wars" movies. Stellar and unequalled special effects, intense action scenes and the classic "Star Wars" storyline turn a weakly written and somewhat badly acted movie into a "Star Wars" chapter the audience will love and appreciate. The story picks up 10 years after "Menace." Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is pretty much grown up and has almost completed his Jedi training. Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) is now a senator and trying to defeat a proposal in the Senate that would enable the Republic to build an army to defend itself and deal with the Separatists, led by Count Dooku (former Jedi secretly turned Sith, Darth Tyranus). An assassination attempt is made on Amidala's life, and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin are assigned to protect her from further attacks. Almost instantly Anakin starts putting his moves on the former Queen, and Obi-Wan is sent on a galactic rollercoaster to find a bounty hunter suspected of attacking the Senator. The wise Jedi finds the bounty hunter Jango Fett and his son Boba on a planet where a clone army is secretly being built for the Republic. Obi-Wan chases the bounty hunter to Geonosis where he finds the Separatists building a robot army. "Clones" is a good "Star Wars" installment, but it's not without some disappointment. It shows us that the magic achieved by the original three movies won't again be achieved. George Lucas is a good director, but in "Clones" he seems only concerned about directing around computer generated images. True, 100% real human actors seem to be rushed through scenes so Lucas can get to the graphics. Lines are forced, rushed and bland; some of which are a result of a weakly written screenplay ("Empire" and "Jedi's" screenplays were written by people other than Lucas, as well as directed by someone else). The original "Star Wars" movies had charisma and personality. "Clones" is full of monotone dullness. Natalie Portman is not a bad actress, but in "Clones" she stinks up the screen. Only in a scene on Naboo where Amidala is telling Anakin about her first kiss, do we feel a spark between the two future lovers. Portman's performance is a victim of bad direction. Only mature, veteran actors like McGregor, Ian McDiarmid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious) and Christopher Lee (Count Dooku) give solid performances because they can act well without direction. And oh, Ewan McGregor can act. By far, McGregor is the best "Star Wars" actor since Harrison Ford and the original Obi-Wan, Alec Guiness. His portrayal almost equals Guiness's performance as the wise Jedi. McGregor brings Guiness's style to Obi-Wan even better than he did in "Menace," but also manages to give more strength to Obi-Wan with his own personal interpretations. Hayden Christensen, despite some annoyances ("Ma-Layde"), is a pretty good Anakin. He shows some great flashes of acting, but also bites it in a few scenes. Once again, good direction could have pulled a much better performance out of the Canadian. But, any problems with "Clones" are pushed to the side by its special effects and the fact that it is a "Star Wars" movie. "Clones" has many memorable, kick-ass scenes that should take spots on the "Star Wars" all-time best moments list. An army of Jedi, including Mace Windu, take battle against the Separatists's army of battle droids. It's cool to see so many lightsabers slicing and dicing all at once. Obi-Wan goes toe-to-toe with Jango Fett in an intense bout showing how much of a bad-ass Jango Fett really is. And, finally Yoda dons a lightsaber jumping and flipping every which way like Sonic the Hedgehog, showing us why he's the Jedi master. If Episode III's graphics improve from "Clones" as much as "Clones" improved from "Menace," Episode III's CGI will be unbelievable. "Clones" brings amazing, unequalled images to the silver screen. The special effects in "Menace" were awesome, but "Clones" makes them look weak. "Attack of the Clones" scores another action-packed hit for Lucas and comes close to equaling the magic brought to us in the original movies. But if Lucas wants to reach the attainable goal of recreating that magic in Episode III, he needs to get some help.