- Sensibility: A few curious choices by some of the characters, like jumping out of a skyscraper window to catch a drone and jumping out of a flying car onto another one, feel a bit insane. Also,
a lack of ammunition when chasing Dooku's speeder and a lack of other senators who would vote for emergency powers for the chancellor when the call received resounding applause from the senate.
- Cinematography: Cgi is excellent, and shows a marked improvement from the previous film. Costuming is a highlight of the film; Jango's suit and Padme's Colosseum outfit are very memorable.
Production design is also excellent even when animated; Geonosis and Kamino are visually stunning. In addition, the creature design for the Colosseum combat is extremely memorable.
However, the screen wipe transitions are so dated and glaring to the point they become distracting.
- Energy: This film is primarily a love story, so it is slower than the other films which pack in a lot of combat. However, the complex politics and the unravelling of the
clone order mystery work well and keep things engaging even when there isn't any fighting.
- Narrative: This film has a lot that works; the mystery of the missing planet archive and order for millions of combat clones, a ruthless bounty hunter, and the growing political powers
of the new chancellor gear this film up to be a great dramatic lead-in to the finale of the prequel-trilogy. However, the dialogue of the Padme-Anakin romance is perhaps a bit too corny,
which is hard to pull off in a film that is already having to try very hard to be taken seriously. But, for all the corny romance, we are rewarded with the darkness of Anakin's visions, the death of his mother,
and the resulting slaughter of the raiders.
- T-Points: The film received three bonus points: one for the sequence on Kamino, one for the Colosseum sequence, and one for very memorable costuming (bless the genius that
decided to put Natalie Portman in that white outfit in the Colosseum).
An underrated gem of the franchise in my opinion. It is an engaging exposition for the third film even with its flaws. Lots of memorable moments. Am I perhaps biased because
this was an important movie to me as a kid? Almost certainly. Is my awareness of my bias going to make me change my review? Hell no.
Number of Watches: 5