Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones

‘Great effects, shame about the script’ pretty much sums up this sequel to 1999’s The Phantom Menace. Anakin Skywalker (aka the boy who will be Vader) is now a petulant teenager (as played by Christensen) who refuses to listen to his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor), and instead makes googly eyes at Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) when he should be training to be a Jedi. There is some interesting stuff that adds to the Star Wars legends – Obi-Wan meets bounty hunter Jango Fett, dad of Han Solo’s nemesis, Boba, and a new bad guy is introduced, Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku (is that the worst character name ever?). But there’s also an annoying romance between Anakin and Padmé, that appears to have been filmed on the same green hills as The Sound of Music, and a really irritating chase that seems to have been copied from Chicken Run.
Aimed at preteens and teenagers (though surely boys – the biggest Star Wars fans – will hate the naff love story), this has some impressive action sequences and is worth a look simply for the light-sabre battle between Dooku and a flying, angry Yoda.