Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

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Year:	2002
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	George Lucas
Genre:	Space opera
Starring:	Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/
Tagline:	A Jedi Shall Not Know Anger. Nor Hatred. Nor Love.
Favourite line:	"Master Kenobi, you disappoint me. Yoda holds you in such high esteem. Surely you can do better!"

Much better than I remembered, this is a great improvement on the woeful first prequel.

Anakin's all grown up now, and he's portrayed by the lumpen plank of wood Hayden Christensen. He's Obi Wan Kenobi's apprentice but is considered something of a loose cannon, and the Jedi Council fret that his power is so great they may eventually lose control of him.
Of course, we all know that he's going to turn into everyone's favourite asthmatic, Darth Vader, and we get glimpses of his darker tendencies throughout, demonstrated by Christensen glowering unconvincingly, or ranting unconvincgly, or doing a thousand yard stare unconvincingly.
Straight from the Van Damme school of acting, so you've got to admire it - anyone who can get such a lucrative and important role, yet has little or no acting ability, must be one charismatic son of a bitch in real life.
Anyway, it turns out that the Republicans are building a secret army of clones, to combat the growing number of separatists who want to shatter the fragile peace that has existed for several years.
Throw in a rogue Jedi, played by Christopher Lee in simmering form, as always, and a love affair between Padme and Anakin, a lightsaber duel involving Yoda in a stroke of comedic genius, and you have a flawed, though utterly entertaining movie.

That being said, I still can't shake the feeling that I'm watching a video-game tie-in rather than an out and out movie - check the sequence in the factory towards the end. If this wasn't designed with a videogame in mind, I'll eat my own socks.