BARRY SAYS

When Barry Norman gives his opinion, people listen. So here's what he wrote in Radio Times (18-24 May 2002) about Attack of the Clones. Sums the film up just right.

barry norman on... aotc

“Possibly stung by the lukewarm reception to The Phantom Menace, George Lucas has let his imagination run riot. The Galactic Republic is under threat from a breakaway group of Separatists, personified by evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee); an army of Droids is on the move and Senator Padmé (Natalie Portman) is in mortal danger. So it's Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to the rescue. The result is dazzling spectacle, vigorous action, a host of amazing-looking creatures and flying machines and city air lanes as packed as the M25 on a Friday evening. Visually, this could be the most inventive Star Wars of them all.

“And yet... the dialogue clunks and Lucas seems to have lost interest in presenting well-rounded characters. McGregor and Lee do very well in parts that are sorely underwritten, but the lovers, Portman and Christensen, are rather dull, although Christensen pouts and sulks enough to suggest that any minute now the Dark Side will claim him and he'll turn into Darth Vader. (It was the kidnapping of his mummy what done it.)

“In short, there is plenty here to engage the eye and set us up for the completion of the sextet. But, oh, how one longed for a Han Solo, a Luke Skywalker and a Princess Leia.”