Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 3D (2002)

All Critics (220) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (152) | Rotten (73) | DVD (51)

This time the exposition is so thick that everyone except acolytes may tune out.

March 5, 2008 Full Review | Comments (14)

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Christensen is a winning mix of sultry and sulky as the now older Anakin, while McGregor is finally beginning to relax as the mentor who understandably refuses to treat his moody pupil like a grown-up.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Time Out

Top Critic

Lucas has never been able to conjure another Han Solo, a character who could, with simply a wink, remind us that this was just an overgrown Saturday afternoon serial.

June 13, 2002

Bill Muller

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

A commendable example of the sort of movie we once loved and then outgrew.

May 19, 2002 Full Review

Peter Rainer

New York Magazine

Top Critic

The scale of the enterprise is thrilling; it's too bad the movie is so muddled on so many different levels.

May 17, 2002 Full Review

David Edelstein

Slate

Top Critic

The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones have reduced the franchise to, well, a franchise.

May 17, 2002

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

Great action, intense mood, but romance may bore kids.

July 26, 2011 Full Review

Matt Springer

Common Sense Media

Sit back and enjoy fantastic, imaginative visuals.

December 28, 2010 Full Review

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

It starts off briskly with some fantastic special effects and a great high-speed chase but then founders on the shores of bad script writing.

July 4, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Amber Wilkinson

Eye for Film

Though, lacking in plotline it makes up for in action and character depth.

April 29, 2009 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Lucas does not always recognize his limitations. This tends to make films of mixed quality. Still, there is always enough that is excellent to make them worth seeing.

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Mark R. Leeper

rec.arts.movies.reviews

Attack of the Clones emerges looking as bad as if not worse than its 1999 predecessor, thanks to the lame romantic subplot, which is so badly written, directed and performed that it surpasses Jar-Jar Binks as the all-time low point in the series.

August 20, 2008 Full Review | Comments (4)

Steve Biodrowski

ESplatter

Makes The Phantom Menace seem like one long clearing of the throat before Lucas could begin to tell the real story.

August 13, 2008 Full Review

Matthew De Abaitua

Film4

The special effects are remarkable, yet somehow numbing, and the film only partly lives up to the promise in the title of Lucas's company, Industrial Light and Magic.

March 5, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Philip French

Observer [UK]

While it lacks the quality of Empire's script and performances, Clones is the most visually enthralling of the series so far.

September 7, 2007 Full Review

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

It is certainly better than the childish Phantom Menace and the final 45 minutes of straight action beat the editing nightmare at the end of the last film.

July 14, 2007 Full Review

Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

The magic has definitely been recaptured.

December 6, 2005 Full Review

Chris Gore

Film Threat

As convincing a job as they, Christensen, and Lee do, they all end up being upstaged by the jaw-dropping skills of a CGI creation: Yoda (again voiced by Frank Oz), who finally gets a chance to show exactly why he has such a legendary reputation.

December 6, 2005 Full Review

Michael Dequina

Film Threat

The muppet steals what's otherwise an underwhelming show.

November 4, 2005 Full Review

Christopher Smith

Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Clones is far from perfect, but when it clicks, it revives the old spirit that made a generation become so obsessed with all things Star Wars in the first place.

May 18, 2005 Full Review

Mark Pfeiffer

Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

It's impossible...to dismiss a film with this much stuff: exotic production design, imaginative characters, and a wide variety of digital jedi fu.

May 9, 2005

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

It would be easy to say that this film is fantastic and blows away the others, but unfortunately I cannot.

August 13, 2004 Full Review

Mark Sells

Oregon Herald

Superior to Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, with its annoying Jar Jar Binks and its dull, galaxy-hopping story line.

June 22, 2004 Full Review

Judith Egerton

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

• 1. Anakin Skywalker: Don't be afraid.
  2. Padmé Amidala: I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.
  3. Anakin Skywalker: What are you talking about?
  4. Padmé Amidala: I love you.
  5. Anakin Skywalker: You love me? I thought that had decided not to fall in love--that we would be forced to live a lie and that it would destroy our lives.
  6. Padmé Amidala: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I love truly, deeply love you, and before we die I want you to know.
  – Submitted by Jenna L (6 months ago)
• 1. Obi-Wan Kenobi: Blast! This is why I hate flying!
  – Submitted by Magnus G (7 months ago)
• 1. Yoda: Victory? Victory you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has.
  – Submitted by Typhon Q (8 months ago)
• 1. Anakin Skywalker: I don't like sand. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
  – Submitted by Jed G (11 months ago)
• 1. Count Dooku: Master Kenobi, you disappoint me! Yoda holds you in such high esteem...surely you could do better!
  – Submitted by Braden W (14 months ago)
• 1. Anakin Skywalker: I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.
  – Submitted by Rocky F (14 months ago)