Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is the fifth Star Wars science fiction movie released and the second part of the prequel trilogy which began with The Phantom Menace.

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

Ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, the Galactic Republic is in the grip of a crisis: a group of systems lead by Count Dooku, a former Jedi (played by Christopher Lee), threaten to secede, potentially leading to a civil war. After an assassination attempt against Padmé Amidala, Senator and former Queen of Naboo and leader of the loyalist faction, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect her. While tracking the assassins, Kenobi stumbles into the secret development of a clone army, ordered mysteriously ten years ago on the Republic's behalf. Meanwhile, Skywalker and Amidala fall in love. Kenobi tracks the assassin, bounty hunter Jango Fett, from the clone army to Dooku's separatist conspiracy, which is itself building up a droid army based on the Trade Federation[?]'s technology. To counter this threat, the Senate gives Supreme Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers, with which he calls the clone army into battle; the separatists are forced to retreat, but the Jedi suffer heavy losses and the galaxy is plunged into a civil war orchestrated by Dooku and the mysterious Darth Sidious.

Filming

Filming was primarily done at Leavesden Studios[?] in England, with additional location shooting in the Tunisian desert and in Italy in the palace Palazzo Reale, Caserta[?] and at the Villa Balbianello[?] on the Lake of Como.

Critical Response

Initial reviews of the film were mixed, with general admiration for the action sequences and special effects which are regarded as superior to The Phantom Menace, relief that Jar Jar Binks plays only a minor role and that the comic relief is somewhat less forced than that movie, but derision towards the poor direction and scripting of the romance between Amidala and Anakin.

During the summer of 2002, Attack of the Clones earned a box-office gross of $302 million in the United States alone. While no mean feat, it marked the first time in the series that a Star Wars movie was not the highest-grossing film of the year. Spider-Man, which many movie reviewers regard as a superior film, pulled in over $400 million during the same summer moviegoing season; and during the winter of 2002 the fantasy films Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers both outperformed Attack of the Clones.

External links

StarWars.com's official Episode II site (http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/)