The STAR WARS saga continues on DVD with Episode II Attack of the Clones. Anakin Skywalker has grown into an accomplished Jedi apprentice, and he faces his most difficult challenge yet as he must choose between his Jedi duty and forbidden love. Relive the adventure the way it was meant to be seen in spectacular digital clarity, including the climactic Clone War battle and Jedi Master Yoda in the ultimate lightsaber duel. Experience this 2-disc set that features over six hours of bonus materials, and see how Episode II unlocks the secrets of the entire STAR WARS saga.

Average Customer Review: ( 2169 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

This is one case where I'm glad that I was totally wrong. I liked the movie so much that I've been back to see it again. The acting, that many have cited as dry, was appropriate to the setting and the circumstances of the film. I really didn't expect to see cheerful and lively characters in a story about an impending civil war. The romance, although muted, was appropriate for two very young characters who probably have never had much experience with romance to begin with. The middle was mostly talk and no action. I like a film that takes it's time and lets itself develop, instead of assaulting the viewer with non stop action and little plot or character development. I really felt that it was essential to the film to have the characters talk, as this is the installment of the series that starts to explain why Anakin becomes Darth Vader and why the Republic falls. I wish they'd actually developed them a little more, personally.

Hayden Christiansen delivered a solid performance as a moody, confused kid. The fact that he wasn't overly eloquent helped me to believe that the cute kid in PM could actually turn into the nasty guy that I believed was hiding in my closet when I was growing up. Natalie Portman again reminded me why she's one of my favorite actresses. She was able to blend the strong assertive side of her character with an almost maternal caring for Anakin. Ewan McGregor and his dialogue tied in the shame that Obi-Wan displayed in the later episodes toward Darth Vader and the driving desire to rectify his mistakes.

The special effects were dazzling. The seismic charges blew me away (by far the best sound effect that I've heard in a while), the speeder chase was amazing and the set design was just beautiful. And seeing lightsabres glowing throughout an arena was a childhood dream of mine.

There were a few flaws, but overall, it was fantastic.

12 of 14 found the following review helpful:

George Lucas has lost his mind.Apr 11, 2003
By T. Bux
First, let me say some positives about this DVD:

The image and sound quality are amazing. This DVD is probably the best quality DVD to date. Great for showing off a high quality home theater. Since the movie was shot on digital film, there was almost no ghosting or image quality lost.

Now the negatives:

What made the original Star Wars movies so spectatular was their campy dialog, fake but realistic special effects (even though you knew it was a fake spaceship you still knew it was a picture of a real model). The older Star Wars films were mostly a tribute to the cheesey sci-fi movies of the 50's and 60's. A true space opera, they were classics.

Episode II relies mostly on the impressive special effects to mesmerize and entertain. Acting and story are second to this. The totally cardboard acting of Haeden Christianson is so bad, that it makes you wonder if he should play an emotionally repressed andriod instead of the future Darth Vader. It made me miss Jar Jar.

Oustanding special effects that circumvent the rest of the movie. This movie seems to be made mostly just to fill a quota and to set up the clearly superior episodes 3-6. Makes you sad to see a performer past his prime, and Star Wars is way past its prime.

12 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Works for Me!Jun 22, 2002
By Archmaker
The great thing about going to a film that has been out for awhile, and that many people have trashed, is that your expectation level is reduced to a normal level of expectancy, which is where it should be to begin with.

Flat out, I thought the film was terrific and that nearly all the criticisms I have read prior to seeing the flick were groundless, inane, and overblown. First, this absurd idealization of the original films is nonsense! They weren't that damn great. They were new & original and breakthroughs, but the stories weren't that hot with the exception of Luke's quest & discovery of who his father has become. There was little great dialogue, and no jaw-dropping performances. There was, thank goodness, Alec Guinness as Obi Wan. The rest of the cast just limboed in under the age limit not to be ridiculous in their awkward teen love scenes. At least the young performers in this film are young! Their awkwardness fits. I always found the byplay between Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford embarrassing.

Anyway, I'm not going to compare and contrast the two sets of films. The old ones are what they are, the new ones are what they are. I will just comment on all the vitriol heaped on Lucas, e.g., that he is too isolated & out of touch on his ranch (read empire). Well, he may be, but he's also busy inventing worlds & universes out there that I found beautifully realized, detailed, and exciting in this film.

The movie has some slow spots, but they don't last long. There are some eye-popping, stunning and fantastic set-pieces: the chase through the nightscape of the huge city; the great fight on the water planet; the chase through the asteroids; the narrow escapes of the foundry/assembly line; the battle in the arena; the climactic battle with the clones & droids, and of course, Yoda going Postal!

All of this is done with seamless and gorgeous CGI work, with new and amusing characters, with all kinds of mean & nasty critters, with a new villain (our beloved Chris Lee) and with a drop-dead beautiful Natalie Portman (sorry Carrie) and a young Anakin who has a nasty temper and has committed a war crime already. And Ewan McGregor makes a nice young Obi Wan.

The look of the film is fabulous (I saw it in digital) and the inventiveness and immagination throughout is phenomenal. I ask his critics: what else can Lucas do? He cannot make it all new & never-seen-before again. He is presenting a complex story of how an individual and a society can turn to the "dark side". The groundwork for this story made Phantom Menace slow-going at times, I agree. But the pace is accelerating.

Lucas presents us with fabulously imagined worlds & creatures, done with meticulous care. He has this film filled with mind-boggling action scenes. He stretches the capability of the technology with each outing. It's enough. Works for me.

26 of 33 found the following review helpful:

Bada Bing!May 08, 2003

This film is so awful, I could write a full-length thesis paper about it. What's amazing to me is how many Amazon reviewers acknowledge faults in the movie, and still praise it with five stars.

Attack of the Clones is Star Wars for the Attention Deficit Disorder generation. Lucas has overstuffed sequences with frenetic visuals, hoping to distract viewers into thinking they're entertained, desperately trying to compensate for the lagging, flabby plot and woefully inadeqate characterization. It's really more of a glorified video game than an actual film. Wonder which demographic likes Attack of the Clones the most? It's mostly 12- to 21-year-old boys who grew up on Nintendo, PlayStation, and X-Box. Unfortunately, busy special effects alone do not a great movie make. Frankly, the visuals aren't even that great. There was no show of Force at the Oscars when Attack of the Clones lost the Special Effects trophy to Lord of the Rings.

The biggest flaws in this film center around the scenes between Padme and Anikan. First of all, the dialogue is atrocious, with wooden actors delivering hackneyed lines and cliches at every turn. Honestly, this stuff wouldn't even fly in soap operas. Why should we excuse it in a multi-million dollar movie? Secondly their "love" story has no believability, and doesn't develop naturally. Annakin is portrayed as a snotty, arrogant, obsessive boy with a violent temper and psychotic tendencies. So, what exactly draws Padme toward him? Plot contrivances are often awkward or totally head-scratching. Jango sends Zam who sends a droid who sends worms, to kill Padme? And what's with the title? Attack of the Clones? What attack? The clones don't show up until the end of the movie, when they are dispatched to *defend* the Jedi. I will grant the film one star for interesting cinematography and costumes. Also, the fight between Jango and Kenobi is well-choreographed. But give more praise, I can not.

Most disappointing of all, this film is totally devoid of the magic infused into the original trilogy films. Maybe Lucas should have enlisted Lawrence Kasdan, scripter for *two* of the original trilogy movies, including the most critically-lauded, Empire Strikes Back. Lucas is now trying to do everything himself. He wants total control of the universe, but somewhere during his 10-year-plus hiatus from movie-making he lost his edge. Someday twenty years from now, another director will remake the Episodes 1-III. But it will be awhile. Good Star Wars prequels are still "far, far, away..."

9 of 10 found the following review helpful:

See my review below...Mar 21, 2006
By |||'||||'|||||'''||''||||| "234526634"
It is doubtful that any movie in the history of American Cinema faced as imposing a wall of negativity at its release as the one that loomed before Episode II. To say that a large percentage of viewers had a bad taste in their mouth because of Episode I is an extreme understatement. I defended 'Phantom' as "not as bad as" people were saying. Sure I wanted all 'gungans' to die horrible deaths, especially Jar-Jar, but we had all the story elements plus some ingenious characters. At the end of its run I had decided that despite errors in canon and the abominable comic relief, I liked the film and 2002 was way too far away. As we got closer to the release date, I started to worry that all the comments about the whole franchise being trashed may have some merit. What if this one was an awkward disaster, flailing even further into the swamp of failure than the first? I intentionally didn't look up any synopsis or look for any spoilers; I wanted my reaction to be raw and immediate, based on what I was taking in. So it was that I found myself in line opening night; midnight showing, of course. I didn't really have any hope in mind one way or the other aside from "please don't let it suck". As I was standing there, I overheard a snippet of conversation from some youths who obviously had done some advance research, and one of them said "Oh yeah that's right! We get to see Yoda fight in this one!". For a few seconds, I didn't hear anything after that. Hold the phone. We get to see Yoda........fight?? OK, all thoughts of gloom and disaster are jettisoned. Is that a flicker of Optimism? Maybe so. We're seated. Down go the lights. Drum roll. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Fanfare. We're off. It's all urgency, action, and an overarching sense of danger and chaos. Whoa. I've seen this 'look and feel' somewhere before. Maybe it's too early to tell, but George may be back on his game. We've got crazy things happening left and right. Alliances are being forged and broken; acts of war and treason are being committed. Holy crap, there are more Jedi on the screen than I've ever seen before! And then one of the most memorable film sequences I've seen in my whole life. It's a desperate fight, and the good guys have exhausted almost all their energy. Death seems certain, and destruction is inevitable. Why are we looking at a doorway and floor? Why- hey a shadow...why is it familiar---? Holy crap. The theater erupts. I'm gripping both arms of my chair so hard it hurts, staring bug-eyed at the screen. I've got tears in my eyes. Judge him by his size does Dooku?? This is going to ROCK!!! There is a sustained explosion of whirling, twisting light onscreen. I hope the theater manager will be understanding and send me a bill, payable in installments, for whatever I might do to this chair. Whoa the pillar!-oh....my....word. It's wrapping up; we see huge ships, and battalions of white-clad soldiers stretching to the horizon. Where have we seen those before? The March swells. It's over. I'm sitting deflated in my chair as the masses file out, talking excitedly. I would like something to drink and a listing of showtimes immediately please. Well done, George. Well done.

See all 2169 customer reviews on Amazon.com