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Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Yes, I'm geeky enough to watch Attack of the Clones in preparation for seeing Revenge of the Sith. It's amazing how reading too much fanboy ranting/praising can impact your impression of a movie after you've seen it. For instance, late last year, I checked out The Phantom Menace again, having not seen it for a few years. Turns out it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been convinced, and certainly had quite a few excellent moments in it.
Which is pretty much how I see Attack of the Clones. Like its predecessor, the movie has quite a few really good moments, which are unfortunately brought down by George Lucas' inability to create a convincing love story between Anakin and Padme. Both movies really end up being judged by whether or not you can hold your nose during the clunky dialog and passionless acting in order to really enjoy the good bits.
Which isn't to say all the dialog and acting is outright bad. It's fine during the action scenes, and even during the political intrigue. But this movie suffers too much from the fact that the central focus is supposed to be the story of Padme and Anakin falling for each other. And they never really connect in a way that makes this part of the story believeable.
Still, there are the good spots: Yoda whirling and twirling with a lightsaber, the saber battle with Dooku, the fight on Camino between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett. Of course, the special effects are top-notch (they'd better be, since the movie is 90% special effects). And several of the peripheral performances are good, especially Christopher Lee as Count Dooku and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan.
When I first saw this movie, I thought it was far and away better than Episode I. Having seen them both again, I think Episode I isn't quite as bad as I had originally thought, and Episode II maybe wasn't quite as good, bringing them about on par with each other. 2.5/4 stars.