| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ewan McGregor | ... | Obi-Wan Kenobi | |
| Natalie Portman | ... | Padmé | |
| Hayden Christensen | ... | Anakin Skywalker | |
| Christopher Lee | ... | Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus | |
| Samuel L. Jackson | ... | Mace Windu | |
| Frank Oz | ... | Yoda (voice) | |
| Ian McDiarmid | ... | Supreme Chancellor Palpatine | |
| Pernilla August | ... | Shmi Skywalker | |
| Temuera Morrison | ... | Jango Fett | |
| Jimmy Smits | ... | Senator Bail Organa | |
| Jack Thompson | ... | Cliegg Lars | |
| Leeanna Walsman | ... | Zam Wesell | |
| Ahmed Best | ... | Jar Jar Binks / Achk Med-Beq (voice) | |
| Rose Byrne | ... | Dormé | |
| Oliver Ford Davies | ... | Sio Bibble | |
Ten years after the invasion of Naboo, the Galactic Republic is facing a Separatist movement and the former queen and now Senator Padmé Amidala travels to Coruscant to vote on a project to create an army to help the Jedi to protect the Republic. Upon arrival, she escapes from an attempt to kill her, and Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect her. They chase the shape-shifter Zam Wessell but she is killed by a poisoned dart before revealing who hired her. The Jedi Council assigns Obi-Wan Kenobi to discover who has tried to kill Amidala and Anakin to protect her in Naboo. Obi-Wan discovers that the dart is from the planet Kamino, and he heads to the remote planet. He finds an army of clones that has been under production for years for the Republic and that the bounty hunter Jango Fett was the matrix for the clones. Meanwhile Anakin and Amidala fall in love with each other, and he has nightmarish visions of his mother. They travel to his home planet, ... Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
After what many perceived to be a weak entry in the prequel trilogy of the star wars movies with regards to TPM. Lucas still 'did his own thing' and produced one of the most breathtaking, exhilarating and fantastic star wars films to date. In this film we have already established characters thrust upon the cinema screen once again. The opening scroll is simpler than in TPM, it doesn't require us to think, it just puts us into the right frame of mind to pick up the story. As soon as we see a ship gliding through the foggy clouds we see straight away that something is amiss in the republic. The bright and breezy republic in the previous film seems to be bathed in fog. Difficult to see the dark side is. Lucas said these are silent movies and the visuals tell their own story and it happens a lot in this film, like the Darth Vader silhouette that had no digital tinkering whatsoever . The footage of Anakin with his robes on was basically a mirror image of darth vader but without the helmet. The footage of Padme next to him was strikingly reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. Absolutely everything in this movie is intriguing, Obi-Wan Kenobi investigates a clone facility on the planet of Kamino. A mysterious Sifo Dyas placed an order for the Clone army based on a template of a Bounty Hunter called Jango Fett. Jango Fett states he was employed by a man called Darth Tryannus. We find a former Jedi, Count Dooku knows all about the corruption in the senate, even if the Jedi arnt yet aware and plans to do something about it. Secretly creating a new order with the goal to build an army powerful enough to fight the Republics army. A republic army which was mysteriously started at the Clone facility even though the Jedi Council were not aware! Confused? No intrigued? Most definitely. Anakin Skywalker also gets given a sole mission on his own. Its here that the much vaunted love story begins. To be honest, it's a bit choppy and seems rushed. Its not a smooth romance like in The Empire Strikes Back, instead it's a romance which reeks of desperation, as if the characters themselves know about their impending doom and they just want to be as one before the inevitable happens. The deleted scenes on the DVD really should have been implemented within the film. They are gold, with regards to character motivations and shows little glimpses of their affection to each other. Would have made the final, declaration of love scene less jarring. In fact, would have been completely smooth and believable. The final showpiece in this film is the Clone Wars, they begin on a planet called Geonosis and this is where the film gives us a scene so wonderful it just keeps on piling the cherry's on top of the cake. A superb full scale war better than anything in any star wars movie happens, its absolute mayhem and its absolutely brilliant. But it doesent end there, we have not one lightsaber fight, not two, but three. With the third being one of the most memorable of all time. Also, a plot point that culminated in A New Hope makes its entrance here and it left me absolutely gob smacked Basically, this film is everything you would want in a star wars movie. Is it the best star wars film out there? Quite possible, difficult to call. Had George Lucas just gone with the flow and put in the Padme/Anakin deleted scenes plus toned down the over bearing nature of Anakin in the fireplace scene (after reading an earlier draft there's some vocal foreplay at the beginning that would have been great to have in the final movie) then this would have been the best Star Wars film without a doubt. We see intrigue, we see action and we see the galaxy begin to rot away in a very obvious way. The beginning of the end.
Four Stars out of Five.