star wars: Episode ii - Attack of the clones (2002)
As the Star Wars prequel trilogy progressed, Lucas’ intention to craft a sprawling and impersonal genre exercise became more apparent than ever, and the resulting film feels more obligatory than fueled with excitement or genuine desire to make a film. What should have been a high water mark for the series overall, the Clone Wars, are conceptually another repackaging of the stormtroopers vs. rebels from the original films, this time role-reversed as we’re meant to simultaneously acknowledge that the conflict is entirely fabricated and instigated by Chancellor Palpatine in his power-grab, and also side with the Republic and its army of Jedi with stormtrooper infantry. Lucas’ Attack of the Clones is, above all, the painful result of making his Episode I largely a standalone film. As the film opens, most of the characters we spent the most time with in the last film are either nowhere to be found, or have aged into entirely different people.