Attack of the Clones / YMMV

Accidental Innuendo: Padmé: "My goodness, you've grown!" "So have you", says Anakin, his eyes fixed squarely on Padmé's chest. May or may not be intentional, considering Anakin's age and sheltered lifestyle.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Regarding Anakin and Padmé's relationship.
  - A lot of the romance subplot actually begins to make sense if you interpret Anakin as (un)intentionally using the Force to manipulate Padmé's emotions, causing her to fall in love with him. This isn't actually too far out there; it's not like we haven't seen that even more well-balanced Jedi (like Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan) will casually use their power to mess with people's minds in order to get what they want.
  - Though the EU (especially the comics) don't take it as far as Mind Rape, they clearly present Anakin's obsession with Padmé as extremely unhealthy, possessive, and dysfunctional. What is unclear is whether or not Lucas intended to imply this interpretation, or whether he was genuinely trying to write them as a romantic couple (Word of God has stated the intention was for them to be modeled after the Courtly Love type of romance) but that somehow fell through.
  - Alternatively, the awkwardness between the two can make a lot more sense when you realize how incredibly sheltered Anakin and Padmé's lives really are. Neither of them has had any real relationship experience before - aside from Padmé's brief summer fling when she was about twelve - and thus, they would have no real clue what they're doing. This would also explain how they never really looked past the hormonal fog and shared history to realize that they weren't really emotionally and mentally ready for a long-term relationship, never mind marriage.
  - In general, do the Jedi try to keep themselves from feeling and believe they ought to be Straw Vulcans? Or do they simply believe that passion should be controlled and managed, but not ignored entirely, with Anakin just (intentionally?) misunderstanding it, while the no attachment rule makes a lot of sense for a group who are required to put the good of many over one individual?
- Cleolinda Jones, in her fifteen minute spoof of the film, posits the entertaining — if tongue-firmly-in-cheek — theory that Padmé actually died during the chase on Geonosis from falling off a speeding airship onto the very hard sand below, became a zombie and therefore was now dumb enough to think marrying Anakin was a good idea.
- On a different note, does Dooku actually miss Qui-Gon, or is he simply pretending to be sincere? On the one hand, Dooku did leave the Order very shortly after Qui-Gon was killed, and the few EU works that show Qui-Gon's apprenticeship imply that he did care about his Padawan in his own way. As the Fridge page points out, he misses multiple opportunities to kill the Jedi even when he has the chance. On the other hand, Dooku does ally with the man who ordered Qui-Gon's execution and goes on to attempt to destroy the Republic, performing lots of terrible acts throughout the Clone Wars. Did he regard allying with Sidious as a necessary evil? Did he at first miss Qui-Gon but then become corrupted by the Dark Side? Did he never truly care at all? All of these interpretations are valid.
- Are at least some of the senators who support giving Palpatine emergency powers being subtly influenced by Darth Sidious's Force persuasion and/or only cheering support for the plan because they were bribed beforehand, bringing new meaning to Dooku's claim a Sith is influencing the Senate? This can also carry over to the sequel and the widespread approval the Senate gives Palpatine when he makes himself Emperor.
- On Padmé Amidala's senatorial career, especially with regards to the Military Creation Act. Is she really a last, failed hope to avert the Clone Wars? Or is she just a "useful idiot" for Palpatine: an Obstructionist Pacifist and Broken-System Dogmatist whose only purpose is to keep the Senate from reauthorizing a federal military too early, before Palpatine has all the chess pieces in place? In particular, had the MCA passed a year earlier when it was first introduced, the Slave Mooks he contracted for from the Kaminoans would not have been ready, forcing the Republic to go with a legally obtained army that would have been much less reliable when it came time to purge the Jedi.
Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
Complete Monster: Palpatine starts the Clone Wars and uses the war to gain ever more power as chancellor of the galaxy so he can kick off his plot to rule the worlds with an iron fist.
Contested Sequel: Was Attack of the Clones better than, worse than, or about the same as The Phantom Menace? Fans can't agree.
Ending Fatigue: The film's climax tends to go on and on. First Anakin and Padmé go to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, get into a scrap in the droid factory, get captured and have to fight in an arena battle alongside Obi-Wan. Then the other Jedi show up and have a fight with battle droids. Then Yoda shows up with the Clone army and there's another massive battle while the heroes chase Dooku. And then there are three separate lightsaber duels involving Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and Dooku, before the movie finally reaches its resolution. While there are certainly some good and exciting moments in the third act, considering the entire film is over two hours long (until The Last Jedi was released, it was the longest theatrical Star Wars film), one gets the sense some of the action could've been condensed to shorten the runtime.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Lucas recognized Boba Fett's massive popularity with fans, so he retroactively gave the character a much more important role in the story and gave us Jango Fett, his father/clone who looks and dresses just like him but actually gets several awesome action scenes.
- Jango's bounty hunting partner Zam Wesell was also a popular character, despite her limited screentime.
- Among the Separatists, Wat Tambor is uniquely beloved for his funky retro-future design and distinctive voice. Befitting his popularity, he was given an expanded role in The Clone Wars.
- Oliver Ford Davies as Sio Bibble and Silas Carson as Ki-Adi-Mundi and Nute Gunray all in due part to their performances.
- Kit Fisto was very popular among the Jedi featured in the Arena battle for his unique design and cheesy grin. Just like a significant amount of background characters in the Prequel Trilogy’s films, he received a fleshed out expanded role in The Clone Wars, which increased his already-existing popularity with the fans.
- Aayla Secura, thanks to being a sexy Twi'lek Jedi girl. Likewise, she also received a fleshed out expanded role (along with episodes focused on her) in The Clone Wars.
Fight Scene Failure: The duel between Obi-Wan and Count Dooku is pretty weak. Anakin does better than him (though he still loses) despite being only an apprentice. In fact, the reason he loses is because he stands still long enough for Dooku to do a fancy move that cuts his arm off when he could have easily countered him. Even Ewan McGregor said he thought the swordplay in this movie was unsatisfactory compared to Revenge of the Sith. It's technically justified; Obi-Wan had been fighting all day after all against both Jango Fett and dozens upon dozens of droids, not to mention the acklay, while Dooku is not only freshly rested, but his lightsaber style is more energy-efficient and suited for lightsaber combat than Obi-Wan's.
Dooku: Master Kenobi, you disappoint me! Yoda holds you in such high esteem. Surely you can do better!
Harsher in Hindsight:
- While chasing after Zam Wessell, Obi-Wan takes a crack at Anakin's lightsaber skills, remarking that he would be almost as great as Yoda if he practiced them more. Anakin retorts that he thought that he already was great at his saber techniques, only for Obi-Wan to tell him its all in his head. What seems like some innocent Casual Danger Dialogue quickly takes a sad turn after Obi-Wan Kenobi would show a practice duel between master and apprentice set shortly before the events of this film, with Anakin's arrogance costing him the match despite initially coming out on top.
- “He’s a political idealist, not a murderer,” says Ki-Adi-Mundi, in response to Padme saying she thinks Count Dooku is behind the attempt on her life. Does that mean they never found Yaddle’s body? Because it would be pretty obvious she was killed with a lightsaber.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The fact that Hayden Christensen managed to have a bit of fun with the "sand hate" meme goes to show that he's doing well despite the prequels. God only knows how much crap he must have received over the years from people who disliked his portrayal of Anakin.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Obi-Wans's resemblance to Jesus in this episode led to a Memetic Mutation, where a church mistakenly used a publicity photo of Obi-Wan as a portrait of Jesus. Ewan McGregor eventually played Jesus in the 2015 movie Last Days in the Desert.
Improved Second Attempt: See the franchise page.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Anakin. The poor guy loses both his arm and his mother, both happening within a week of each other.
- Boba Fett, considering that he watched his father get beheaded in the arena. Seeing him holding his father's helmet in the scene that follows is just heartbreaking.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Since the villains are kept offscreen for the majority of the movie, Anakin gets the most hate for whining about Obi-Wan supposedly holding him back, and giving Padmé creepy sex looks that make her feel uncomfortable. He doesn't even get hated for killing the Tusken Raiders and their children—he gets hated for throwing a tantrum about it. He's hated far less in Revenge of the Sith despite becoming full-on evil in that film, simply because he doesn't whine as much.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- When people speak of this movie's more positive aspects, it's pretty much a universal agreement that the best parts are the sections where Obi-Wan is playing space-detective.
- Yoda going crazy with a lightsaber — while fighting Christopher Lee, no less — is also such a bizarre moment that people had to see to believe.
- Speaking of whom, no matter how bad a lot of the acting is, Sir Christopher Lee is widely regarded as being one of the best parts of the film, in large part because, well, he's Sir Christopher Lee. Who, in addition to playing Dracula, a Bond villain and Saruman, can now add a Sith to his considerable resume.
- Seeing dozens of Jedi in action together on the battlefield for the only time in the live-action installments makes the Battle of Geonosis a fairly big draw for moviegoers. The entrance of the Clone Army and Anakin and Padmé's Back-to-Back Badasses moments add to the sequence's memorability.
Les Yay:
- Padmé's first scene is going to her bodyguard Cordé, who got blown up while posing as the Senator. She begs for Cordé to hold on and grasps her gently, not wanting to hurt her injured friend.
- Some fans felt there was more genuine chemistry and affection between Padmé and Dormé in the three scenes that they shared together than there was between Anakin and Padmé in the entire movie.
Memetic Molester: Padmé. Some fans are somewhat disturbed that she would instantly fall in love with Anakin, who was but a small child the last time they met, so much that she has been the source of many Black Comedy memes portraying her as a pedophile. A somewhat strange accusation, as many seem to forget that Padmé herself was a minor in The Phantom Menace (admittedly Younger than She Looked, especially compared to then-nine-year-old Anakin), and in Attack of the Clones she continued treating Anakin like a child until the second half of the film. The age-gap between them also isn't that severe; there's only five years between them and Anakin is nineteen years old, so he's over the age of consent and considered an adult in most countries.
Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
Misaimed Fandom: Anakin and Padmé's conversation about politics, where Anakin expresses support for an authoritarian form of government, has been known to occasionally pop up as a meme on neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi social media accounts—even though Anakin is clearly meant to be in the wrong when he says that.
Most Wonderful Sound: The sound of seismic charges detonating, for many fans.
Narm: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
Narm Charm:
- Many found this to be the case, often due to crossing over into So Bad, It's Good, especially Anakin's "I don't like sand" speech. The love story as a whole is this; as clunky as the dialogue may be, some of their scenes together are actually legitimately moving. The "Across the Stars'' theme really helps carry it.
- A lot of the awkward scenes Anakin has with Padmé can be easier to swallow when you take into account that Anakin is a 19-year old boy who grew up in (essentially) a monastery and never really talked to a girl ever since he saw Padmé as a nine-year old.
Never Live It Down: It has its own page shared with the rest of the franchise.
One-Scene Wonder:
- "Death stick" seller Elan Sleazebaggano is the subject of a very brief but very funny scene where Obi-Wan uses a Jedi Mind Trick to tell him to "go home and rethink your life." The exchange doesn't last more than 15 seconds, but Sleazebaggano managed to become a very memorable character because of it, to the point that both iterations of the Expanded Universe would follow up on his story (in short, he really did rethink his life).
- Dexter Jettster is introduced in this film and only appears in one scene, but he's very popular with fans. Likely because of his wholesome friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, giving some genuinely useful information about Kamino, and for running a snazzy restaurant that looks like a Zeerust version of a classic 1950s diner.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The GBA tie-in for this movie is generally considered one of the worst Star Wars games, which is quite a feat considering how many there are and some of the competition it's up against. The game features ugly visuals, bland and uninspired platforming, and slow gameplay that basically amounts to running right, killing the enemies the game wants you to, repeat. Its psuedo-3D gimmick levels, while visually impressive for the time, fare little better thanks to the low frame rate. The next GBA tie-in for Revenge of the Sith was leagues ahead of this one, giving it no excuse.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Uncle Owen became a Navy SEAL on the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, and the father of Timothy Green.
- Rose Byrne as Dormé also counts as well, since this was before she became notable with her roles in X-Men: First Class and Bridesmaids, 9 years later.
Romantic Plot Tumor: At least to some degree between Anakin and Padmé. Probably made more glaring by some of their scenes having toe-crunchingly awkward dialogue; it doesn't help that their relationship takes up a lot of screentime in the second act, with not a lot else happening until they go to Tatooine to find Shmi, or the film cuts to Obi-Wan investigating Jango Fett, both of which are a lot more interesting. While by no means the worst tumor in film history, being a Star Wars film is the reason that the trope was originally called "George Lucas Love Story", and also resulted in unfavorable comparisons to the far better execution of Han and Leia's romance in The Empire Strikes Back. Also, given that Padmé and Anakin have to get together at some point so Luke and Leia will be born, (and considering how Anakin's relationship with Padmé proves to be a major factor in his fall to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith), one can argue that the romance at least has some actual significance to the overall plot (the actual execution of said romance notwithstanding).
Rooting for the Empire: Actually encouraged by George Lucas. The movie introduces the sympathetic Clone Troopers, who save the Jedi and rout the movie's villains. Then comes the finale, and the movie reminds the viewers that they had been rooting for what will become the Empire by playing the Imperial March as Palpatine oversees the troopers entering early Star Destroyers.
Salvaged Story:
- Some fans suspect that Yoda training all Jedi as children was thrown in to fix the continuity issue of Qui-Gon being Obi-Wan's master in the last film, when he'd called Yoda "the Jedi Master who instructed me" in The Empire Strikes Back. Although even in The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan had a line that indicated he had been taught by Yoda before being apprenticed to Qui-Gon.
- Jango Fett's prominent role in this film was put in to appease fans who complained about Ensemble Dark Horse Boba Fett being tragically underutilized in the Original Trilogy, and getting almost no action scenes despite being built up as a badass. Note that Boba is established as an exact genetic clone of his "father" Jango, meaning that Jango is Boba Fett, for all intents and purposes. Unlike his "son", he gets an elaborately choreographed showdown with a Jedi Knight, kills another Jedi during the arena battle and receives an appropriately epic death scene.
- Count Dooku surviving the events of the film all the way until the first act of Revenge of the Sith seems to be an attempt at this following Darth Maul's unsavory demise in The Phantom Menace. While most fans consider Maul to be more badass and interesting than Dooku (especially after Star Wars: The Clone Wars revealed that Maul was Not Quite Dead and fleshed him out as a character) having Dooku be the public face of Separatist movement during the Clone Wars, as well as going deeper into his motives, proved that Dooku was a capable character in his own right.
- The exposition of The Phantom Menace involving the trade dispute on Naboo was considered unengaging and boring by many. Attack of the Clones immediately started with a more interesting hook of Padme nearly being assassinated twice which was more intense and attention grabbing.
- The B1 battle droids were criticized for having goofy personalities and being so comically inept that it was impossible to take them seriously. This film introduces the B2 super battle droids, which while still serving as common Mooks to the protagonists, have a more intimidating appearance and subdued personality.
Signature Scene:
- The opening chase scene over Coruscant with Obi-Wan and Anakin chasing their target over flying car traffic in a planet-enclosed city filled with gorgeous neon bling and awesome tension, complete with Obi-Wan and Anakin doing the buddy cop routine in a sleazy night club.
- It's a Never Live It Down moment, but Anakin's sand hate is definitely one.
- The death of Anakin's mother, and his following massacre of the sand-people. Not to mention Anakin's "slaughtered them like animals" rant that came afterwards.
- Obi-Wan discovering the Kamino cloning facility.
- The seismic charges during the asteroid sequence. Ben Burtt considered it one of his all-time favorite sound designs.
- The Geonosis stadium sequence, particularly the moment when the Clones come in to rescue the good guys.
- Yoda using his lightsaber against Count Dooku and saving his pupils.
Special Effects Failure: The CGI as a whole is often a point of criticism when it comes to the movie, due to overuse and debatable quality. It's made more conspicuous by the fact that some of the CGI looked good back in 2002, but hasn't aged particularly well.
Strangled by the Red String: Anakin gives Padmé creepy looks that make her feel uncomfortable, acts like a stalker around her, interrupts her in front of the Queen of Naboo, admits that he supports dictatorships, and goes on a psychotic tantrum about how he slaughtered women and children like animals. Despite all this giving Padmé every reason to stay away from Anakin, she chooses to marry him after only spending a few days with him at most.
Take That, Scrappy!: Lucas admitted that Jar Jar was a horrible character, and in making him responsible^* for enabling Palpatine's rise to totalitarian power, just wanted to give viewers one last reason to hate him. He later had a statue put up in his studio of Jar Jar frozen in carbonite, so at least he can laugh at himself.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The bigger emphasis on green-screen for locations and scenery have gotten criticized over time, given the visuals ended up aging worse compared to those in The Phantom Menace, which used practical sets more often, while its sequel opts to rely more on CGI on even more closed-off locations.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Shares a page with the rest of the films.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Anakin's massacre of the Tusken Raiders in revenge for his mothers death, including the woman and children who'd have had nothing to do with it, is portrayed as wrong such it's his Start of Darkness. But given the Tusken's seemed to be a whole race of bloodthirsty assholes who always attack people, and just kidnapped and tortured his mother to death, for no reason caused quite a few viewers think Anakin was instead completely justified. (Expanded Universe works both before and after this film have near-uniformly presented the Tuskens as Noble Savages who have legitimate grievances, but the films all portray them more as The Savage Indian in Tatooine's Space Western motif.)
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- The Republic itself continues to be utterly corrupt and incompetent, to the point where, per Sio Bibble, they couldn't even get a treason conviction against Nute Gunray for trying to extort the federal government by blockading and then occupying Naboo. It's frankly completely understandable that they're now facing a secession crisis, but the protagonists continue to back the Republic to the hilt rather than even consider the possibility that the Separatist movement might actually have a point (catspaws to the culprits of that corruption though they might be). This reaches its nadir with the revelation of the Kaminoan-made slave army produced on the Republic's dime for its eventual use, to which nobody raises any moral objections at all—including Anakin, who had been a slave himself until he was nine.
- The flipside of the Tusken Raider massacre is that some viewers think the protagonists don't react strongly enough to it, being more concerned with Anakin's mental health than with the fact he's just committed a literal act of genocide. Padmé tries to comfort Anakin despite him admitting to the massacre to her face, and the Jedi do absolutely nothing to investigate precisely what might have put Anakin into such "pain, terrible pain" that Yoda was able to feel it from halfway across the galaxy.
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- Even detractors of the movie can't deny that the design of the Kamino cloning facility looks incredible.
- The Battle of Geonosis. One particular shot (the dust cloud of a crashing ship obscuring the battle as blaster bolts fly on both sides) was revolutionary in the digital effects industry for its realism.
Wangst: Anakin's infamous monologue to Padmé at the Lars Homestead has him complaining a bit too much about his problems. Yes, his mother just died in his arms the day before, but then he starts blaming Obi-Wan for his training and claiming he will be the strongest Jedi ever, things that don't look like they have much to do with his mother.
Wheelchair Woobie: Cliegg Lars must use a hovering chair after losing his leg during his search for his wife.

YMMV / Attack of the Clones

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