Stephanie Zacharek of Salon writes:
[George] Lucas, on the other hand, has created an imaginary universe that pretends to fuel our imaginations even as it seals them off: He doesn’t want our imaginations to soar, because then they will no longer be in his power. That’s why every plot detail in “Attack of the Clones” is so neatly planned out and controlled. This is a fantasy with no poetry in it.
The general consensus among critics seems to be that the movie sucks, but that that’s largely irrelevant for the people who will most want to see it. There’s also the question of how it will look on most screens, since less than one hundred theaters nationwide will project “Attack of the Clones” digitally, which Lucas insists is the only way to truly experience the film. He has a point, since the film was shot digitally and the vast majority of it was created by computers, but most people don’t have access to digital projection. I would have to go out of state if I wanted to see it that way. “Lucas is so eager to promote his vision of the digital future,” says Roger Ebert, “that he is willing to penalize his audience, just to prove a point.”
Of course, a lot of critics are saying that seeing the film in any format is penalty enough. “For some moviegoers,” writes Zacharek, “the two-hours-plus of ‘Attack of the Clones’ may qualify as fun. But what I loved best about it was running, almost literally, from the theater afterward: I can’t remember ever feeling so glad that a movie was finally over.”
