Attack of the Clones is supposedly the Star Wars film that gets a lot of heat and criticisms - in some ways, for good reason: Bad execution of its themes, cringe-worthy love scenes, underdeveloped character motivations and subpar acting, and so on. I have had a long time break from the Prequel Trilogy films until I decided I wanted to read a lot of the major Legends and Canon novels and comics set in the Prequel era. I started with Darth Plagueis (which is an excellent book that underpins a lot of the prequel trilogy and I highly recommend it), then I went through a whole bunch of other mediocre novels, and then I recently read R.A. Salvatore's novelization of Attack of the Clones. Not to say that one is a masterpiece at all, but it does do a decent job at improving and adding to the film. Surprisingly, so many scenes are given proper breathing room to make the relationship between Anakin and Padme *at least* more believable. To give just one example, a lot of internalization of both Padme and Anakin helps explain their motivation for falling in love with another. Not only that, but a lot of extra dialogue and contextualization surround the cringy scenes from the film that makes them much more digestible, if not believable. Tor.com had an article back in 2015 that goes through how the book helps expand and substantiate what the film tried to do:
Moreover, a lot of interesting moral and political themes are picked up throughout the book that are barely mentioned in the film. E.g. the ethical ramifications of cloning and hyper-aging, the Jedi being intertwined in Senate politics, the Jedi being against using the clones at first, or the catch-22 that the clone army represents for the Jedi and the Republic: If they don't take advantage, they lose to the massive Separatist droid army, yet this also means they play into the Sith plan. The motivations for the Separatist army is also explicitly mentioned by Dooku as being about entirely tax-free trade and unregulated capitalism (actual words used in the novel!). There are many of these "social" questions that completely fall by the wayside in the film, so reading the novel can also be extremely frustrating in terms of wasted potential when wat.
At the time it released, I thought AOTC was better than TPM with some really interesting mechanical designs, mysterious worlds, and super impressive visuals (I was very taken by the sandstorm battle and the Anakin riding a speeder bike in the dune sea with Duel of the Fates playing). Not to mention that John Williams' Across the Stars is GOAT-tier. However, in retrospect there was no way around the acting and the dialogue and especially the emotional core of the film falling flat on its face due to, imo, poor execution of some otherwise really great themes around love and desire versus duty. R.A. Salvatore's novelization really helps pick up the pieces imo to show the great potential that the movie had. For a film that gets so much heat and criticisms, it's also good to acknowledge its ambitions and even its positive intentions.
Alternate thread: Say something positive about Attack of the Clones.
Moreover, a lot of interesting moral and political themes are picked up throughout the book that are barely mentioned in the film. E.g. the ethical ramifications of cloning and hyper-aging, the Jedi being intertwined in Senate politics, the Jedi being against using the clones at first, or the catch-22 that the clone army represents for the Jedi and the Republic: If they don't take advantage, they lose to the massive Separatist droid army, yet this also means they play into the Sith plan. The motivations for the Separatist army is also explicitly mentioned by Dooku as being about entirely tax-free trade and unregulated capitalism (actual words used in the novel!). There are many of these "social" questions that completely fall by the wayside in the film, so reading the novel can also be extremely frustrating in terms of wasted potential when wat.
At the time it released, I thought AOTC was better than TPM with some really interesting mechanical designs, mysterious worlds, and super impressive visuals (I was very taken by the sandstorm battle and the Anakin riding a speeder bike in the dune sea with Duel of the Fates playing). Not to mention that John Williams' Across the Stars is GOAT-tier. However, in retrospect there was no way around the acting and the dialogue and especially the emotional core of the film falling flat on its face due to, imo, poor execution of some otherwise really great themes around love and desire versus duty. R.A. Salvatore's novelization really helps pick up the pieces imo to show the great potential that the movie had. For a film that gets so much heat and criticisms, it's also good to acknowledge its ambitions and even its positive intentions.
Alternate thread: Say something positive about Attack of the Clones.
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