In case you’ve been frozen in carbonite for the last 20 years, Attack of the Clones follows on from 1999’s much hyped but poorly received ‘The Phantom Menace’ as the second of three prequels to the Star Wars trilogy, following the journey of Anakin Skywalker (this time played by Hayden Christensen) as a promising Jedi hero, before being seduced by the Dark Side and becoming the evil Darth Vader.

The story begins with the galaxy in turmoil, as thousands of star systems threaten to break away from the Galactic Republic under the leadership of an ex-Jedi named Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), while the Galactic Senate debates the creation of an army to assist the overwhelmed Jedi Knights in protecting the Republic from this new threat. Following an assassination attempt on Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), now a Senator who opposes the formation of this army, Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker are assigned to protect her. This mission leads to Obi Wan travelling across the galaxy on the trail of her would-be assassin in a Raymond Chandler-esque storyline, and uncovering the huge danger that the galaxy is facing. Meanwhile, Anakin discovers feelings for Padmé which challenge his monk-like Jedi vows of chastity, as a dark side emerges within him which he has difficulty controlling.

All the usual Star Wars ingredients are here in plentiful supply, with more lightsabers, bigger battles and faster chases than any of the episodes so far. As with Phantom Menace, fans of the ‘latex and airfix models’ effects style of the original films may complain about the heavy use of computer generated effects, but there’s simply no way that most of these scenes could be realised any other way - particularly in the sceneries of city-planet Coruscant, the epic climactic battle, and the chance to see Yoda show why he is the Jedi Master (now as a computer generated character doing things that would be impossible with a puppet.) However, the weaknesses of Episode 1 have been addressed- the plot is thicker and faster, the characters have more depth and Jar Jar has been relegated from comic relief (which is now provided by the old favourites R2D2 and C3P0) to a background character in the Senate. While the love story occasionally touches on the cheesy side while the young couple are rolling around in green pastures, it is an integral part of the story, and provides a chance to draw breath between the relentless action scenes, and counterbalances the sense of imminent galactic doom that the rest of the film sets up.

In short, a definite return to form for the Star Wars saga- not only is this an undoubtable improvement on Phantom Menace, but will easily sit alongside the classic trilogy as the kind of film that you won’t want to watch just once. The only downside being the three year wait until Episode 3...