Star Wars films – ranked worst to best 11. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)

The prequel trilogy has lived on in infamy, but the true low point of this low point in the Star Wars franchise must be Attack of the Clones, the dry, crusted middle of the cinematic sandwich. While Revenge of the Sith has some sense of completion and The Phantom Menace has some sense of wonder, all Attack of the Clones has is a CGI Yoda bopping about the screen like an unswattable fly while battling Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku. It’s a film driven by unnecessary desires: from the space politics, to Boba Fett’s backstory, to Padmé and Anakin’s romance. The latter is the most insufferable, since George Lucas never had much of an ear for dialogue, as notoriously pointed out by Harrison Ford when he declared on set: “George, you can type this s***, but you sure as hell can’t say it.” Which leads us to one of the worst line readings in cinematic history, when Hayden Christensen’s Anakin laments: “I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating – and it gets everywhere.”

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