Via Starwars.com:

Cast your mind back 13 years, to May 16, 2002, and the release of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. We were in a strikingly different place to where we are right now, both in terms of cinema and the saga itself. Digital cinema was on the cusp of arriving and the return of 3D was still over half a decade away.

A torrent of franchises were making big bucks at the box office. Harry Potter was preparing to enter the Chamber of Secrets while Spider-Man was ready to swing across New York for the first time. The members of the Fellowship of the Ring were heading towards Mordor, about to encounter the The Two Towers while Star Trek Nemesis was about to falter at the box office. And, after the box office success but critical backlash of The Phantom Menace three years before, Attack of the Clones was about to throw us back into the galaxy far, far away…

But what did the critics of the time make of the second Star Wars prequel? Did they embrace this vast, interconnecting epic story George Lucas was trying to tell, or did they miss the point? As ever it’s a mixed bag.

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