Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
dir. George Lucas (2002)
A terribly paced film, the plot a shambling hodgepodge of obscure political machinations, forced-peril action scenes too cluttered to offer any real tension, and through Padmé and Anakin perhaps the least convincing romance in the history of cinema. Visually slick, but soulless.
Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances
by Timothy Zahn (Century, 2018)
Zahn’s big picture storytelling doesn’t amount to much but Thrawn remains good value in the moment – a military virtuoso with Sherlockian powers of observation and deduction. Here the chronologically removed but intertwined narratives pair him with both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader.