Now that the Star Wars prequel saga has reached its Third and final episode I think its time I handled the remaining Episodes in my soundtrack evaluations, handling Episode II first. With The Phantom Menace proving to be a big disappointment for audiences due to its weak story, incredibly irritating and silly characters, and the over-reliance on CGI, there was much less expectation and trepidation for Attack of the Clones. With Anakin Skywalker now grown up he is assigned along with his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi to protect Princess Padmé Amidala who has recently become a senator and whose life is now being threatened. This then leads to a forbidden romance between Anakin and Padmé, the consequences proving to be far-reaching as we all know. And furthering the rise of the Galactic Empire is the Trade Federation's creation of an army of mindless warriors along with Senator Palpatine's continued rise and fall to the Dark Side. As always composer John Williams with the London Symphony Orchestra followed Lucas in creating the soundworld for the galaxy far, far away with the same kind of grip he always has.

Unlike the earlier scores that provided at least two major new themes, Attack of the Clones offers only one large new theme, the love theme for Anakin and Padmé entitled "Across the Stars." This theme is arguably the best of the themes presented in the prequel trilogy (and standing highly in the mass of other Star Wars themes as well) with its sweeping nature, being beautiful yet troubled and restrained at the same time, a perfect representation of forbidden love. The bittersweet melody is accompanied by an elegant but staggering rhythm that prevents the music to be as free-flowing as it could be. The five-and-a-half minutes of the concert arrangement features the theme in its full glory and also works quite well in the underscore. More than any other theme, the love theme crops up more often in Attack of the Clones and can be heard in cues like "Yoda and the Younglings," "Anakin and Padmé," "The Meadow Picnic," "Love Pledge and The Arena," and "Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale." The nature of the theme changes much as the score progresses with its lovely yet troubled appearances in the early cues to the more agonizing presentations in the latter cues, particularly in the final two tracks.

The final track, "Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale," is a spectacular ending and contains the most famous aspect of the score. After a short preamble, that also includes the Force theme, the finale cue launches into a full presentation of the Imperial March, something that fans were eagerly expecting. Although this time around the march isn't signifying Darth Vader but the Trade Federation's army that is to become the Imprial army, thus signifying the real birth of the Galactic Empire. Unfortunately the impact of this presentation is somewhat lessened by the mute mixing of the music which for a Star Wars score of today is saying a lot. The march segues quite brilliantly into an epic performance of the love theme before the Star Wars theme opens the end credits. The credits sequence follows the usual platform of Star Wars theme - concert presentation of new theme - coda. The finale, though it offers nothing spectacularly new, is much better executed than in The Phantom Menace which was essentially nothing more than a cut and paste job. After the "Across the Stars" theme reaches its end, Anakin's theme makes an appearance like in the previous movie, only much shorter and feebler, and when the foreshadowing of the Imperial March comes around, it is mixed with the love theme's dying phrase.

The soundtrack album offers 74 minutes of music which gives a good overview of the score. Time will tell whether there will be an extended version like there was for The Phantom Menace, but if something like that takes place it is hopeful that the execution will be better handled than previously, so that the score won't be lifted straight out of the film with all its faults. The European version (or so I have read it as being) features an extra track "On the Conveyor Belt" which features another piece of percussion heavy action music and is not exactly all that interesting to go out of your way to get. The funny thing though is that it's not credited anywhere in the liner notes, only on a sticker on the jewel case. There are warning labels indicating that it will not play on PC/MAC but I have not encountered any such problem, while I have read that some US versions have an extra CD-Rom function with the extra track but don't actually play on a CD-Rom which is very curious behaviour from the record label. And then there are the silly collectible covers slipped over the actual liner notes which are basically nothing but a waste of paper. The album presentation and the score as a whole presumably is not as strong or as diverse as The Phantom Menace or the earlier trilogy and this prevents it from standing as highly among the other Star Wars scores, but is still a solid and enjoyable listen with one of the strongest themes in all of Star Wars to help it along. Of course for all film score fans there really is no question of whether to get it or not, but to everybody else it's worth getting for the love theme in all its glory alone.

Bonus track found from "European" versions
14. On the Conveyor Belt (3:07)