For pure sustained action, the last 45 minutes of Attack of the Clones can rival any stretch of any blockbuster ever. Starting with Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padmés' near-execution in the Petranaki arena, where they are forced to fight a trio of beasts, and culminating in the aforementioned Yoda/Dooku lightsaber duel, the sequence is a masterpiece of action film making, fitting a sprawling, Mace Windu-led Jedi battle against the droids - which finally gifts us Windu in action, where he beheads Jango Fett for one of the series' greatest kills - and an even bigger battle outside between the Republic's Clone army and the Confederacy's Droid army, in between. It also manages to incorporate some Death Star talk and imagery, as well as presenting Padmé as Leia and Anakin as Luke (he loses his arm in a battle with Dooku) to make one of the most complete, satisfying last passages in modern film memory; an epic sweep across both narrative and pop-culture history that amounts to a dizzying, whirling fantasia of light and sound and a fitting finale to what might be the greatest sequence of perpetual action since the opening of Return of the Jedi.
