I’ve been recently rewatching (and enjoying) 30s monster movies (Frankenstein & Bride, The Invisible Man, etc.) I can say 100% that the romance scenes are never as cheesy as the AOTC ones. Sometimes it’s a bit on-the-nose, but it’s charming rather then grating (tho I will say, the romance in The Wolf Man hasn’t aged well, due to the social conventions of the time).
The performances play a part of it too. Claude Rains eats up his power-hungry monologues as Jack Griffin as much as James Earl Jones does as Darth Vader OT, and his scenes with Gloria Stuart are flowery but charming. Both Rains and Stuart were theatre actors, and thus knew how to pull off compelling melodrama. Same with Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and the two actresses that played Elizabeth.
Meanwhile, it feels like Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are uncomfortable with the dialogue. They’re not experienced with that theatre melodrama, so it’s just awkward.
It’s also why Ian McDiarmid and Christoper Lee fare better with their material. McDiarmid is a theatre actor and Lee was basically reprising his role as Dracula.
The problem with the love story in Attack of the Clones is that they removed a lot of scenes where the dialogue and performances were far more natural, and kept scenes that add absolutely nothing to the development of the relationship. For example, if they had replaced the balcony scene by the lake on Naboo with the dinner scene at Padmé’s parents’ house, and had trimmed some of Anakin’s awkward dialogue, it would have worked much better. The romance would come across as more natural and believable with just a few small adjustments. Unfortunately, they made a lot of mistakes in the editing of the film. They cut scenes that would have helped the love story feel more organic and kept others that serve no purpose, which is why the romance feels so rushed and unnatural.
It makes sense that Anakin is a bit awkward and does not know how to be charming. After all, Anakin is a Jedi, and flirting with girls is not exactly part of Jedi training. It is not surprising that he would not have the smooth, confident demeanor of someone like Han Solo, because his life has been focused on discipline, duty, and developing his abilities — not on romantic relationships. Padmé is inexperienced too. She has not had much time to think about romance or boys, since she devoted herself to politics for most of her teenage years. So, it makes sense that some of their interactions feel a bit awkward. Neither of them knows exactly how to navigate the situation. But the awkwardness should not be overdone. There needs to be a balance between the natural awkwardness of two people who are inexperienced in romance and the natural flow of dialogue. This could have been achieved with a few small adjustments, but again, they made mistakes in the editing. They could have found that balance with just a bit of tweaking, but unfortunately, they didn’t, and that’s why some of the scenes feel off.