Why in the world did they ever cast that whiny, sulking, boy-loser as a young Darth Vader? Quite possibly one of the worst choices in the history of casting.
Surely I can't be the only one with this opinion (though, I looked through the boards and didn't see other threads).
Kind of reminds me of how they ruined Kylo Ren. He went from total bad a## to whiny, ugly, Adam Driver punk.
shareI thought Hayden Christensen did a great job in his two outings, he perfectly captured Jake Lloyd's boyish mannerisms and Vader's mannerisms to make it feel like he was the same character. He only gets knocked because he wasn't what everyone envisioned the character to be like.
shareYeah, god forbid it actually be valid criticism that was not only bad but insultingly bad to the fans. His performance wasn't even mediocre.
shareI'll grant you that he matched Jake Lloyd pretty well, sort of, but it doesn't mean it still wasn't bad acting, because so many of his lines were delivered in cringeworthy fashion. and it was made worse by Lucas' bad direction of acting for nearly all of the actors in the prequels. To be fair, there might not have been any actor the right age that wouldn't have ended up being subpar because of the direction issues. I've tended to blame Lucas much more than the actors for the stilted and too often bad acting in the PT.
shareDid it never not occur to you that maybe the bad acting in the PT was intentional? The Star Wars films are big budget TV serials in the same vain as Flash Gordon complete with atrocious acting. But I guess people take Star Wars too seriously to notice. Star Wars is junk food with a story.
shareSure I have. It's been debated for as long as Star Wars has been around. The thing is that not ALL acting in PT (or any other SW) movie is bad. If the intentional theory holds then we would see more bad/cheesy performances from actors who we truly know are good. It gets subjective at some point but Ewan MacGregor and Liam Neeson's performance in PT is very similar to their acting in other movies. Christiansen may not be a good example here because by most people's accounts he's just not a particularly good actor in anything. He had his moments in Shatterd Glass but that's about it from what I've seen. Portman is probably the example that ultimately proves one of us more correct. I think her acting being by and large below her normal level was Lucas' fault. There's really no proof either way, though.
FWIW, I actually generally like the prequels even if I'm critical about certain things about them. I also watch them as popcorn movies NOT as near-religious works of art.
I like the "it's traditional" argument, but there's bad acting that somehow works, and there's bad acting that makes the viewer want to be somewhere else. I can't say that any of the major performances in the original films are great, but Mark Hammill's youthful innocence and Carrie Fisher's intelligence make the characters believable and relatable, even though they are given so many these over-the-top abilities that the characters could easily have fallen flat. (As I said on another thread, imagine Farrah Fawcett as Leia!)
Portman and Christiansen, on the other hand, totally fail to recapture that sort of magic, it's bad acting that doesn't work. Their characters aren't particularly likeable or sympathetic, and it's really hard to believe that these shallow nitwits actually have the abilities ascribed to them. Sure, other people can say that young Anakin is the most powerful Force user of his era, but it he impressive? Ever? No! Do I like him, or even feel sorry for him when he starts whining? No, he's too busy feeling sorry for himself.
BTW, I have heard that Lucas is known as "the worst actors' director alive". I don't blame Christiansen and Portman, they were just kids when these films were made, and got no help from their director.
“Seventy-seven courses and a regicide, never a wedding like it!
Because that's Darth Vader. He is supposed to be tragic, not cool. Lucas makes comments about evil, he does not encourage it like so many movies today.
Hayden nailed the part as written. One of the most interesting protagonists in film.
Exactly, people just wanted him to be the same Vader from the OT before and after the suit. That's why fanboys should never be allowed to become screenwriters and pitch their bad ideas of what they wanted the prequels to be about.
shareFun fact
Not a single thing Lucas made in the prequels had any real impact in pop culture
Another fun fact
The plinkett reviews have a larger pop culture presence Than the films themselves
He was awful in Clones, but that was mainly due to Lucas' *beep* dialogue. And in all honesty, Christensen was better in Sith than anyone else. McGregor was *beep* as Obi-Wan. People need to get off this praise of him and his smiling acting. And Portman the Oscar winner wasn't so good in this either. Jackson terrible too.
shareYeah, his terrible performance is more Lucas's fault than Christiansen's. It's not just his signature clunky dialogue, it's that IMHO the whole conception of the character as a whiny, resentful kid who chose the Dark Side because he was so stupid he thought it'd save his babymomma was ridiculous. In trying to make his antihero sympathetic, Lucas made him look like a complete idiot.
And then there's the fact that Lucas is know as "the worst actor's director alive". Inexperienced young actors like Christiansen and Portman will flounder if their director just tells them "Do whatever you want, all I care about is the CGI".
“Seventy-seven courses and a regicide, never a wedding like it!
And it doesn't help when everything around the actors/actresses is green screen and they are rarely working on actual sets or in front of actual people or dolls. The actors from the OT actually had that luxury which probably helped their acting a lot.
"I will not be strong armed by threats against my laundry"
Why in the world did they ever cast that whiny, sulking, boy-loser as a young Darth Vader? Quite possibly one of the worst choices in the history of casting.
Shut the hell up. He was an excellent casting. He was awesome in the part.
shareI thought he was great except in love scenes with Padme. Those were pretty bad, partly due to the writing.
shareThe love scenes with Padme were spot on. I kept wishing it was me. There was nothing wrong with the romance or love scenes. It's one of the best romances ever.
I love you, Kristen Stewart. :) You are so beautiful and talented. I would love to perform with you.