PT Did Hayden do a good job as Anakin?

When I was a young lad in the late seventies/early eighties, I didn't love Vader; I wanted him to die.

 

Honestly I don't really see what was bad with a 9 year old anakin or the fact he was played by Jake Lloyd to be quite honest.

 

He was good in Episode 3. There are moments of bad delivery, but I think he did well with a complex character. Mark Hammil was better, but like I said, Luke Skywalker is a more straightforward character, the prequels were going for something entirely different.

Hayden does the darker moments well, for the most part. While delivery of lines like "You turned her against me!" leave something to be desired, there are other times when I truly believe him as Vader. Besides, Anakin/Vader aren't supposed to be completely the same character as OT Vader. Vader is a man who has lost everything after selling his soul. The cold and calculated Vader of the OT is supposed to contrast the Anakin we see when there is still a hope that things could turn out okay. Not that PT Vader doesn't lack his share of menace at times. Vader's response to Sidious' order that all droids should be shut down is quite evil sounding... "Very good, my Lord." This is the Darth Vader we see trying to squelch the Rebellion in the OT. The Rebels, while obviously the good guys to us, to a misguided evil man can represent the same threat to peace as the Seperatists. I can see the suited Vader who callously chokes Imperial officers when Gunray pleads "Lord Sidious promised us peace!" and Vader crosses his arms, feigning interest before silently executing Gunray. That's Darth Vader completely.
A moment where I think Hayden's silence says it all, is walking in on the younglings. Vader looks positively dark standing there as there as the padawans cautiously come out from hiding. It's tragic that Anakin has stooped to this, yet you hate him for what he is doing. Strong point of the prequels, I reckon.

 

Well, it is a problem, since Shaw looked as old as Guinness in ROTJ. Actually, Shaw was about 9 years older in real life...so, whatever. Now that being said, and knowing that Obi-Wan stated Vader was a young Jedi Knight who betrayed them all, I can buy a discovered 18 year old prodigy that was 5 years younger than him. By my guesstimation, that would have made Obi-Wan about 23 in Episode I.

 

I don't really have a problem with anakin being discovered in my opinion. And it seems Lucas recon the anakin and Obi Wans. I guess the whole 9 year old aspect was to show how far anakin had fallen. Like I said I don't have a problem with him being 9

 

I also don't mind Anakin being a kid in TPM. Its a good contrast seeing his life symbolically in Qui-gon's hands. The disparity I note is more in the connect between TPM and AOTC. I can connect the ep2 incarnation to ep3's, and even ep1 to ep3, but Anakin's character progression over the first two is less fluid.

Back on the general topic, I actually think some of Hayden's better acted scenes are in the deleted scenes. Antics on the Invisible Hand, the extended scene where Anakin and Palatine discuss changes to the constitution, etc. Also, generally (save a few lines) Padme confronting Anakin on Mustafar, you really get a sense of how much he has fallen. Oh, and the earlier "Have faith my love" is decidedly dark. Great acting moment IMO.

 

I see what you mean, but I do think the character progression from TPM to AOTC is nearly flawless. in TPM, Anakin is a young boy who lives with mother on a desert planet in slavery. Contrary to the other Jedi, he learnd to become attached. He has become attached to his mother and still leaves her. Naturally, he would be a bit of a "misfit" in the Jedi Order. He is just different and the most Jedi won't be able to symphathize with his feelings, especially the connections to his mother. There is nobody he can talk about his feelings which makes his imbalanced nature in AOTC quite reasonable. Furthermore, Padmé reenters his life which makes it all the more complicated. Of course, naturally, he would become attached to her because she understands him. She is no Jedi, he can talk about his feelings with her.
Secondly, when he left Tatooine, he thought he was finally free. He was no slave anymore and he could do whatever he want (Qui-Gon warned him, yes, but he was a kid), he thought he would sonn come back and free his mom. But he was wrong, he still found himself restricted. The Jedi restricted him. Obi-Wan told him to forget about his dreams. He was not allowed to go and free his mom. Generally, he felt the Jedi held him back. Given the slave background, I think is was just very believalbe that Anakin would be rebelling against all these limitations by the Jedi.

Btw, I love Hayden's "Have faith, my love. Everything will soon be set right...please, wait for me." in ROTS. It sounds almost like he is on the edge of insanity, which is very fitting for the situation imo.

 

That's a good way of looking at it, I particularly agree on the Jedi being unable to relate, and that he would console in Padme. Also, that when Anakin jumps at the idea of becoming a Jedi, he has little ability to comprehend the commitment he is making, something that I think was probably a flaw in the Jedi code on when they take in Padawans (although it is a catch twenty-two when you see the Jedi trained from birth were indeed stabler).

I guess the problem for me stems from how all this was executed for the audience. You may have guessed I generally prefer the other films to AOTC, and part of this lies in the timing of some of Anakin's character development. It just seems that the establishment of Anakin's imbalanced nature, and foreshadowing of Anakin's turn, such as him arguing with Obi-Wan at the start of the movie seems a little out of place. A quick example... Anakin revealing to Padme that he slaughtered the Tusken's at the Lars homestead. One angry remark - "It's all Obi-Wan's fault! He's holding me back!" - while may be very true (Obi-Wan is not as encouraging a mentor as Qui-Gon would have been, or Palpatine appears to be. And the Jedi did indeed restrict his ability to save his mother) ,doesn't seem timed well. I mean, he's just killed a whole village and he blames Obi-Wan's mentoring? It could have been presented better is all.

I agree, IMO it is so far from anything else we've seen in the saga. Vader in the OT is just bad, but here it's actually kind of spooky. You can feel that the things he has done have really affected him, and while I think at this stage he could of still turned back, he's getting closer to the point of no return. Obviously it is later, on hearing that Padme has died, that Anakin becomes totally dead to him. I think this apsect of Anakin's turn can go unappreciated by the casual viewer.

 

I just think that it wasn't Hayden nor Natalie nor Ewan it was Lucas he wrote a HORRIBLE script for AOTC but a better one for ROTS nothing in TPM and AOTC makes sense.

 

Yes. He did a superb job.

Each time I rewatch ROTS I further admire the subtlety and skill of his portrayal and marvel at the underappreciation of his performance.

 

Totally, I don't understand why did so many people blame the actor rather than the script.

 

Sometimes it is a combination of both poor script and poor acting that's why. When I believe it is chiefly just writing/script I say so and with Anakin I don't think it is. Hayden's Anakin is wishy-washy.

 

Ugh, what was wrong with you? Did you have morals or something? Did people have morals back then?

What a strange world you grew up in.

 

Quite right.

Generations to come will no doubt trace the starting point of the downfall of humanity back to the Brothers Gibb.

 

I used to blame Hayden Christensen for his terrible portrayal of such a complex character. However, I have seen him in other movies and his acting was actually good. So now I do not think you can fault him for not being able to give a better performance. Now I blame it on George Lucas' writing and directing skills or lack thereof. I mean, even an accomplished actress like Natalie Portman was painful to look at in the prequels. Coincidence? I think not. Lucas has an outstanding imagination and his creative power is enviable, to say the least, but he should have left the directing and writing to someone who can actually direct actors and/or write better dialogues. My 2 cents.

 

I would say yes, specially his performance in ROTS was underrated imo. In AOTC I found him so-so, except for a couple of scenes where he did a fantastic job (the tusken camp, for example)

 

I thought he was a bit wooden to be honest. Might not be his fault, bad dialogue, direction and overuse of CGI (difficult to relate to a green screen at times) probably didn't help.

It was always going to be hard for him thou, too many preconceptions about the character from the fans.

 

He did amazing no one else could have done it

 

Are you serious? Are you really saying no other actor on Earth could have played Anakin Skywalker but Hayden Christensen? I mean, it's ok if you love the prequels, but there are thousands of unknown actors out there and hundreds of accomplished actors who could've played the iconic role of the future Darth Vader.

 

I think he did well, he was young, what vader had to be. He had that look of someone who had the darkside in him. I think he did well, More so in episode III but thats because i believe he had to hold back in episode II, especially in showing the dark side of his character. He worked extremely hard in the role so he deserves to be appluaed for his role.

 

Not really sure how i feel about him in ep. II but he nailed it on ep. III.

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It's been said before, but it really sounds like a lot of people wanted Anakin Skyalker to be some sort of stoic badass. Maybe that would have satisfied the contingent of fans whose appreciation of Vader seems to begin and end with how "cool" he is, but it would have made for some pretty poor drama.

I used to concede to the prequel detractors that Hayden's performance was subpar, but over the past couple of years I've changed my view. I think he did exactly what he needed to do to establish what kind of a person Anakin was, what kind of emotions he was struggling with, and how those emotions could bubble over and turn him into a wrathful monster. If Hayden had portrayed Anakin as a well-adjusted, reserved, amiable mensch of a guy, his turn to the dark side really would have come out of nowhere. The kind of person who turns into a Darth Vader is exactly the kind of person Hayden portrayed.

 

Yes, I think Hayden a great job as Anakin.

I could understand people not liking his performance and finding him unlikable, and I agree some of his dialouge could have been edited or omitted from the films, but overall, I think he did a superb job and his performance is highly underrated and he gets hated on way too much.

I couldn't see any anyone else portraying Anakin.