PT Did Hayden do a good job as Anakin?

After watching the PT recently, I think Hayden did a good job most of the time. He butchers some line deliveries, but for the most part he comes off exactly as I think he would the way he is written. I also think he has fantastic facial expressions in the most important scenes of the PT. In the end, I actually like what Hayden did with his role as Anakin.

 

I hate it when people thinks geogre lucas miscast anakin again when he didn't. Hayden christensen portrayed anakin so well in ep 2, he done good as acting like a whiny b**** for the character. In ep 3 he portrayed anakin even better, overall hayden christensen sone a brilliant job as his role as anakin skywalker.

 

Honestly I think Hayden did a good job overall. He seems to get a lot of hate for his performances, but I really enjoyed his performance in ROTS, to me it felt believable. Some of the writing for AOTC was pretty bad though, but to be fair I'm not sure there was a lot Hayden could have done to prevent them from being the way they were. Sure, he suffered from being a little too whiny in some moments, like when he persists to complain about Obi-Wan despite us not actually seeing Obi-Wan do anything wrong to him, but these would have been difficult lines to execute for a lot of actors IMO because there was nothing really seen during the films to warrant such an outburst, which makes them hard to understand.

It could have been better in areas, and we saw it was possible with actors like Ewan McGregor making some cardboard lines sound decent, but on the whole I thought Hayden portrayed Anakin well and you can see in moments that this guy looks as if he will become Darth Vader, like when he slaughtered the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine.

 

It's of one piece with Alec Guinness's performance. Reference Sir Alec's reaction to the destruction of Alderaan: "You better...get on with your exercises".

That always felt hamfisted to me, even as a child.

My worry for Episode VII is how they will weed out all of this corny charm of Star Wars. To me, it's as much a part of it as lightsabers and droids.

 

FRAGWAGON exactly my sentiments
The crappy dialogue is something I love a great deal in SW

 

He's not the best or worst actor I've ever seen. In my opinion he's an average B level actor. I thought his acting after being chopped up on Mustafar was really good, though. It was some of his best acting out of all the films I've seen him in.

 

yes i think so. obviously there were some terrible lines but i think it was handled well and that was how gl wanted anakin to come across. even though some people hate the petulant, whiny anakin, that's the way he was supposed to be.

 

As if Vader in the OT wasn't whiny?
"Commander, tear this ship apart until you've found those plans, and bring me the passengers! I WANT THEM ALIVE!"
Getting pissed off when Luke hits his shoulder and cutting off his son's hand
All that and the fact that he throws a temper tantrum and chokes someone to death when things don't go his way

 

Hayden was good, particularly in episode III. The blame for the hatred towards his portrayal lies with GL.

 

Hayden absolutely nailed all the visual aspects of his role, imo. The movements, the gestures, and the facial expressions were all right on.

There's just something about his voice though... the way he spoke... I read somewhere that he said he was trying to evoke the monotone sound of Darth Vader and what he imagined the younger version of Vader would sound like, but, I'm not sure how successful he was in attempting that because a lot of times he sounds either bored, or melodramatic.

So I always get mixed feelings watching Hayden's portrayal as Anakin.

 

The answer is yes. Don't look for what he's doing as he's saying a line. Look at what's going on in his eyes as others are talking. His reactions speak volumes, and say far more than most of the admittedly clunky dialogue he had to recite.

 

I agree, except I'd say the dialogue was like that by design. Star Wars writing is deliberately stylised, not psychorealistic. The emotions are compressed, or ritualistically/theatrically gestured at, rather than depicted (as most contemporary screenwriting does) as though they had been simply recorded documentary-style.

 

I agree partly with what you said (haven't read the thread), but I'll just say this about AotC - Hayden was specifically instructed not to play out the character fully, and save it for RotS. I can only see the difference in AotC Anakin and RotS Dito as an evolution of the character, three years of war had made him grow up a bit, not that Hayden became a better actor necessarily.
I think he did well in both. Anakin is not supposed to be likeable, and in AotC, he's a 19 year old Mod edit, and who isn't embarassed by their 19 year old selves?

 

I think Hayden pretty much played Anakin as he was written and as he was told to. When @Nìmwey says Anakin wasn't supposed to be likeable, I think that pretty much captures the problem that some people have with the character as he was written. I wanted Anakin to be likeable, at least on some level. I wanted to like him, sympathise with his plight and be horrified by his demise. As it was, I felt none of these things. I just felt like I was watching a fairly obnoxious character getting what was coming to him.

 

I thought Hayden did a terrific job. He's a bratty teenager through the first half of Clones, which is appropriate, but I still found him charming in his own way. After Shmi's death though, a switch flips and he is an adult for the rest of the film and it's a nice transition. I thought he was really terrific in Sith, especially during the quieter moments like the Ruminations scene and him living his in hell on Mustafar before the fight. Most of the criticisms are unfounded and just plain awkward, if you ask me.

 

Worst line uttered in Star Wars history, and it's Hayden's.

"I miss you...sooo much."

 

So I'm not allowed to say ******* (MOD edit) Why not just put stars on it if it's so offensive?


Mod Note (Bazinga'd): You also need to edit entire word and not just parts of it.

 

Choose some more appropriate language and I won't need to do anything.

 

I really liked Hayden's acting as Anakin from the beginning.

On the first viewing of AOTC, I didn't really like some of the story decisions in the ways they used him. The Yoda scene was cool, but I felt like it pulled the rug out from Anakin and robbed him of an opportunity to do the right thing and show his positive side that made him a hero in the clone wars.

I think there are a lot of people that (understandably) have trouble differentiating between story choices of the character versus acting choices for the character. I also found that once I cleared my mind of expectations, when I watched AOTC the 2nd time, I was able to really enjoy it for what it was.

 

This is how I feel, too. In some areas, Anakin is very likeable. When he offers to help out the ARC-170s, which are getting blown to bits... when he banters with Obi-Wan when they get back to Coruscant... when he takes responsibility for being irrational with the Council... all those things are symbolic of a young man who is coming into his own and (mostly) learning from his mistakes and trying to do better. I wanted to see more of that Anakin. And I think that's where GL did things right with TCW. Anakin was very mature and likeable in that series, even when he broke protocol, his reasoning was still justified and more often than not he was successful. That's the Anakin I wanted to see more of in the films.

 

Nah, you're not, Walter.

 

Completely agree. Watching TCW gives me a new appreciation for Anakin's character. We get to see how and why he is regarded as a hero and gets the praise he does in RoTS and in the OT. I would have liked to have seen more of that in the movies. Nonetheless, I think Hayden did a good job especially in Revenge of the Sith at portraying that hero at the height of his glory but is secretly deeply troubled.

 

Did Hayden do a good job as Anakin? That's actually a complicated answer for me. To the casual observer, no. He did not. But as someone who has heard a great deal about Lucas directing, read Hayden's interviews, and has a good grasp of how Lucas wanted Anakin to be portrayed, yes, I think he did a great job.

I just think Anakin should have been portrayed and written as a much more interesting character. He has his moments, but his motivations in the film are not to deep, and Anakin should have been expanded much more over the course of all three films. TCW did a great job of this, but it makes me sad we didn't get a lot of it in live action.