I hear a lot of people trash Hayden's performance as Anakin, but, was he really THAT bad? I for one thought he did a fantastic job in ROTS regardless of GL's dialogue you can see the emotion and conflict in his actions and facial expressions that there was a lot going on besides what was spoken. AOTC is another story
Hayden wasn't bad per se, but I wasn't a fan of how he portrayed Anakin in AoTC. It took quite a number of ROTS viewing to up my view of Hayden, though personally I think Ewan far outshone Hayden.
I don't know much about the craft and technicalities of acting, but Ian McDiarmid - a man who does! - was asked at Celebration VI which actor he most enjoyed working with on the PT and he said that he felt he and Christensen had a great on-screen rapport and that Christensen's performance was very underated. I think we can take McDiarmid's word for it! Like I say, I don't know much about acting, I only know whether I believe an actor's performance or not and I totally believed Hayden Christensen's performance. To me, the scene in which Anakin confesses to Padme that he slaughtered all the Tusken Raiders is absolutely brilliant. You can see the hatred and torment in his eyes. It's very chilling.
Everybody has different opinions. It's a freaking FILM. I thought he was fine. I thought the prequels were fine. He had good chemistry with Natalie.
I think the Tuskan confession is the strongest performance of the series, so yeah, I think he did fine job. If anything I think Portman was the weaker link. I know everybody's supposed to say something along the lines of "even a great performer like Portman sucked with that material," but honestly, Garden State is the only film of hers I've seen where she stepped out of her style, which usually strikes me as a bit flat.
I agree, they worked well together. I totally bought the romance scenes. Interestingly enough, in his review of AOTC, filmmaker Kevin Smith specifically pointed to the Anakin/Padme romance as a highlight of the movie: "And that's what worked best for me about the Anakin arc in CLONES: the doomed love affair of Anakin and Amidala. Most of the critics dismissed this as the flick's most ham-fistedly handled aspect, but I thought it played out tragically and beautifully. High marks to both Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, because I completely bought their relationship. He wants her desperately without really even knowing why, as do all teenage boys when they find who they assume is their one-true in high school. And even though she knows this guy is poison, she can't help but fall for him - the little slave-boy that grew up to be a conflicted, impetuous hat tank who insists everyone's giving him a raw deal. In high school, the really hot chicks always went for the massive ****-ups, and eventually wound up married to them. But this marriage doesn't end in small town affairs and divorce; this marriage ends with the girl scattering her kids across the galaxy to save them from their father, who by that point is more machine than man."
I have seen him in other projects and he is fundamentally a good actor. I don't think he was convincing as Anakin, but I chalk it up to an awkward script and poor direction. The same can be said for Natalie Portman. She is one of the best actresses around right now, but I wasn't blown away by her performance as Padme. Again, awkward dialogue and poor direction.
I couldnt agree with you more, although i felt he may have lacked some in AOTC he had some pretty big shoes to fill. His scene with padme about the tuskan raiders gave me chills, as did when his mother died in his arms. but then again maybe hayden's strength as the character was his darker side. some of the love scenes were a little corny but then again love IS corny, HA
@Valairy Scot Ewan's scene with Anakin after he defeated him on Mustafar was deep, you could feel every word he said
I agree about Hayden's strength (or portrayal) was the darker side but there was supposed to be more than "dark" in Anakin and I'm not talking the love scenes. There was not the counterbalance to the dark - whether that's the fault of the script, the directing, or the acting or all three I don't know. For every scene Hayden nailed, there were others that just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't like the character Anakin, and maybe some of that dislike got transferred to Hayden's acting...
It's my least favorite Aronofsky. Still very watchable, but not what I was expecting based on the buzz.
I liked his performance in AotC, and the only scene with him that I really didn't like was the balcony one with Natalie.
I don't understand such statements. Either an actor manages to bring a character to life or he doesn't. It's an actor's job to make the material work, because the material represents the character. If you like the material on its own or not, is a completely different thing. Given that, I think Hayden portrayed George Lucas' Anakin pretty well. Perhaps he didn't represent what some people expected Anakin to be, but that wasn't his job. He did what he was supposed to do, imo.
Hayden was perfect for one reason- long haired Hayden with black robes in episode 3 looked exactly like a young darth vader, i would have imagined him to look.
Hayden is the entire reason i find star wars interesting. He is princes leia's father, luke skywalker's father, and he is darth vader before getting all cyborg and more machine than man. The fact that he never met his children in his normla healthy appearence, , makes SW even more intersting
Mileage will Vary, but I thought Hayden did a good job with the material he was given. AOTC and ROTS had some really emotionally driven scenes that Hayden just nailed, my three favorite ones are when he told Padme that he murdered the Tusken Raider clan; talking to his mother's grave and when he was standing in the jedi temple before he went off to the Mace vs Sidious fight. That said...bad writing and dialogue muddles it most of the time. They should've had him as Anakin in the first movie, nothing against Jake Lloyd who also did pretty well with the material he was given and the fact that he was a kid, it's just that a character is better off when they manage to start with and keep the same actor.
I agree with your ideas, but there are a few problems. Seeing hayden christensen as young adult anakin, like late teens or early twenties, doing all the things that boring useless jake lloyd 7 yr old anakin did would be awesome! Seeing hayden christensen with Qui Gon Jinn, meeting amidala for the first time, and, most of all-the battle with the droid space station at the end, where he destroys it, mirroring Luke destroying the death star in a new hope, would be awesome and a far better parrallel. Lucas was trying to make anakin have parallels with luke with the whole droid control ship thing, but it just didn't work with a child anakin. It would work with young adult anakin, like luke was though. He had the right idea, just didn't do it the right way. There is a problem with your idea. Suppose anakin starts of as being played by Hayden right there in TPM. He's about an 18-19 yr old anakin, the same age he was in AOTC. He turns evil and becomes the sith lord darth vader a few years later. Sounds far too quick for him to go from being hero to villian. Far too quick. Anakin needs his good years. It makes more sense for him to have 14 yrs as a good guy and turn to the darkside then, like Lucas did in the prequels. I hate kid anakin just like a lot of prequel bashers, but it worked better than the alternative.
