Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, eh, your opinion, man. I see the character, in AOTC especially, as a kind of a James Dean, "Rebel Without a Cause"-type character--or, more precisely, a more classic "Byronic hero": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byronic_hero http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ByronicHero And I, for one, don't see anything wrong with the execution of that type of character.
Many people blamed his Anakin mostly because they thought he portrayed Anakin as a "whiny teenager", which is completely different than they had in mind. But the overall characterization of PT Anakin is not Hayden, but Lucas' idea(My opinion is the overall idea is good, but actual plot and dialogue certainly could be better). Hayden is just an actor, he played what Lucas told him to play, I will say his performance could be better in EP II but amazing in EP III base on the character he was given. Blame the actor for the characterization is not fair.
I think Hayden did a fairly good job considering what was asked from him. Sure, there was some overacting but aside from that I liked his performance. It was definitely a hell of a lot better than Natalie stoneface Portmans was.
He was somewhat grating in AOTC, but he was much improved in ROTS. As I've said before, however, his turn scene in itself (the scene where he is crowned as Vader by Palpatine) is fairly weak.
I think he was kinda of screwed over by the structure of the movies. The Phantom Menace didn't really do a whole lot to establish Anakin's character and integrate him into the story (for obvious reasons). By the time AOTC comes around he has little in common from his six year old self except for basic facts and background, so Christensen has to deal with a script that crams the first and seconds acts of his character arc into one movie. He did a pretty good job at portraying an awkward, emotionally crippled teenager with rage issues I guess.
He was mediocre in AOTC, but really was on his game in ROTS IMO. People give him a ton of crap, but Portman performance was by far the worse in the PT IMO.
It was bit of both to be honest. Hayden himself was not the greatest and certainly his line delivery and his expressions in some scenes was awful. The balcony scene in Sith, he just looks stoned, while his delivery on Mustafar was giggle worthy, that it felt like Anakin was just angry with Obi-wan because Obi-wan was such a meanie head. OTOH he had some handicaps from the beginning that were not his fault and not just bad lines, even worse direction and just working on a blue/green screen se, which are the general issues. Besides which both Sam Jackson and Natalie Portman both suffered from it too, so it was not just Hayden. Not being in episode 1, which really hurt him and the character. Spending most of his time working with Portman, which as they had no chemistry and she was awful and wooden as well didn't help Not spending much time with Ewan, again unfortunate as they "did" have good chemistry. How the character acted in the 2 films he was in. No matter how good actor you are, if your character is both stupid and a psycho who kills children, it's impossible for the audience to relate too that person, which when your character is meant to be a tragic hero, is very unfortunate.
I thought his confession of the sand people slaughter was quite disturbing and well done. In my opinion it is hayden's best scene.
I think he did a good job and think it's unfair that people are so rude torwards him, but then again I grew up with the prequels! So I really like them and is used to having to defend a lot of different aspects...
I have no idea of how talented Hayden is as an actor because he doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot of parts lately, and I haven't seen his earlier work.
Again with Portman, like Hayden it was a bit of both. The scene when Anakin is confessing he killed the Sand People. She just stands there with a wooden expression, no attempt whatsoever, but she also had an awful line "to be angry is to be human" which didn't seem appropriate after her boyfriend just confessed he killed women and children. Another example is that awful balcony scene in Sith urghh
Considering the circumstances he did a good job. Personally I liked his performance as Anakin. When great actors like Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor can look bad at times, then maybe it's not always the actors fault. I think some of the dialogue was tricky. Haydens best moments IMO: AOTC - Garage scene, Shmi's death scene, Fireplace scene (yes, i'm serious) ROTS - Anakin/Padme reunion, Anakin in Palpatines office, "I hate you"
I don't think he's very good. I've seen him in a few things and he never impressed me. That doesn't mean Anakin is all on him. He didn't write the part, and quite frankly Lucas didn't get performances out of some good people either, so there's that too. I think at the end of the day, you have to put a lot of the failings of the prequels on Lucas's doorstep.
He's been in things since Star Wars, and he really hasn't done much to change the perception of his abilities.
Read my post, like I said it's a bit of both, she had terrible stuff to work with but she wasn't great either.
I don't think studio execs give a damn what Prequel haters say, considering as to how they contributed to the billions from boxoffice, toys and dvds, blu rays etc. More about his ability to carry a film outside of star wars. I saw Jumper, and it was just terrible. I didn't think it was terrible because of Hayden, but because the plot was just utter trash. But it seems the fair amount of films he has been in post ROTS, have made their money back. Perhaps he just has a terrible agent?
