do you think lucas kind of proved that we were wrong?

So you would prefer her to speak like a robot the way Portman does in TPM? That doesn't seem like an improvement.

 

Portman talks like that in some scenes becouse she is PRETENDING to be the queen but when she is in padme form she is much more down to earth sounding.Leia sounds like she is trying to do a bad British impression but we are so useto her talking like that for years that we dont mind and that "becomes" star wars and her acting any way else would sound "out of character" just like how people will or have gotten useto Portmans queen like posture and speech in TPM.

 

I know why she does it. My point is that this seems like an even worse idea for Leia than the way Carrie Fisher played the scene in question.

 

Notwithstanding a few monotone line deliveries ("Jar Jar Binks....I need your help."), I feel Portman was more successful in managing the Queen/Padme personas than Fisher was with her diplomat/freedom fighter. With Portman, I sensed genuine world-weariness, wisdom, and bridled melancholia; with Fisher, I only saw the empty posturing and abrasive sass of a girl playing dress-up.

On edit: I'd also venture to say that the TPM passage wherein Amidala broods before the Coruscant window is more suggestive, more beautiful, and thus, is worth more than all of Leia's ANH/ROTJ scenes put together.

 

You're talking about the scene where Padme shares the brief conversation with Jar Jar about the Naboo people dying, right? Wonderful little sequence. As with the rumination scene from RotS, Portman is the image of resplendency and quiet horror all at once ? not unlike the city she looks upon in both instances. As a bonus, the TPM scene offers some effectively terse Padme dialogue as well as Jar Jar in the midst of his most subdued and "human" state when he quietly brings up the point about the martial prowess of the Gungans.

As for Portman's TPM line readings, I admit to thinking that nothing there is as bad as Fisher's accented "foul stench" utterance from ANH.

 

As regards Portmans acting I thought she did well in TPM. She wasn't half as good in AOTC & ROTS. Its a shame because she's been great in other movies. I don't understand why she sucked so much in the PT maybe it was all the CGI. Same could be said for Ewan.

 

I did find Portman's work in TPM a little stilted, but I thought it worked for a new queen trying to hide her identity and protect her people all at once... She was obviously a good speaker in some intense situations!

 

Sadly, the ladies don't leave the best impressions in Star Wars. A very male-oriented myth, this, which demands that Padme and Leia depart their respective trilogies as temptation lures, and little else. Neither fares better than the other.

My Portman appraisal: TPM = Good, AOTC = Lousy, ROTS = Fair
My Fisher appraisal: ANH = Fair, TESB = Good, ROTJ = Lousy

 

Lucas proved me right by making some great prequel movies.

I knew Lucas could make me want to go to the theaters again.

 

Yes. I really loved the close-up of her uttering "I hope not." The voice is Amidala's, but the eyes are clearly Padme's--threatening to tear her veil to tatters by way of tears. We'd seen this visage in the Senate, as the Devil whispered into her ear.

I was blown away, watching TPM for the first time, as I hadn't expected such understated beauty in a SW film. But TPM has choice offerings.

 

^^^^ YES! Its things like that that give her so much character,thats why i lover her so much even in AOTC and when she dies in ROTS it adds so much more drama to the whole PT. Everyone always gos after the love scenes between her and anakin in AOTC but its things like that that make the love story a considerably important part of the PT and if you dont buy it than thats like 40% of the drama and experience of the PT becouse some people cant bring themselves to buy it over something as stupid as the way the actors deliver there lines. If people would stop obsessing over the acting so much and got into the story than the PT would be a lot better of an experience. But everyone wants to think they know better about movies and be a film critic when they watch star wars. Its a crying shame.

 

With all due respect, the way the actors deliver their lines might not be considered that stupid by a great many filmgoers. If acting is a triviality to you, then fine, but for many it's kind of critical to the enjoyment of a film.

 

I know it might sound like im making acting into a triviality but its just becouse i have heard people say outrageous things about the PT over something that i never even noticed before. To this day (i swear) no matter how hard i try i cant see anything wrong with the actors performances, to me its just anakin and padme standing there talking to each other.

 

I envy you. Honestly, I've balked at so many line readings from the five Lucas/Marquand productions that I wish they'd either been silent films or made as barren as a Sergio Leone Western.

 

I also think the acting was adequate to well rendered across the board, with areas of masterful acting here and there.

 

I don't see anything wrong with the ANH line readings.

 

They suit the style of the film IMO, that is, they are sincere and well done but not too serious or heavy handed. I can see why they might seem a bit "off" in the context of a I-VI "Saga", because this version of the story is indeed quite serious and heavy handed and so it may make it seem as though there is a more complicated dimension that is lacking--though I have to say, I never really saw much of that dimension in the prequels acting anyway.

 

witch is why fans should not let the acting bother them so much, mind over matter-if you don't mind it doesn't matter.

 

For me the bottom line is whether or not you as the viewer believe what is being said on screen. It's really as simple as that. When Leia tells Han that she loves him in TESB it resonated with me. I could feel that she really did love him. When Padme tells Anakin that she loves him it comes off as contrived. This is partly due to the acting and partly due to the absurd (in my opinion) motivation of the character. I simply cannot (could not whatever) believe that character of Padme would fall in love with the character of Anakin. At least not after what "romance" we had seen on-screen.

In TESB all of the scenes involving Han and Leia are written with romantic tension between them, finally culminating in that moment where she admits she loves him. It is believable that those two characters would fall in love. Especially after what they had been through together.

In AOTC, the relationship between Anakin and Padme is much more one-sided. Anakin comes off as a desperate, obsessive psycho lusting after Padme. His only moment of true vulnerability, when Padme might get to know who he really is, when his mother dies, is tempered by the horrific fact that he slaughtered an entire village of people in revenge. How Padme can overlook this fact and still fall in love with him is patently ridiculous. Unless of course we are establishing Padme as an Eva Braun, Bride of Frankenstein type character, which I don't think was the intent. Even if she sees them as animals (which given her position in life she most definitely WOULDN'T), it still should have given her pause enough to question Anakin's character. I'm sorry but I simply can't get past this part. Even if the rest of the "romance" had been pulled off flawlessly, the slaughter would still be enough to make me question how a character like Padme could fall in love with a character like Anakin. It just doesn't ring true.

 

You should read the AOTC novelization, it explains a lot of that. One of the many reasons why she fell in love with him is becouse there is a subplot in the movie (a lot of witch was deleted from the final cut) that explains that she has been reflecting on the fact that she dedicated her whole life to helping others and never even had much of a childhood let alone any kind of a privet life (she only had one boyfriend back before she was elected queen) and at the end of the movie where she admits to anakin that she loves him is when she finally makes her choice and does something for herself rather than give everything up for outher people like she is useto doing. Thats why here character is so tragic becouse she lived a short and very noble life yet still suffered a terrible fate.

the reason why anakin seems so weird is becouse what everyone always seems to forget is that he is a JEDI! This kind of thing is exactly the opposite of everything he has known and been taught for 10 years! But what hayden christensen tried to show (and what everyone misunderstands and takes for bad acting) is that he is going from the heart on very basic instincts and what people think is bad writing and corny lines really is him discovering his true feelings for her and what it is to love another person. Its as if a monk fell in love with some hot senator from another country. If anything its very realistic.

As for the sand people massacre it only shows how forgiving and sweet of a person she is and when you think about it they were just a bunch of viscus monsters. who's side would you take? the terrible monsters who kidnapped, starved her to death(and god knows what else) and killed all the 30 farmers who tried to help her or the sweet confused jedi whose only wish was to keep his only family from harm. I think she sed it best when she toled him "to be angry is to be human".

 

Ummm, actually I shouldn't have to read the AOTC novel. It should be in the AOTC movie. If it's not in the movie, it's not there sorry. No amount of EU can rectify a poorly written/directed movie. Sorry.

 

I agree with that 100%.

 

I agree, you shouldn't have to read a novel. Then again, I've seen a lot of 20 something people fall in love over the past few years...the movie was true to real life in this regard. My head would explode if I tried to figure out the attraction between some of the people I know, so I guess I never felt I had to understand why two crazy people fell in love, especially during a time of war and death.

 

well if it makes you all feel better almost all of the stuff i talked about was either self explanatory,in the movie or in the deleted scenes on the dvd that you can watch anytime. Also a lot is sed to clarify the sub-plot with padme on the commentary and as for the deleted scenes i admit it would be better for the story if they were put into the movie but you have to remember that people sed AOTC was too long when it came out so then if Lucas put them back into the movie people would STILL be mad! See how Lucas just cant win with you people?

i will explain

If he adds anything more to the love story people will get mad at him for making the movie focus too much on it, if he leaves it as is than people will still be mad, if he were to make the love story more like the one between han and leia than MAYBE people would be happy but it would #1 just be a re-do of the same thing we saw in TESB and #2 would not even make scents! becouse they are TOTALLY DIFFERENT people compared to how han and leia were and the situation they were in. Anakin is a jedi as i sed before his lines NEED to be the way they are in the movie becouse this is all new to him and he is very very conflicted as is padme. Padme is a senator and it would ruin her if she were to marry a jedi who is forbidden to love let alone have a wife.

So as i was saying Lucas did the love story the only way it could be done without it not making scents or making people angry -and people STILL got mad at him for it! saying that he cant wright and the story is unbelievable and what not. As for me i have absolutely no problem with the love story and it IS the backbone of the PT becouse if you dont buy the love story than thats like 70% of the drama taken out of it. If you dont care that much for anakin & padme's relationship than the only other person to focus on is obi-wan -AND HE IS A JEDI TOO** forbidden to show things like emotion and if he did it would be out of character for him(as well as all the other jedi in the PT). So than some people would think of him as not showing good enough acting ability, so there ya go! Starting to see what i mean?

Thats a big reason why people dont like the PT becouse they think it should follow the formula of conventional movies but it cant becouse they are not normal characters with normal situations, they are jedi. The only character that isn't a jedi is padme who in the first movie is hiding who she really is and what any of her true intentions are and a few others that we dont see much of, yet who are considered to be among the best actors in the PT? palpatine and dukoo THE SITH! Because it IS in-character for these people to be like that! not the jedi witch happen to be the main characters.So thats why you have to take it for what it is -a back story and just enjoy it. Every one says it should be like the OT but IT CANT becouse it would be out of character for it to be. People who say they hate the PT REALLY have to re-evaluate what they "think" it should be.

 

I think it shows how ****** up in the head Padme is that she's ok with Anakin killing women and children.

It's not about taking sides even if they are vicious. None of the children in the camp did those things to his Mother so why did he kill em?

As far as "to be angry is to be human" goes what does anger lead to? Hate and what does hate lead to? Well you know the rest. Well done Padme for encouraging a jedi to feel anger and then telling them it's ok.

The fact is what Anakin did was wrong, two wrongs dont make a right, and the fact that Padme didn't seem bothered by what Anakin did makes ROTS more foolish.

When Obi - Wan tells her he killed younglings she's like No not my Anakin. It should have been No not my Anakin..... unless they were sand people younglings then I'm ok with that.