Hayden Christensen - the perfect Anakin Skywalker?

Oh, I can see why. I wince when I hear it, too. Just because I think it sounds realistic doesn't mean it's "good," just purposely badly written. Poor, poor Padme. Now she has to deal with his bad dialogue for the rest of their marriage. (The whole three years of it and all.)

Oh, and something I just noticed in the original post - I agree that Hayden is very good at giving a positively wicked smile. As soon as I saw that, I knew what Lucas meant by saying Anakin is more clever than the people around him give him credit. IMO, that's what started Padme's downfall in planning to reject him - by admitting he was making her uncomfortable, he knew then he had an affect. And then he capitalized on it. The boy is ignorant, but not stupid. He can certainly manipulate things to his advantage when he wants to. Not as maliciously as Palpatine, mind you, but he still has the ability. We see it again in the picnic scene - when he realizes he pushed her too far with the political speech and turns it into a joke.

Those are the kind of scenes that I think Hayden shines in as Anakin. Portraying that kindly young man at face value, yet hinting at a lingering darkness and underneath.

 

I have Comcast digital cable, and if you click on the show that is coming on it describes that program. I clicked on AOTC and it says something like Anakin Skywalker begins his jedi training with Obi Wan Kenobi. Dazzling visual effects make up for stiff dialogue and wooden acting.

It was something like that. The most funny part is that none of what they said is true, except the "dazzling special effects" part.

 

The Perfect Anakin?

After Episode III, it will be obvious to all
Hayden was the perfect choice.

 

Good points on the "evil smile" thing, whoever posted that. Hayden does do a great job on those parts.

 

I think it's obvious that he is the perfect Anakin after watching the trailer. The best scene of the trailer to me is the first shot we see of Anakin (when Alec Guiness finishes his lines).

My other favorite shot in the trailer is of him trying to push Obi-Wan's light saber into his face. I think he has the perfect facial expression for that scene. He looks agry, but he has more of a look of pure cold emotionless hatred, seen by the fact that he is in the process of killing Obi-Wan (his best friend) and has no problems in doing so.

His facial expressions alone are amazing. I'm sure the rest of his performance will be too in Episode III.

Oh ya, he was good in "Shattered Glass" too.

 

Are you absolutely sure it was Hayden´s voice in the ROTS-teaser?

 

Good points on the "evil smile" thing, whoever posted that

Yeah that was me, and it was a good point wasn't it.

 

Are you absolutely sure it was Hayden´s voice in the ROTS-teaser?

I don't think anyone knows for sure but what we do know for sure is that it wasn't JEJ.

 

However, there is such a thing as purposely bad dialogue mixed with dialogue that really is just plain bad, which is what I think happened with AOTC. Alot of Anakin's attempts at poeticism are supposed to be awful. The man has no grasp of subtlety, and he's also young and melodramatic trying to be a eloquent, wooing gentlemen...and failing miserably. (And if you'll all recall, Luke was the exact same way.)

Hmmm...that could actually work...but Padme's dialogue is also equally awkward and melodramatic and she's always struke me as being far more experienced in the world than Anakin is...though perhaps not so experienced when it comes to love.

Anyway, if Lucas wanted the audience to cringe at every second line that those two say to each other, he succeeded.

The humor parts of the script are good...but the rest is just far too melodramatic for me.





The Cleric 007

 

Well, Lucas has openly said in interviews that he wanted AotC to be the most melodramatic of all the movies, and it seems like he succeeded. He always said he didn't know how an old 1930s-style corny, over-the-top romance would work with today's audience. The general reaction to it has been negative, but I think it was very brave of him to stick to his guns and to try it out. I've always liked it, personally - I can see what he's trying to do and appreciate it for that - but that's just me.

This is what he said specifically about it:

"I wanted to write a love story in a style that was extremely old-fashioned, and frankly I didn't know if I was going to pull it off. In many ways this was much more like a movie that from the 1930s than any of the others had been, with a slightly over-the-top, poetic style ? and they just don't do that in movies anymore. I was very happy with the way it turned out in the script and in the performances, but I knew people might not buy it. A lot of guys were going to see this movie, and most guys think that kind of flowery, poetic talk is stupid--'Come on, give me a break.' More sophisticated, cynical types also don't buy that stuff. So I didn't know if people would laugh at it and throw things at the screen or they would accept it. Let's face it, their dialogue in that (couch) scene is pretty corny. It is presented very honestly, it isn't tongue-in-cheek at all, and it's really played to the hilt. But it is consistent with the over all Star Wars style. Most people don't understand the style of Star Wars. They don't get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s western or Saturday matinee serial. It's in that more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film is even more of a melodrama then the others."

 

Padme's dialogue is also equally awkward and melodramatic and she's always struke me as being far more experienced in the world than Anakin is

How is Padme supposed to be a "natural" know-it-all if she's stuck being protected by a Jedi Knight not only drastically younger than her, but also with a romantic obsession with her that violates the long-established Jedi code?

 

Based on the depth and sheer magnetism of Jake Lloyd's performance in TPM, why break the chain in the next film? By that reasoning, Christensen was perfect.

 

DARTH_CORLEONE, from all your replies you seem to be pretty bitter about him. Just say what you think and lay off the sarcasm, it's annoying and it doesn't help you prove your point. I'm sorry if this seems like a flame but if you have anything constructive to say just say it.

Anywaaaays, took me a while to get the lovey dovey scenes, I wasn't as negative as a lot of my friends the first time I saw it, but they work well once you get into the heads of the characters. As it was said before, it's just not cut out for the average movie-goer. *geeky grin*

 

That's one reply about Hayden, Ana. One. How about checking your facts before making your own annoying point? And you were being serious too.

But, let's not get into a flame war here.....I thought Hayden stunk, as with most of the acting. But, I don't necessarily blame them...I think that given the script and dialogue they had to work with, and surrounded by green-screens for most of the shoot, you couldn't expect much from them. Poor Jake Lloyd seemed to take a lot of heat, but how do expect a young kid like him to understand such a convoluted 'storyline' like that of TPM? "Look over there and say this....alittle faster this time". Not alot to work with for anyone. I've worked with enough actors to know that for them to be as real as possible, your job as the filmmaker is to make things feel as real as possible, regardless as to how fantastic your setting is. Otherwise you better be able to prove that you can cut everything together into something that feels right. This didn't seem to be the case. I think Neeson was wonderful in his role, but simply because he got by on his presence alone, not because of the writing. He seemed to feel the same way.

So there...I hope the second reply was a bit more contructive.

 

and surrounded by green-screens for most of the shoot

I think the Anakin-Padme love scenes are about the only parts of the movie that are not blue screen, all the Naboo stuff was shot in Italy and the Tatooine stuff in Tunisia. Mabey that was the problem, they got to used to the blue screen they didn't feel comfortable around real things.

 

Those are good points, JON, but in those real locations, there was still probably more attention paid to compositing and such than the crap script they were trying to shoot. Actually, I didn't mind the romance scene too much, as sappy as others found it. Portman's bondage suit was a bit extreme (designed by George himself....how's single life treatin' you these days, G?), but aside from the "me...I'm a senator...", it was one of the only times where you got to see two people just talking about eachother nd trying to be personal.

Anyway, this isn't the thread to get into the entire film so let's not fly off the mark, it's just about Hayden. I honestly think he did the best he could.

 

How do we know it wasn't JEJ's voice in the trailer? I know that he hasn't recorded any dialogue yet for Episode III, but he does say "Yes, Master" in the OT. What's to stop ILM from taking an old sound bit of him saying that and sticking it in the trailer. That's what I think happened, anyways.

 

Because Vader's accent in the RotS trailer is different. The way he says "Master" gives it away - that's not JEJ-Vader's accent.

 

Yes the whole 'Mastah' gives it away. I was so happy it was Hayden because his voice really does sound like Vader with the proper changes, making him even more Anakin/Vader in my mind.

 

Quit braying so loud...someone will hear.

 

Hey, hey! What is with this forum and all the replies that turn into sniping? If DARTH feels Hayden didn't do well in the role, that's his decision and he's allowed to have it. I may disagree, but he's not any less privledged to it just because it's a dissenting opinion. But likewise, a negative opinion does not mean getting a negative tone with other people in the forum. Remember guys, it's just a movie. RELAX.

Do we have confirmation yet that Jones is doing the voice of Vader in the last moments of ROTS? I seem to recall him recording a few lines, but it might just be Hayden's voice shot through a couple times with electronic manipulations to make it sound younger.

 

Wow, hard to believe someone created such an offensive topic.

Hayden has almost RUINED my interest in the character, single handedly. The writing, even Jake Lloyd, I can forgive... but Hayden's atrocious performance just makes the character a laughing stock.

And I fail to see the point of mentioning how good he (or Portman) was in some other film I'm never going to see. All that says to me is "he CAN act, he just didn't bother in THIS film" - which, as a Star Wars fan, I can safely say guarantees I'll hate him even more.

 

By the way, does anyone honestly think it's DIFFICULT to portray anger or hatred? Not that he does it particularly well, but that's the EASIEST part of acting.

It's doing all the regular stuff and acting and sounding natural when doing it that's the real measure of an actor.

 

Wow, hard to believe someone created such an offensive topic.


After reading your posts, I bet I can do worse ...






Seriously, you can't please everyone - that's what's so interesting about acting and movies in general. I find it strange that you find people praising an actor as being "offensive", but there you go. Some people do find other people's views offensive, even in things as trivial as this. Er, I think ...

Anyway, I personally thought he gave a great performance, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in RotS.


And no, there's no confirmation at all of James Earl Jones doing Vader's voice in RotS - a few years ago he said George Lucas had told him he'd be in there at the end, but there's been no official announcement, and someone asked JEJ a few weeks ago if he'd recorded it and he said "Not yet". The "yet" suggests he's still expecting it, but then, how do you explain the voice in the trailer? I'm 99.9% certain it's nothing left over from the OT, but it's Vader's dialogue, yet JEJ hasn't recorded any. I'm guessing that they've been experimenting to see if they can make Hayden's voice sound like JEJ, and the results have been pretty good - so they've decided to go with it, starting with the trailer. I'm guessing this is how it'll be come May, and JEJ won't be on the cast list. But that's just a guess - don't hold me to that.

 

Wow, hard to believe someone created such an offensive topic.

It's amazing how offensive some of the replies are. For goodness sakes, people WILL have different opinions then you will. It is only offensive because you make it to be. The post wasn't even a firm statement - it DID have a question mark on it, which allowed people to state differences in opinion. Alot of people agreed. Some disagreed. Deal.

And I never said Hayden didn't act well in this movie. I just pointed out that he'd done other movies that I thought were well done. Life as a House was done before AOTC, I believe, so to me, he only got better. For me, Hayden brought Anakin's character to life. For you, he killed it. Different opinions, but neither is superior to the other.

On JEJ - is that so? Well, then COOL. Even if it wasn't a different voice, they still made it seem pretty darn close. :-D Though I'm still wondering if it's Hayden or another person doing it. Mark Hamill actually does a pretty good Vader voice, come to think of it.