Hayden Christensen or Jake Lloyd? Vote.

The Phanton Menace introduced us to Anakin Skywalker. We were all very curious to know what Vader was like as a child or what caused him to turn to the Dark Side.
And this was a very difficult act, believe it or not. Some people may disagree and others agree, but when it's all said and done, I think that Jake Lloyd could not have played the part better. He was awesome. That kid could act. Though that was te last movie I've seen him in...

Anyways, on to Hayden. Now, I'm very hesitant to acknowledge him as portraying Vader. Or maybe it is how Lucas played it out. Here's my problem (please cope with me): In TPM, Anakin is such an intellegent boy and does not appear to be arrogant or stubborn, just passionate. How is it that this intellegence is replaced by arrogance and stubborness later on? It just doesn't coincide. Maybe it was his hormones. I don't know. But it doesn't click. This matter is separate from his passion, the passion he feels towards Padme and towards his mom. Do I have a point here or am I just confused? If you agree with the latter please help me sort this matter out.

Finally, who do you think has done a better acting job, Hayden or Jake? My vote goes to Jake.


Good thread idea, but the fact that this deals solely with the prequels makes it a prime canidate for the PT forum.

 

I enjoy both Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader equally and I'm happy for both and for us STAR WARS fans that they got the part.

 

I think Jake Lloyd is one of the reasons alot people weren't into TPM. His acting was terrible, and he didnt fit the role. Even Lucas was having trouble working with him while they were making the film.And its kind of funny that you havent seen jake in a film since TMP. So I would have to say Hayden....even though he's not that great either!

 

Hayden.

 

who on god's green earth will actually vote for Lloyd? Hayden OWNS Anakin Skywalker.

(even though I did watch TPM today and im starting to notice little things that Jake does that are very...anakin...but thats mostly because Hayden did such a good job subtly mimicing Jake..so...it's really just Hayden in the end after all.)

 

I appreciate them both. From a standpoint, Jake Lloydd looked so much like Luke Skywalker when he played Anakin.

Hayden played the older Anakin very well. I'm looking forward to Christensen's performance in the final episode...

 

My vote goes to Hayden.

 

Ive always liked llyod evan though what most other people say So im gonna say llyod. Hmm yes ive never seen him in a movie since to, not really surprising since almost no critics liked him and directors wouldnt wanna cast him for that reason. I also fell sad for him, ive seen images and stuff when tpm was released and he seemed totally happy and enthuiastic about the hole thing he really was having a great time. Now he just looks totally pissed and wishing he never played anakin skywalker. I saw images of him recently at a fan convention never once in any of the images he was smiling and he was listening to hes ipod while signing autographs! i quess hes just totally sick of all the bad comments and he was only 9/10 at the time so it would have been a lot harder on him cause hes only a lil kid.

 

Hayden.....

 

Hayden Christensen.

 

Definitely Hayden...I can't wait to see his performance in ROTS.

 

None

 

Hayden for sure. is acting looks really good in Episode three from what I have seen so far

 

Hayden...

 

Hayden by a longshot.

 

Hayden Christensen by a million miles.

 

Hayden. No contest.

I can live with Jar jar, but putting Loyd in TPM was the biggest mistake in prequels IMO.

And it's not only a matter of his acting. It's more about reliability and continuity.
1. If Jake is too old in TPM it makes Luke's training in ESB a bit lame (i know the explanations, but still...).
2. In OT I liked that we had three main characters the same in all episodes. It was easier to get used to the actors and become familiar with the characters. In PT I still have some problems with the gap between Ep.1 vs. 2,3, just because of JL.

 

If Lloyd didn't like going to conventions, he wouldn't do it. He's given up acting by now, so he doesn't really have anything to win by going there, except appreciation from those who really liked his performance in Star Wars.

My vote goes to Jake Lloyd, simply because almost everybody is voting for Christensen. IMO, they're equally good as Anakin Skywalker(which means that I love them both).



Anakin Skywalker - a well portrayed character
/LM

 

Hayden

 

What WLDB said.

 

Quoting myself: He's given up acting by now, so he doesn't really have anything to win by going there

And what do conventions have to do with acting? Am I a complete idiot or did my mother just drop me head first on the floor when I was little?

Please disregard that comment in my previous post



Oops
/LM

 

Hayden

 

The character of Anakin Skywalker has been poorly written and loosely handled. This cannot fall on the actors who are not being directed, given clunky dialog, and not given retakes until the scene fits. That is all Georges doing, not the actors. If an actor cant act, he/she still has moments in the film where you forget that. It is up to the director to film multiple takes, keep the good takes, and utilize the actors better attributes. Because Lucas did not do this, both actors weaknesses in acting are polorized.

I cant lie, I find it hard to watch Fake Void as Manakin DryTalker. But his character is consistant through TPM. Regardless of his acting, his character is defined in the movie. He sucks from start to finish. The thing is, Lucas took the key character and made him a child for reasons outside of the integrity of the story, then played him off as a side character. In the first episode of the saga no less. Lloyds presense is wrong on many levels before acting even comes into the picture.

Hayden, I like. He can make you cringe but he has given a solid personality to Anakin. Hayden is also taking it upon himself to do something with the character in the absence of being directed. Iv said this many times and even made a thread on it, Haydens "Vader voice" is mistaken for bad acting. Hayden has made a concious effort to apply Vader's/Jones drawl to his speach. Listen to him when he walks into the club with Obiwan. Hes doing that on purpose. Other times he is simply like his whiney Son. Weather its intentional or not, it fits. All of the other things about the character are simply shortcommings of the writing director.

But if I had to pic, Hayden wins hands down. The only place he doesnt belong is in ROTJ.

 

^Neo Baggins you beat me to it. My view is, and always has been, that most people were dissapointed with Hayden as Anakin not because he gave a bad performance, but because of what Lucas decided to do with the character. It's just easier to blame the actor than it is to blame the creator of SW.
I had a conversation concerning Hayden with a friend at work one time. The conversation was something very close to this:

?Me: I thought he was a great Anakin!

Friend: No man! He was too whinny! They should have gotten the kid who played Pyro in X-2! You need a badass, remember the part when he's throwing fire at those police cars and you see his face! That should have been Anakin!?

First I disagree with his choice, but more importantly it's a perfect example of what's wrong with people when they critique Hayden. They're critiquing how the character is written, not how he is performed.
I loved how Anakin was portrayed, I thought the dialogue between him and Padme could have been written much better, but overall I thought Anakin?s development was light-years beyond what was done with him in TMP.
As far as I?m concerned they could not have found a better actor to portray Lucas?s vision of Anakin Skywalker.

 

I definately think Christensen. Lloyd was just too "unconvincing," i guess you could put it. It's just with every single line he said I could tell he was trying to act but he didn't really know what he was doing. And don't tell me that people his age can never act because Macauley Culkin, Rory Culkin, and Haley Joel Osment all gave great performances when they were around Jake Lloyd's age.