Hayden Christensen - the perfect Anakin Skywalker?

I know a lot of you do not like Hayden Christensen in AOTC saying his acting is crap and so on, but I have come to the conclusion he is the perfect Anakin Skywalker. I don't think his acting is bad I think that is the way Lucas wanted it, he is just uncomfortable been around Padme because he knows he is in love with her but at the same time he knows he can't be with her. And I have never noticed how much he looks like Luke, it came to me when my ANH DVD and my AOTC DVD where both next to each other on bed and they look so much alike, they even have the same chin. Also Hayden has that evil look about him, especially when he smiles, just look when Padme tells him not to look at her like that and he smiles and says "Sorry my lady" also in the ROTJ ghost scene he gives that evil smile which makes him believable as the future Darth Vader. Even though Mark Hamill looks similar he doesn't have the "evil smile" which makes him more believable as the pure good Skywalker. Thats just my thouught anyway so please don't bash me for thinking Hayden done a good job as Anakin.

 

Hayden rules

And then look Luke gives Jabba when he says "that's the last mistake you'll ever make" has a certain Anakin-like quality

 

Hayden's acting is a result of directing. George Lucas intended Anakin to be a certain way, and HC obliged.

 

Agreed. Hayden is great.

 

I cringe when I think of Leo Dicaprio or Ryan Phillipe as Anakin. Especially Phillipe with that annoying accent.

 

Ugh, Leo... despite being among the 10 people in this universe who liked his performance on Titanic, he would be HORRIBLE for Anakin.

Whether it was GL's doing or Hayden himself, Anakin was perfectly portrayed in AOTC... and yes, the prequels so far.

TPM = Childhood innocence
AOTC = Teen angst
ROTS = Adult tragedy

 

Hayden could only do so much with the direction and script given to him.

 

I also think Hayden is very good as Anakin Skywalker. I read in many interviews how Hayden based is performance on the performance of Sebastian Shaw in ROTJ, and how mimiced the monotone voice of Vader. I love his dedication, and the effort he put in to it, and I think it shows.
I must admit though, that Anakin is IMO not the most likable character in the movie, but that's just the way he is, it's not the acting.
What's very refreshing is how proud Hayden is to be part of the Star Wars saga. He's not like Liam Neeson or Terence Stamp who trashed TPM afterwards, or like Natalie Portman, who seems to hate it everytime anybody asks her about Star Wars.

I really have great expectations for ROTS. Hayden's going to own that movie!!

 

I thought Hayden played Anakin perfectly. The character had to have a delicate combination of anger, sadness, vulnerability, and cockiness that Hayden conveyed in nearly every scene. Combine to that the extraordinary pressure of portraying an international cultural icon, and I think you can say that his performance has been the most remarkable of the prequels.

In my opinion, of course.

 

Hayden Christensen - the perfect Anakin Skywalker?

Given Hayden's screentime as the character in his core era to the saga (clone wars) along with replacing the Original actor on the DVD... It kinda makes him, the ONLY, Anakin. Doesnt it?

So yeah, hes the "perfect" Anakin. Like Bruce Wayne is the perfect BatMan.

 

Definitely, in a way that i cannot imagine ANY other actor as Anakin Skywalker.

Plus i geniunely feel Hayden just aced every scene he's in.

 

I don't know if I would say that Hayden's the perfect Anakin, because it's hard to really figure this out, since you can't see any other actor play the character and the role(playing the younger version of a character who is one of the most iconic and famous in the history of film), is one where the expectations of the audience would probably be set way too high. But I will say this: Hayden does work for me, and he's probably the perfect actor for GL's vision of the character, which is what matters in the end.
Yeah, I think Hayden did do a darn good job in his portrayal and it does bug me when people bash his "wooden"(repeat it with me: waaayyyyy tooooo ovvverrruuuusssseeeeddd wooooorddddd) acting. I agree with the other posters that people's complaints about him probably have to do more with GL's directing, writing, and vision of the character, which is different from a lot of the fans' visions. A lot of people wanted this really cool, dark guy, but instead they got a whiney teenager. Well, guess what people, that's what evil is really like! Even when Anakin is Vader and walks around in cool black armor and talks in a powerful, deep voice, he's still, in the end, just a big cry-baby. Killing a subordinate just because they make a mistake is not really cool(yeah, it's fun to watch and we think Vader's cool because of it, but in the end it's just wrong and dumb and, yes, a whiney, cry-baby kind of reaction).
And, as that one poster said, Anakin simply isn't the most likable character ever, and he's not supposed to be. There are bits of goodness in him, but really he's a nutcase, which makes it harder for the audience to connect with him and sympathize with him(so maybe GL should have tried to make him a bit less whiney, I don't know). He's constantly torn between following the code of the Jedi and just giving in to his out-of-control emotions. I think that's where the unemotionalness comes in in the line-readings. It's not that Hayden's bad actor. It's because (a) Anakin is supposed to be in extreme control of his emotions as a Jedi so he tries to fulfill that buy burying his emotion and not always letting it show in his voice, though of course he slips a lot of the time(b)as other's have pointed out, Hayden was probably trying to do a voice pattern close James Earl Jone's Vader voice.
Anyways, one thing I'll agree that Hayden's PERFECT at is in his hateful, evil moments. His eyes BURN after his mother die. The one casting lady is right: Hayden can show you all his emotion through his eyes and it's amazing just how much intense hatred he can show through them(so I'm pretty darn sure Hayden's going to rock the screen in ROTS, when his evil really emerges). And Hayden was awesome in the confession scene, and I do think he did some of the best SW acting ever in that scene.
Anyhow, here's to Hayden!
Well, I hope the other posters here can make some sense out of this rambling rant I just created. Not sure that I communicated all my feelings and opinions effectively.

 

Aha!! And in one of the review of the Episode III-trailer, the reviewer commented how the "Yes, Master" spoken by JEJ had an interesting Hayden-like inflection. Now, the problem with this comment is that it's not JEJ who did a Hayden-like inflection, but it's Hayden who did a JEJ-Vader-like inflection in his performance as Anakin, and and it appears people(well, at least the reviewer) are finally recognizing the similarity. Hayden's plan is working!!!!! Just thought I'd bring up the fact. BTW, is mentioning stuff in the ROTS trailer considered a spoiler here?

 

Actually, yes, and I don't think Hayden's a bad actor either. He was great in Life as a House, and he portrays a conflicted, maturing-but-still-immature Anakin particularly well. Though, I have to say part of the credit should go to George Lucas. He is brilliant at type-casting actors for the roles he creates for his movies.

 

Jedimancer - I agree! I thought at first it was JEJ in the trailer, but I've seen in an interview that he hasn't recorded any dialogue for RotS yet. He might not do it at all - I've listened to the trailer quite a few times now, and I'm beginning to think that it's Hayden doing the lines, and they've manipulated his voice to make it deeper and more JEJ-like. I think this is how it'll be in the movie itself, so it's not that difficult to imagine Hayden under the helmet. It sounds like a ridiculous theory, but it makes sense that Vader would keep his accent at the end of RotS - but he spends the next 20 years surrounded by Palpatine and Imperial officers like Tarkin, Ozzel, Piett, etc., all of whom have British accents. My mum's cousin lived in England for 35 years of her life and had a perfect English accent - but then she moved to Scotland, and within 5 or 6 years had a Scottish accent. It's very common for accents to be picked up the more time you spend in that environment, and Hayden's accent in AotC already has a few British-isms on it - doubtless from spending 10 years with Obi-Wan.

 

Or he could be purposely imitating it. I always thought Anakin would be the type to want to appear as far from a slave as possible - and if that means picking up an accent that sounds as refined as Obi Wan's is, so be it. There are alot of lines in the movie that sound like a blend between Anakin's own native language (Huttese?) and Obi Wan's...which I always assumed was upper Coruscanti.

 

After seeing Hayden in Life as a House, it's easy to see what a good actor he is. AotC really didn't show it off as much. I've always blamed the bad dialogue for that, because really, who could make some of those lines actually sound good?

R. A. Salvatore somehow managed in his novelization (oddly enough, better than the movie IMO), but they still are just so...bad.




The Cleric 007

 

There's very little to nothing wrong with the dialogue

ESPECIALLY for a Star Wars film

 

Depends who you ask, and which part of the movie you're at.

I find the Padme/Anakin dialogue to be some of the worst ever written.




The Cleric 007

 

And i don't...

...the only line that could've been better is "I wish i could just wish away my feelings", except for the second 'wish' i wouldn't change one word in any of their dialogue.

 

I think there's no such thing as perfect, and of course we'll never know what someone else could've done with the role...

But I think Christensen's portrayal of the troubled young Anakin Skywalker was first-rate. His acting in the 'Confession' scene was one of the highlights of the Saga. By the looks of things he'll raise the bar even further in ROTS.

 

Actually, I'm guessing the Vader line in the trailer probably comes from a recording from the Old Trilogy(like how they used an old TPM recording of Neeson and stuck it in AOTC).

 

There is no such thing as perfect dialogue. 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.)

But, I agree. Some of this could be improved. But then, some of this is sometimes mistaken for serious dialogue meant to be taken as bad. ("I wish I could wish my feelings" away line is actually a better one, IMO. It's realistic dialogue, with a guy trying to awkwardly spill his heart while stumbling and repeating himself.) It's all about the viewer's perception. And at least Lucas admits he didn't go into the romantic plot knowing exactly what he was doing.


R. A. Salvatore somehow managed in his novelization (oddly enough, better than the movie IMO), but they still are just so...bad.

That doesn't surprise me. Comparing my OT novelizations to the PT ones, the new ones are quite well written. I loved TPM, but I like the book even more.

 

("I wish I could wish my feelings" away line is actually a better one, IMO. It's realistic dialogue, with a guy trying to awkwardly spill his heart while stumbling and repeating himself.)

To each his own i guess, i think the way he keeps blinking his eyes and avoiding her rejections works so much better than literally messing up his lines.

You are right that Anakin lacks the subtlety and it is pretty blatant and honest to have this messed up line, but i - personally - would rather have it changed.