*OFFICIAL THREAD* Acting in Revenge of the Sith

I know, I was just trying to figure out a way to explain my disbelief when someone says that Ian McDiarmid was terrible in ROTS, when he was the highlight of the film.

All that came out was: Durp.

 

Durp is far to kind. They need to wipe the **** from their eyes. Ian is a top shelf Actor. there were so many wonderful subtleties in his performance, that's something only a real fan would pick up on. maybe that's the problem , eh Yoshi?

 

ha! I don't want to start labeling people as "real" fans...

 

I giggled giddily when I saw your reply was "Durp", yoshi. A fitting retort.

 

well, hayden stinks and made the character look like a meat head.

everyone else was good, esp. ewan

 

-=He nods.=- Yep. I agree.

 

Ian-11/10!!

Ewan McGregor-10/10

Hayden-10/10

Natalie-10/10

Christopher Lee-10/10

Temuera Mossison-10/10(he portrayed Odd Ball/Cody better tham Jango even!)

Jimmy Smits-10/10

Samuel L Jackson-9/10

all in all best acting for Star Wars since the OT.

 

palpatine and obi wan

Ian and Ewan. best performances in ROTS, hands down, bar non. Ian's performance is OT worthy, ewan is close, but still not quite on Guiness's level.

neither PT nor OT either had great acting so lets not get carried away. starwars is a great story but it has never and will never be a top teir movie/movies.

 

I think Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman redeemed themselves from the previous film. In AOTC the wooden acting and bad delivery in their scenes was distracting to me. They did much better in ROTS. I thought Hayden was very good as the troubled Jedi. But still, Ewan (Obi-Wan) and Ian (Palpatine) stole the show.

 

Ewan McGregor was fantastic - her nailed all the emotional intensity and i don't think any other actor could have pulled it off so well AND at the same time become very close to the performance and mannerisms of Alec Guinness.

Ian McDiarmid - Perfectly subtle in the manipulator role as the Chancellor, evil through and through with the opera scene being possibly the best acted scene in the whole saga imo, and was really good in his cackling Emperor role.

Hayden Christiansen - Very good showing the confusion in Anakin's mind and his frustration with the Jedi. But he was even better as Vader, and he was completly believable. The exchanges between Anakin and Obi-Wan before, during and after the duel are perfect.

Natalie Portman - Very up and down. Sometimes she nailed the emotion, - the connection scene pre Mace-Sids duel, the "your going to kill him aren't you?" scene, and her final lines on Mustafar. But i wished there was more reaction from the new Empire senate scene.

Samuel L.Jackson - I didn't think much of his performance for the first parts of the movie, but when it comes to the exchange before the duel, he really delivered his lines really well and had a determination to his voice and was much better all through to his death.

But where's the love for Yoda? Alot of people see to forget that Frank Oz is putting in a great performance in both AOTC and ROTS. I thought Frank Oz really got some of the lines dead on "killed not by clones, this padawan, by a lightsaber he was." That line was really powerful to me and all through the movie his acting portrayed wisdom, determination and emotion.

Temura Morrison also deserves mention for the spot on delivery of the clones, making them sound very cold and disciplined.

Anthony Daniels IS C3-PO, and delivered his lines very well and was funny.

R2-D2 was just hilarious.

I might be in the minority buy I loved Matthew Wood as General Grevious' voice - it sounded just how i thought the character should, a ruthless cyborg tactician much like the classic villians who twirl their moustaches and laugh.

 

Anakin and Padme sucked. I really really really hated the love scenes because of the lack of chemistry and poor quality of the lines. Obi came across as cheesy and Dooku was less intimidating. Bottom line, I was disappointed with the acting quality, but to tell you the truth I love ROTS!

 

Overall it was good-very good.

McDiarmid was great. Some may say he over did it after losing his lightsaber to Mace, but I thought it came across well as a character acting within a movie to lure Anakin, and once Anakin made his choice, McDiarmid did a great job of showing a demon burst forth.

McGregor was very good as well, except for the scene where he watched the hologram of the slaughter and the following discussion with Yoda. I think interacting with a stick must have finally gotten to him that day.

Christensen and Portman were very good as well; helped no doubt by Lucas not burdening them with as much bizarre and unnatural dialogue as he did in AOTC where such lines were often so distracting they often overwhelmed was mostly good acting. I still think they suffered the most from Lucas' writing and direction though, as capturing intimate moments between human beings simply isn't a strength of Lucas. It would have been good if Lucas had let a co-director come in and handle all the scenes between them, starting in AOTC. I think with better writing and direction that the love story could have been widely regarded as strength for the saga, instead of the rather polarizing element it became.

 

Really? I guess you've forgotten some of the poor dialogue and poor acting from the Original Trilogy.

 

Actors cannot be blamed. Dialogue is a very difficult thing to write. An actor is good if he can take a really strange line and make it sound natural. And with some lines its just not possible. These actors are clearly weaker than the OT actors on the whole. But I also think that that is related to the poor dialogue in the first 2 films. George Lucas actually hired famous playwrite Peter Stoppard to help him with the dialogue in this film and it did help a bit, but he is still the master of cheezy love scenes and his direction is extremely sparce. If I director doesnt direct, and push an actor as far as emotional content to find more and more in the scene, its going to fall flat. Lucas does not do this. He says one or two things to the actors, and actually tells them to read the lines without inflection. Which in some cases is good. But with dialogue about politics and separatists and the senate and blah blah blah .... its bad. You have to make us INTERESTED in these issues. With shakespeare, you dont need inflection. The emotion is IN THE LINE. But again, with crappy dialogue, there is NOTHING to work with. Acting is hard. I dont care what anyone says. Ian Mcdirmand clearly did a wonderful job, and Hayden tried. He really did, and did a fine job. I personally think he could have found more places to give the character more depth with facial expression and body language, but honestly, I think he probably did these things, and Lucas told him to leave it out. Lucas likes skeletal acting, and I am not sure why. Anyway. Thats my 2 cents. hehe!

 

Ok, since my thread was locked earlier, here is a point that I have about how Palpatine/Sidious is too over the top in this film:


Lucas gives us TPM & AOTC in which Palpatine is in the shadow, acts in subtle ways in order to advance his plan to overtake the Republic & destroy the Jedi. ROTS is his chance to finally see the plan come to fruition as Anakin becomes his new apprentice & excutes Order 66, thus eliminating most of the Jedi threat. Also, Palpatine has waited plenty of years in order to get his plan into motion, so it's reasonable & obvious that he would act in glee in this film (as we see when he fries Mace & in his battle with Yoda).

 

Amen to that, Tunick. But I think that McDiarmid's performance in TPM is waaay better. The veiled duplicity...awesome! He just does it so well. It's a little wierd to have Palpatine doing things like

"No. No. NO, YOU WILL DIE!"

and after he kills Mace, that "aah"...kooky.

and of course, hanging from the Senate Pod, making strange noises.

 

Ian's subtle performances in TPM & AOTC were great, but I really enjoyed his "coming out party" in ROTS. Too see Palpatine finally being able to get done what he has planned to do for so long is a sight to behold, because we finally get to him act as the Emperor in full & out in the open, rather than hiding in the shadows.

 

you have a great point here

 

OK, on repeat viewings there is one line from Anakin that makes me cringe every time.

On Mustafar when Padme is withdrawing from Anakin telling him she can no longer be with him, Anakin looks down his nose at her and says...

"Because of Obi-Wan."

I don't know if it is Hayden's disconnected delivery or the fact that Anakin is so stupid at that moment, but I just want some big glob of lava to land on his head.

 

Everyone was great in this film, but sadly Hayden needs more acting lessons (voice coaching) and maybe some more talent! Realistically that's the only reason Episode 2 had problems, was with Haydens acting, or excuse me bad acting, a rookie in a role where someone with more experience and talent should of been cast!

 

Well I disagree, but that's cool. I thought Mustafar the whole scene from Padme, Anakin, Obi Wan to duel is, filled with well delivered and emotional dialogue/music. It is the best scene in the whole saga.

 

HAYDEN (Anakin): Brilliant. I thought Hayden captured the emotional turmoil Anakin was going through brilliantly and his performance during the duel outdid Ewan's.

EWAN (Obi-Wan): Really good, but I don't like the way he delivered some of his lines and as he did throughout the whole saga, he looked on the verge of smiling during some very serious lines. I did not like his delivery of the "your lust for power and your anger have already done that" line at all. It felt forced and lacked sincerity. In fairness though, that line was just totally horrible anyway and shouldn't have been there. Ewan was great at the end of the duel though after he'd defeated Anakin and was saying he was his brother, etc. That was near perfect delivery.

IAN (Palpatine/Sidious): Ian was brilliant as Palpatine, much less so as Sidious. I didn't really like parts of Ian's performance, but I loved other parts.

NATALIE (Padme): A great improvement on AOTC, but still didn't deliver anywhere near the same level of likeability or convinction that Carrie Fisher did as Leia in the OT, which is a shame because Natalie is a more talented actress than Carrie overall. However, Carrie was much better suited to Star Wars than Portman IMO.
I just don't think Portman fits in well with the Star Wars films. Of course, the fact she was given some of the most horrible and cringeworthy lines didn't help her cause either. Carrie had much better material to work with.

SAM (Mace): Decent, but typical Sam Jackson really. It wasn't an outstanding performance, though he delivered most of his lines well enough and certainly looked the part.

 

i liked everybody !!!!!

 

How dare you degrade Natalie and Hayden?!!! And you call yourself Jorge Lucas?! You can only dream about being as good a director as him!!!

HAYDEN AND NATALIE!! TWO THUMBS UP!

 

YOU MUST NOT LOVE ROTS!!!! YOU'RE DISSING THE ACTORS THAT DID GREAT!!!!