ST What is your opinion on the acting in the Sequels?

Do any performances stand out to you, whether good or bad? I generally think the scripts and characters were awful, but do the actors salvage any of it? It’s hard to say for me, because it’s like surrounding a quarterback with a terrible offensive line and receivers- a great actor can look terrible with a bad script/direction or poor chemistry while a mediocre actor can be lifted up by a great supporting cast. A lot of the new actors seem very charming in interviews (Daisy, John, Oscar, Kelly, etc.) but unfortunately I think it was an impossible task to salvage the “making it up as you go” approach in regard to their characters. If you don’t know anything about your character, how are you suppose to play them? They’re just as confused as we the audience are.

 

Well, Mark Hamill delivered a fine performance as Jake Skywalker.

 

Generally quite poor all around. Very few exceptions from anyone.

 

I think Hamill probably did the best out of the group. His acting only made me hate the character even more lol.

Adam Driver .., I really can’t stand anything he’s in. He always sounds like a robot doing an impersonation of a human doing an impersonation of a robot. In the ST he was either raging, or dead-eyed.

Boyega did fine…with horrible material. His natural chemistry with Daisy and Oscar elevated things.

 

For the most part the acting was perfunctory… I don’t think anyone did a bad job, but neither were there any shining lights. As others have said, despite the characterisation, Hamill played the drama well… and Ford was Ford, but outside of that I’m struggling to think of anyone whom elevated the dialogue or their scenes.

 

I think the acting was decent, not the best or worse I've ever seen.

 

That is a perfect description of the way I feel about Driver's acting ::high five:: Also heh on the Hamill and TLJ.

I was happy to watch Boyega and Isaac and they brought it. There was a great little scene with Boyega and Naomi Ackle, who played Jannah, that seemed like real people. The tiny scene with Rey, Finn and Poe worked. But honestly, Billy Dee waltzed off with TROS, for my money.

Harrison and Mark did the best they could with pure junk. Carrie was struggling but who wouldn't with what she got handed. Daisy was okay, but she, Kelly Marie and Laura Dern, they didn't have characters to play. They had plot points. I hate Rey, Rose and Holdo, but that is entirely on the script. And while we're denigrating that, can we also add some demerits on whoever decided on what the women were wearing? Carrie has two decent outfits in TLJ, but she had to go through TFA in that horrendous jumpsuit and that awful wrap thing in TLJ. Speaking of horrendous jumpsuits, KMT's outfit and hair in TLJ are crimes. Dern in that dress - who in the world thought that was a good idea? That looks like a losing effort in a one day challenge on Project Runway. Rey wore the same thing, basically, for three films. Everything is just drab and awful, except maybe Oscar Isaac as Indiana Jones in TROS.

The ST didn't have characters, they had people who changed from scene to scene in ways that made no character sense, so the plot would work, so I'll give them all points for trying mightily with those lines.

 

Considering she was handed not much, I can see why she may not be that invested.

 

Overall, the acting was noticeably better than the PT, to my relief. I really enjoyed Isaac in TFA, but Resistance made Poe look like an idiot, and TLJ made him look like an incompetent traitor, and it was hard to appreciate his acting after that.

 

I'm not sure the acting in the ST was better than the PT at all... although I do think the PT had more stilted dialogue, which led to some rather stylised performances generally (across the course of the 3 PT films). I'd say the performances, in ROTS specifically, are head and shoulders above anything in the ST.

 

To me the best acting came from Ford, Hamill, Isaacs and Boyega.

 

I thought the acting was mostly fine, it was just hampered by the lack of a coherent plan for the characters, which makes it kind of impossible for actors because in one film they will be told to do things one way and in the next they will be told to do things another way

 

It's kind of just there. Not quite bad, but pretty much for everyone aside from Hamill I see the actors reciting lines, not a fictional character existing in a fictional world.

 

The way I measure it is whether or not the actor gave me a reason to care about the character. Aside from Hamill, Fisher, Ford and Boyega, no one else managed to.

Really not impressed with Driver. But then again I haven't ever been.

 

There are probably more movie stars and marquee level actors in the ST than the OT and PT combined. Part of that was casting actors who had already had breakout roles in movies and TV even if they weren’t house hold names.

Daisy Ridley seems like the most unknown in the spirit of Hayden Christianson and the OT trio going into this. The rest were known from independent films and TV series. So in general actors who were already better known are in ST.

I was a fan of John Boyea from Attack the Block. His casting was the first really good news I heard about Episode 7. Finn as a character isn’t very much like Moses but he’s still one of my favorite characters in the ST.

John hadn’t become a breakout movie star. That seems to be by choice in the roles he is selecting.

There was a bit of Marvel bounce for the actors in The Force Awakens.

Oscar Isaac is now in Marvel and is in a lot of genre pictures and drama.

Adam Driver seems to be in everything.

Has Daisy Ridley seems to have only been in three or four movies outside of Star Wars.

 

Without getting into the actual quality of the dialogue per se... my view is that the dialogue in the ST is written and performed in a style which is much more aligned to contemporary action/adventure films (for good and bad)... which means that the style of it (for the most part) is interchangeable with anything from the Avengers to modern Star Trek films. Whereas Lucas' dialogue is so stylised (for good and bad) it almost sits within its own sub-genre, and is closer in tone and style to The Lord of The Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean (again not in terms of quality per se, but tone/style). I think where the PT is often criticised for the 'clunky dialogue' (which the OT and ST has in abundance too) is that when coupled with some of Lucas' more static direction, it can come across as really flat.

 

I thought the acting in the ST was a HUGE improvement over the prequels, though I hesitate to say that since it sounds like damning with faint praise.
I really thought pretty much everyone did a great job. Mark Hamill was obviously a bit rusty at times, but that's understandable.
Daisy and Adam were among the best I've seen in SW. Daisy, in particular, was a nice surprise since she was a newcomer. Adam is reliably great, so no surprise there.
And I also really enjoyed Andy Serkis' performance as Snoke. It's a shame we didn't see more of him, though he says he'd love to reprise he role, so who knows... maybe Snoke will be in the Mandalorian eventually.

 

Andy Serkis did great.

A shame he is overlooked because people dismiss the character he played.

 

All the actors did fine, some better than others. I don't like Kylo Ren but I won't deny Driver can act and was probably the standout in that regard. But it can be hard to judge when some actors are just given more to work with.

 

Personally speaking, I think Daisy Ridley gave as wooden performance as I've ever seen in a Star Wars film. For all of the criticism levelled at Hayden, he at least got a couple of very dramatic scenes. Daisy's most dramatic scene was being mind probed by Kylo, which seemed drama school entry level to me. It should be noted that this isn't a criticism of Daisy, or her ability as an actor per se, but a criticism of her performance generally... which is a product of several factors.

 

It doesn't help that Rey's character doesn't demand much from an actor. I feel like if you can act mildly happy and mildly worried -- and maintain a blank expression on your face while achieving ridiculously overpowered feats -- you can play Rey.

Makes me wonder if some actors could've played other characters well. Like if Boyega could pull off playing a Kylo Ren.

 

Yes I agree with that. I think Boyega is a really good actor... he certainly could have played a villain. I've seen a couple of Ridley's films (excluding the ST) and she's ok, but nothing where you'd think she was a level above her peers. With many actors it's the actual roles that allow them to stand out. Maybe Ridley doesn't get offered them, or maybe she makes bad choices when selecting?