Quote:
Originally Posted by MattyC
To be fair to Christensen and Portman, they didn't have a lot of reference for their characters comparatively. Christensen's wore a mask and barely spoke through the entire first set. And Portman could have channelled Leia a bit, but couldn't all out take. Also, the writing. "I'm a person and my name is Anakin." *shudder* Who could work with that crap? I'm thankful Harrison Ford had the stones to re-write/re-tool most of his scripts himself.
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If you watch some subtleties of Hayden's performance he did pick up David Prowse's walking style and some other hand motions very well. Besides some really bad dialogue especially in Attack of the Clones, he just didn't have that broad sense of power and conflict that Anakin Skywalker should have had.
I will be the first to admit that I do like the prequels in different ways
1) Phantom Menace - I think they tried to make it to cutesy and child friendly, they really should have started Anakin's story later in life and if they could have made the slave life harsher. It just felt like he and his mother were adopted and not enslaved. The dialogue was wooden, Lucas has never learned language subtly, I think it comes from not trusting his actors. Jar Jar Binks was an acknowledged mistake that he fixed later on. Ian, Liam and Ewan were solid in this movie with Ian playing both the role of Palpatine and the growly Sideous. The Nemodian's were really bad villians and I think they had trouble with the head gear. The Star Fighter fight wasn't good, but the duel between Jedi and Sith were incredible with the exchange between Maul and Kenobi being incredibly well done.
Best scene - When Padme decides to go home and Palpatine begs her to stay where its safe. When she turns her back, Palpatines head comes up and a sly smile plays across his face.
Worst scene - Pretty much any scene with Binks in it.
Attack 0f the Clones - I was excited about this movie when I first started seeing spoilers. We had heard about the Clone Wars but the direction that they took was unexpected but in a way logical. Portman was still incredibly wooden, I just don't know if she's capable of being a action heroine. Ewan's grasp of Kenobi really took off. We got our first view of Padawn Skywalker. But whether it was the writing you just weren't convinced of that seething darkside rage underneath his heroic experience. When he went on the hunt for his mother he should have been like a force hurricane destroying everything in his way.
Ian McDarmid was absolutely great in his role as he manipulated Binks into granting him emergency powers which was so important to his overall plans. We saw little of Sideous except at the very end of the movie. I liked Count Dooku and Christopher Lee's portrayal of him, he was corrupt and knew it and evil and knew it. Samuel L Jackson had a small cameo but did everything that was expected except to call Dooku a mother%%%%%% and I was waiting for that.
The pacing was off because they threw the whole Ani Padme romance in, it had to happen as Anakin falling in love was central to his fall. But because there was no chemistry between Portman and Christenson it just felt flat.
Best scenes - I still love the scene where the new Republic army attacks the arena and hell breaks lose. I also loved the scene where we see the ships leaving Coruscant. We again see Palpatine watching the take off and Bail Organa hitting his fist on the railing in frustration. Jar Jar dooms the galaxy
Worst scene - That sand discussion between Ani and Padme was terrible.
Revenge of the Sith - I actually have this down as the third best movie in the series behind ANH and Empire. Everything comes together. It started so strong with an amazing looking battle scene. They tried to be a little too comical in the Palpatine rescue scene though. And we saw a brilliant bit of subtlety when Dooku realizes that he's been sold out by Palpatine. I wasn't nuts about Grievous. They could have found a way to make him a lot darker and menacing. When they edited out the scene where he executed Shaak-Ti to watch her die they missed a great chance to really develop that character. Ewan continued his amazing performance. Portman looked like she completely threw in the towel on her performance. I thought they did some great things. The opera scene with Palpatine and Anakin was breathtakingly good thanks to McDarmid's story telling.
The Jedi Council scene where Ani losses control could have been done much better with a stronger acting performance. We should have seen Vader in the whole this is outrageous scene, and the scene afterwords where Anakin confronts Kenobi.
We saw a good seduction scene by Palpatine that could have been fleshed out more, but when he smiles at Anakin after Anikin tells him that he's telling the Jedi you know that night is starting to fall.
The Mace Palpatine fight was a bit awkward both because they CGI'd Ian's face onto another's body, but Ian is not physically gifted so that fight wasn't as powerful as it should be. But Palpatine basically throwing the fight as Anakin walks in reminded you about how good of a schemer the future Emperor is.
Now I didn't like Palpatines transformation into the Emperor, I guess the frankenstein feel of it just didn't work for me.
I also didn't understand the half a$$ed scene where Anakin slaughtered the younglings. They were desperately trying not to get a no rating, but it just didn't make it feel menacing, though the scene where Vader strides up the stairs of the temple with Stormtroopers in tow was awesome to look at.
The duel between Vader and Sideous was well done, but the duel between Anakin and Kenobi was exceptional though it ended clumsily with the whole high ground thing. Also Anakin choking Padme out could have been stronger, in the book it described Vader as seeing how small she was as a person and how she'd betrayed him. You got the thought in the movie that he thought that she and ben were shaking matresses.
I loved the scene where Vader was put in the suit. The final site of Anakins burned face were his eyes narrowing in hatred and resolve as he was sealed in the suit forever. The NOOOO scene killed me.
On the other hand the Luke and Leia birth scene was ok, but the whole will to live thing was just poorly thought out, considering that Leia remember her mother as sad in ROTJ.
I loved the last scenes with Padme's funeral, Vader on the bridge of a star destroyer and Obiwan handing Luke off to Owen and Beru.
Favorite scene - So many, but honestly the scene where Vader strides across the bridge of a star destroyer to stand forever trapped by his master sent chills down my side.
Worst scene - The love is blind scene between Anakin and Padme was groaningly terrible.
