this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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I mean, Episode 2 was some peak Mannequin Skywalker, but the guy was doing his best with the writing and direction he got, too. The character being unlikable and terribly handled isn't really his fault.
He also did a great job in the last two reprisals. He may have even been the strongest part of those shows.
And yet Natalie Portman and Ewan MacGregor managed just fine.
Wasn't Star Wars his first big role, though? Portman and MacGregor were both fairly established at that point.
They may also be better actors, or at least more free-thinking. Better able to create the characters themselves.
They also weren't trying to portray the kind of character Anakin needed to be. They had much more stable, much more relatable personalities. Not the kind character that goes from saving children to slaughtering them.
Right, so maybe he wasn't the right voice for that role.
Maybe. He wasn't the casting director, as far as I'm aware, nor director or producer. So laying all blame on his shoulders seems a bit singlemindedly petty to me.
Its easy to say in hindsight that we were wrong in any action from the past. The problem is that its the past, and changing it is currently beyond us.
Oh, I forgot that everybody has to take any role offered to them, especially if they'll do a poor job of it
No you're right, if you are a young actor handed the lead role of a huge franchise that could jumpstart your career and set you up for life you should DEFINITELY turn it down, after all you wouldn't want to do a poor job of it right?/s
Then it would seem only fair that we can criticize an objectively poor performance.
I dunno, I think he did well at portraying the character. He made me dislike the character. We aren't supposed to like Anakin; he's this deeply flawed, messed up person that follows the bait of the dark side like he had no mind at all.
That's what the character was written as.
But he managed to do that believably. The way he delivered lines, his body language, it really read like this damaged kid that got thrown into being some kind of savior and went batshit over time.
If anything, I would say that Ewan did a little too much over-acting in the prequels. He's a really solid actor, but he leaned hard into emoting heavy as a way to denote that obi-wan is normally trying hard to not emote. It worked with the way things are written, but it's a fairly obvious choice that doesn't scan as well as most of Hayden's scenes where he's pushing.
Then again, it's all a matter of opinion, and yours is valid :)
Honestly? I thought Natalie was wooden and terrible in the prequels. Not necessarily her fault, but based solely off of Star Wars, I’d believe you if you told me she and Hayden Christensen had similar and unremarkable career paths.
They did get somewhat better dialogue, but their characters also have some horribly cringy moments.