sum1

The only way I'd agree with that is if they recast Anakin. Hayden's performance was so weak. He made Anakin come off bland, weak, shalllow, insubstantial, massively immature and seriously stupid.

CommanderM

Yay! I wish the trilogy had begun with the clone wars and anakin was at least 15

sum1

:knocks Anakin's teeth down his throat:

wickedrum

Some of that has to be the script.

I know this is the unappreciation thread, but I think Anakin coming off weak and insubstantial was intentional. How else could he have been attracted by the dark side. He had to be imperfect and flawed.

sum1

As regards attributing the Hayden's portrayal of Anakin to the script, all those traits I described (bland, weak, shalllow, insubstantial, massively immature and seriously stupid) are evident in Hayden's performances as other characters.

I have watched numerous of Hayden's films to get a better understanding of his acting and his characters come off weak and insubstantial in every film he's in.

This is Hayden's acting style. It's what he does.

As for Anakin, being flawed and imperfect doesn't necessarily mean being weak and insubstantial. There are many ways to be flawed that don't involve being a shallow wimp. It was abundantly clear from the OT that Vader was a strong personality and it's reasonable to expect Anakin to be the same.

I think an Anakin who is weak and insubstantial is not convincing as somebody who could become Vader. Which is precisely what's wrong with the Prequels.

One does not need to be insubstantial and weak to be attracted to the Dark Side any more than Palpatine needed to be to head down that path himself in the first place. Or Dooku or Maul. Or Luke, who nearly turned in ROTJ.

I'm glad you recognize that this is an Anakin unappreciation thread. Hopefully that'll mean you'll realize this is not the place to take this defense of Hayden's performance too far.

:gets back to beating Anakin over the head with Boba Fett's jetpack:

wickedrum

I think the only other Hayden movie I saw was Jumper I liked it, though it was nothing special.

I do not wish to argue with the other points

a new hope

I saw him in Awake!

sum1

Hayden was dreadful in both of those. It's a good bet the crappiness of his performance in Jumper was why it never got a sequel. They wanted to make a franchise out of it, but that went. Instead his performance in it got parodied in Disaster Movie, with him being referred to in that movie as "the guy who ruined Star Wars".

a new hope

Never saw Jumper!

sum1

Lucky you.

wickedrum

I wanted a sequel, there were good ideas in there

sum1

Ideas maybe, but not a good central performance.

a new hope

sum1

^Bored.

a new hope

It happens sometimes