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Episode II acting

Posted: 2002-11-04 12:35am
by THEHOOLIGANJEDI
Well what do most of you think of the acting in Ep.2. On the Whole I thought it was good for a Star Wars Movie, not too good in some areas (due to bad dialog) but I think all the actors int he Movie did fine. Two actors that get bashed for lackluster perfomances are Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. I couldn't disagree more, although there were problems I noted, but I would attribute it to bad dialog. I mean Hayden suffered the same problem the Mark Hamill did, he had some of the silly lines.

Well I'm rambling now, but what do you think?

Posted: 2002-11-04 12:40am
by Shinova
Christopher Lee was good. Palpatine was pretty good too. Obi-wan was semi good.

Christenson and Portman? Image

Posted: 2002-11-04 12:45am
by neoolong
Really, I thought that Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman did badly. It wasn't the dialog that was the worst part, though some parts could have been improved, but overall they did a bad job. That's what you get when you just focus on eye candy.

Christopher Lee is always good. I liked Samuel L. Jackson, I think it would have been better if he had some cool lines though.

Posted: 2002-11-04 12:52am
by Howedar
It was fine.

Posted: 2002-11-04 07:35am
by Guest
The problem with Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman is that George Lucas sucks at writting romance. Maybe he should bring in a consultant for them parts. It is a major part of the movie don't forget, for the love of Amidalla, Skywalker leaves the Jedi Order and in his anger is corrupted by Palpy. This one of the major factors and is being neglected. Almost as if it was being rushed coz the Lucasarts team were embarassed that a real woman was finally in Starwars.

Posted: 2002-11-04 07:38am
by Vympel
Real woman? What about Leia?

I thought the romance was quite weak. But that's just me.

Posted: 2002-11-04 07:42am
by Guest
i never liked Carrie Fisher, the woman is a glue bag so she doesn't count.

Posted: 2002-11-04 07:58am
by Vympel
Muad'Dib wrote:i never liked Carrie Fisher, the woman is a glue bag so she doesn't count.
What's a glue bag? (seriously, i dont know)

Posted: 2002-11-04 08:08am
by Tsyroc
Vympel wrote:
Muad'Dib wrote:i never liked Carrie Fisher, the woman is a glue bag so she doesn't count.
What's a glue bag? (seriously, i dont know)
I was wondering that too. I am assuming that it relates to the old practice of selling old broken down horses to glue factories. I don't see the direct correlation but I took it to mean that he thought she was pretty ugly. :?

Posted: 2002-11-04 08:17am
by Stormbringer
The acting was tolerable to good. Hayden and and Natalie both gave less than brilliant performances. I think a lot of that did have to do with the fact there dialogue scene were poorly written. It's hard to spout tripe and sound good doing it.

Posted: 2002-11-04 08:49am
by Kelly Antilles
The entire "love story" was forced. It was like Hayden and Natalie were afraid of each other. Granted, that is how their characters felt, but it was worse than that. Very stiff.

Posted: 2002-11-04 09:39am
by Darth Wong
Kelly Antilles wrote:The entire "love story" was forced. It was like Hayden and Natalie were afraid of each other. Granted, that is how their characters felt, but it was worse than that. Very stiff.
George Lucas' problem is that he's never had good luck with relationships (he lists that as one of his major regrets in life; unsuccessful in love), and most of his relationships with women have probably been as a wealthy, famous man (when you're a billionaire, you can spout really awful lines and women will still want to be with you).

Posted: 2002-11-04 09:47am
by Kelly Antilles
Darth Wong wrote: George Lucas' problem is that he's never had good luck with relationships (he lists that as one of his major regrets in life; unsuccessful in love), and most of his relationships with women have probably been as a wealthy, famous man (when you're a billionaire, you can spout really awful lines and women will still want to be with you).
Yeah, but 15 years ago, he pulled off the Leia/Han love story flawlessly. Of course, that's probably due to better acting. Having mostly established actors (Harrison was, what, 15 years older than Hayden is now when he filmed the OT?) who have experience with such things.

Posted: 2002-11-04 11:40am
by neoolong
I wonder how much Ford/Fisher were allowed to come up with their own lines vs. Christensen/Portman. I remember hearing that the "I know" was an ad-lib they used. The fact that the more experienced actors came up with better lines and the fact that they were more experienced might help explain why that romance turned out better on screen than the Anakin/Amidala one.

Posted: 2002-11-04 12:37pm
by Kuja
The entire romance gound like a pair of rough stones.

Lee was good, especially at the end, and so was Jackson. Best (Jar Jar), thankfully, was minimized.

Palpy was done well.

Posted: 2002-11-04 01:41pm
by Moonshadow
speaking of Jar-Jar the moron, didn't he seem Taller than usual in Episode II?

Posted: 2002-11-04 01:44pm
by Kelly Antilles
Moonshadow wrote:speaking of Jar-Jar the moron, didn't he seem Taller than usual in Episode II?
I'm pretty sure it was the combination of the robes and that he was actually standing up straight.

Posted: 2002-11-04 01:46pm
by Kuja
Moonshadow wrote:speaking of Jar-Jar the moron, didn't he seem Taller than usual in Episode II?
Not really. He was pretty tall in Ep I. It's just that he was always behind someone or something.

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:11pm
by Cal Wright
Not to mention Liam Neeson. I think his height and the height of Hayden in the movie came out to about the same. Ewan Mcgregor though is a lot shorter which helped make the others look larger. On the whole I thought the acting was good. Yeah there were bad dialogue lines, still though, I thought it was really good. so bleh!

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:16pm
by Kuja
Forgot: I though McGregor pulled off a pretty convincing Obi-Wan. The whole time he was on screen, I kept noticing similarities between him and Alec Guiness.

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:18pm
by Joe
I think Portman's acting was the weakest. Christensen did a pretty good job, given the part he was playing; I mean, Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be a whiny little brat who has never had experience with women, and Hayden pulled that off pretty damn well if you ask me. The only problem was that Natalie's performance did not complement his as well as it needed to, so his performance looked worse than it actually was.

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:38pm
by Slartibartfast
neoolong wrote:I wonder how much Ford/Fisher were allowed to come up with their own lines vs. Christensen/Portman. I remember hearing that the "I know" was an ad-lib they used.
It happened like this: Carrie was experiencing all her down effects from her drug abuse so during this scene she kept forgetting lines, and after dozens of attempts of repeating the scene and saying the same lines again and again Harrison Ford got fed up and said "I know" in a sarcastic way, and Lucas liked it better.

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:47pm
by neoolong
Slartibartfast wrote:
neoolong wrote:I wonder how much Ford/Fisher were allowed to come up with their own lines vs. Christensen/Portman. I remember hearing that the "I know" was an ad-lib they used.
It happened like this: Carrie was experiencing all her down effects from her drug abuse so during this scene she kept forgetting lines, and after dozens of attempts of repeating the scene and saying the same lines again and again Harrison Ford got fed up and said "I know" in a sarcastic way, and Lucas liked it better.
Was that from one of those Where Are They Now specials. I think I remember hearing that.

Though I wonder, if there were many more scenes like that.

Posted: 2002-11-04 02:48pm
by Slartibartfast
neoolong wrote:
Slartibartfast wrote:
neoolong wrote:I wonder how much Ford/Fisher were allowed to come up with their own lines vs. Christensen/Portman. I remember hearing that the "I know" was an ad-lib they used.
It happened like this: Carrie was experiencing all her down effects from her drug abuse so during this scene she kept forgetting lines, and after dozens of attempts of repeating the scene and saying the same lines again and again Harrison Ford got fed up and said "I know" in a sarcastic way, and Lucas liked it better.
Was that from one of those Where Are They Now specials. I think I remember hearing that.

Though I wonder, if there were many more scenes like that.
Probably, since Carrie Fisher was a junkie :)
Of course, Ford's version was different, he says he discussed it with Lucas and he said ok, and then they filmed it Ford's way.

Posted: 2002-11-04 03:01pm
by neoolong
Just goes to show, a drugged out junkie can act better than Natalie Portman. :D