Star Wars: "Anakin's Past" Debate

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You may be right about this. Even Robot Chicken agrees.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzW727RY-ig[/youtube]

I dont mind, THAT his prelife was portrayed, I simply didnt like the way it was done.

The Anakin actor was such an Emo-boobie, you could just spank him all day. Jar-Jar Binks...

The first part I didnt like because it being in general too much of a kids film. I understand Lucas intention behind it, so he did not only want his "old" fanbase to become into the hype, but used the chance as well to get a new fan generation. I dont blame him for that. For a kids film it was really good and totally ok compared with other kids film, I simply didnt expect it to be one, and so was a bit badly surprised.

And the two following films, were basically fine, if it was not for that horrible actor of Anakin, whose "I try to look angry." look, simply always reminds me of an "Sitting on the toilette and pressing real hard." look. -.-

Its simply that the whole story is built around Anakin, everything around him (beside Jar-Jar, but luckily he doesnt appear that often in the later films) really works fine, but the complete focus of the trilogy is someone you simply cant take earnest, because of him always doing that totally stupid face. Noone expected Anakin to be a badass form the start, neither of that is mentioned in the original parts. But I expected the maker of the film to get himself a real cool actor, not someone ruining the film with his "Magnum"-face. -.-

Its like watching the film Godfather, and the main actor would have been played by Binki the Clown. *head-desk, head-desk, head-desk*

I guess it depends. In Empire Strikes Back, maybe Lucas inadvertently locked himself in. when Luke comes to Degobah and Yoda starts to reveal himself, and has the conversation with obi-won's spirit, he says of Luke something like "too old, too old to start the training" - implying that Jedi train-ees start very young. So if Lucas wanted to show Anakin before he ever encountered the jedi, he was forced to show him young. That said, Jake Lloyd and his acting (or, to be fair, perhaps how he was directed and how his role was scripted) simply makes him come off as a whiny kid.



I did like the 2nd and 3rd much better as well, but none of them lived up to any of the films in the OT. Personally I thought Hayden Christenson was mostly fine - certainly many parsecs ahead of Jake Lloyd. Besides, he was forced to deal with scripts and storylines that were implausible and bordering on being outright ridiculous. Why is a 6 or 7 year old kid who probably still thinks girls are "icky" going to obsess on a 17 or 18 year old princess, and be that enamored with her? Why would he marry her in secret despite the Jedi order's prohibition against love and marriage? More over, why would he expect to be able to keep that secret for, what, the rest of his life? So the poor guy was forced to engage in a love story that was implausible and there was about as much chemistry between him and Natalie Portman (who probably was rolling her eyes at the absurdity of it too) as there is between oil and water. So yeah, he was wooden at times, but I don't think Lawrence Olivier could have delivered lines professing to love Padme with any more conviction than Hayden did, given how absurd it all was.



I agree with you here, but showing the empire's transformation and how Palpatine manipulated everything came at a cost - the cost being that while the OT was pretty much a straight-forward "evil empire vs. good rebellion" setup, the 2nd trilogy introduced all this politics into things and must have flown straight over the heads of half the film's target market (young kids) and for the rest of the audience, was about as subtle as a ton of bricks and just a distraction from the story.



Well, I think lea in ROTJ says something like she just has a vision of her mother. So maybe not a huge inconsistency although the only time Lea ever saw her mother was for a brief moment as a newborn infant. Unless Lea in ROTJ was talking of the adoptive mother that she presumably had, who Lea may have thought to be her real mother. I don't think there's any indication up to the point where Luke asks Lea if she remembers her mother, that Lea knew she was adopted.



On this I agree. Well, I hope to be wrong, because I would love for this next round of movies to be better than the OT, but I very much doubt it.

While I can't give Hayden any kudos for his line delivery in the final battle or in many other scenes in those two movies, lets face it, he was given material to work with that would have stymied the finest actors ever born.



Well, Anakin was (according to dialog in the movie) becoming progressively more and more powerful as time passed.



On this you have a good point. The only plausible explanation, I think, is that at this point Anakin was so consumed by rage and anger that rather than making him powerful with the dark side, as dialog in the 6 movies constantly states rage and anger will do, that he became completely unfocused. However, its also not like Obi-won was owning Anakin prior to when he cut Anakin down. Its only when Obi-won declares "Its over Anakin, I have the high ground" and Anakin (presumably stupidly) decides to attack from a vastly inferior position that Obi-won overcomes him. Of course, I fail to see how being a few feet lower on a slope given the crazy force-jumping abilities of the jedi would constitute that much of a disadvantage, but....



Again, dialog to the rescue. During that fight, Vader says "your powers are weak, old man" implying that with age, strength with the force weakens - even eventually for someone like Yoda. That, plus my contention that Obi-won did not really dominate Anakin in the volcano fight, and plus Obi-won's knowledge that by sacrificing himself, he'd allow Luke and Lea to escape (remember, he swore to watch over Luke - plus he thought Luke would be the future of the Jedi) and his knowledge that "if you strike me down, I will only become more powerful than you can possibly imagine" thanks to Quai-Gon Jin / Yoda's knowledge of "life after death" he knew that he would still be able to guide Luke.



Yes, but potential takes time to develop. What happened is more or less consistent with that. In their first encounter, a young and impetuous Anakin, lacking patience, refuses to wait for Obi-won to coordinate their attacks on Dooku, and instead rushes in, allowing Obi-won to lose to Dooku in single combat, then himself, not yet that powerful, to lose as well. But in their 2nd encounter, time has passed and Anakin's potential has been realised - he's grown much more powerful.

Before the PT was made, I always took that as an excuse Yoda came up with at the last minute, since he was basically looking for a way out of training Luke. Listen to Frank Oz's voice in the film, and the pace of the conversation; Yoda says Luke's reckless, prompting Obi-Wan to say, "So was I, if you'll remember". Only then does Yoda say Luke is too old.

Anakin was 9 in "Phantom Menace", and he thought Padme was an angel because she was beautiful. I highly doubt many young and attractive women lived on Tatooine.

Three words: fallen human nature. We all want what we can't (or shouldn't) have at times, and while Anakin knew the Jedi Order's rule was nuts, he'd already pledged himself to them. As a Jedi Knight, he was sworn to either uphold that standard or leave the Order. If there was a way for the rule to be changed, Lucas never explained it.

Like many people traumatized at a young age, Anakin felt an intense desire to hold onto things, and control his "own little world". The Jedi, by comparison, were very much like Buddhists, advocating total separation from any desire deemed unnecessary for protecting the Republic. They saw romantic love as a distraction and weakness, but didn't count on Anakin's wish for more. By the time of Episode III, he;d already lost his mother, and felt very resentful towards the Jedi, especially Yoda and Mace Windu. His rage only got directed toward Obi-Wan after he turned to the Dark Side.

Yeah, Lucas admitted this was an unintentional gaffe, because he originally wanted Padme to survive the prequels. However, he changed his mind while writing "Sith", realizing he needed something huge to drive Anakin past "the point of no return".

And not to forget the Midi-chlorian that made a 4 year look like he could beat yoda.

also a lot of the dialogue and process didn't make much sense, some things that comes to mind is where Samual L Jackson was in. I recall him just repeating the words back to what they told him... It was stupid. He is a good actor, but they made him look stupid.