Why did the acting in this movie suck so bad?

[6079SmithW]

Lucas, on the other hand, probably told his actors exactly how to perform. Most actors look less wooden improvising than these guys did on script.

I think you can be exacting and still come up with a great performance: Woody Allen and Stanley Kubrick are known perfectionists.  Perhaps it was a culmination of the Director, the script, the pressure, and all the CGI they had to cope with that marred everything...?

Well, right. I mean, Kubrick basically picked non-actors half the time so they wouldn't interfere with what he wanted them to do. The difference is that Kubrick and Woody Allen are very, very talented. I like Peter Jackson, but I haven't seen any evidence that he's capable of making Paths of Glory or Crimes and Misdemeanors, and he's probably well advised to do what he does well. Lucas, on the other hand, seems to have decided at some point that he's a genius on the Kubrick level, and the manner in which everything turned to crap shows it. It's actually a pretty clear example of auteur theory in action- Lucas definitely left no question as to who authored that maggot-ridden pile of crap.

[BBQ Platypus]

Jake Lloyd was EASILY the worst.  I remember watching it and being pissed because I had done some extracurricular programs that involved skits when I was as old as he was, and at age 9 I could have outacted Jake Lloyd.  And I hadn't even done any real acting.  (Which he hadn't either, of course - but he had no talent for it whatsoever).  I wanted to KILL that kid!  To me, he was more annoying than midichlorians and Jar-Jar Binks combined!

[Variety of Cells]

While I was disappointed with Portman's performance (I've always found her to be a good actress), Jake Lloyd has utterly no business in front of a camera.  When I watch him in this movie, it's like someone's rubbing sandpaper on my brain.

While I completely agree with you, having so much hate focused towards you must be really scarring as a child.  I'd be terrified of being chased by roving bands of nerds screaming "lynch the boy!  He's the one who ruined Star Wars!".  I hope his poor acting was due to under developed reading skills, because if he can read, and he happens across a Star Wars forum, oh man, I don't even want to think about it.

[mrbasehart]

While I was disappointed with Portman's performance (I've always found her to be a good actress), Jake Lloyd has utterly no business in front of a camera.  When I watch him in this movie, it's like someone's rubbing sandpaper on my brain.

While I completely agree with you, having so much hate focused towards you must be really scarring as a child.  I'd be terrified of being chased by roving bands of nerds screaming "lynch the boy!  He's the one who ruined Star Wars!".  I hope his poor acting was due to under developed reading skills, because if he can read, and he happens across a Star Wars forum, oh man, I don't even want to think about it.

Yeah, I hope he was protected from that and doesn't take it personally when he grows older.

I think it's a crucial difference that some should recognise: I mean, I don't hate Jake Lloyd, I hate his acting.  That's what my comment was aimed at.  I don't even blame him, it's George Lucas who cast him when he had the pick of all the child actors in the world.

[davo]

can you add George Lucas to your choices?

that'd be my vote.  if the director doesn't direct the actors and uses bad takes in the movie, the actors are going to look wayyyy worse than they are.


that being said, samuel l. stands out as the phone-in performance of the decade.  stinkola!

[Inv8r_BILLY]

"Lucas, on the other hand, probably told his actors exactly how to perform. Most actors look less wooden improvising than these guys did on script."

I think you're dead wrong.  Everything I've EVER heard about Lucas the director is that he gives virtually NO feedback to his actors.  He's a fantastic editor, and a superb post-production director (the guy has an uncanny sens of pacing, timing, and delivery when he directs animators), no matter what the current trend of easy-target vitriol says, a creative genious, and a brilliant businessman, but he's a mediocre director of actors.  Couple that with throwing actors into an almost entiely bluescreen environment where they probably have no real idea as to where they are, and what they are supposed to be doing, and I think you end up with something that looks like Phantom Menace.  I think the real problem with the performances in TPM is that the actors were lost in an invisible world, and ladden with shit for dialogue.

[6079SmithW]

"Lucas, on the other hand, probably told his actors exactly how to perform. Most actors look less wooden improvising than these guys did on script."

I think you're dead wrong.  Everything I've EVER heard about Lucas the director is that he gives virtually NO feedback to his actors.  He's a fantastic editor, and a superb post-production director (the guy has an uncanny sens of pacing, timing, and delivery when he directs animators), no matter what the current trend of easy-target vitriol says, a creative genious, and a brilliant businessman, but he's a mediocre director of actors.  Couple that with throwing actors into an almost entiely bluescreen environment where they probably have no real idea as to where they are, and what they are supposed to be doing, and I think you end up with something that looks like Phantom Menace.  I think the real problem with the performances in TPM is that the actors were lost in an invisible world, and ladden with shit for dialogue.

It's possible, I was just going based on his reputation as a control freak and the horror of even the competent actors' performances. I maintain that most halfway decent actors improvise much better than that. It's true, though, that staying on that piece of crap script and making it convincing would be impossible for even a fantastic actor, but it's hard to believe they stayed that wooden intentionally- if they'd gone 5th Element style over the top, it would have improved the movies dramatically.

And if he's such a damn good editor, why didn't he trim the crap out of all three of the new Star Wars movies? Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes? Why does his universe have to be goofily candy colored now? I don't doubt that he's at least in part responsible for an amazing amount of movie based technology, but I honestly don't think there was a single aspect of those movies that didn't suck. Yes, I'm including the lightsaber battles- they may have been faster and more three dimensional this time, but the extra blades and obvious choreography (I was never once convinced that they were trying to hit each other and not each other's blade) made them much less exciting, as far as I'm concerned.

[Sharktopus]

Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes?

I like the wipes. They're a staple of the Star Wars feel.

Yes, I'm including the lightsaber battles- they may have been faster and more three dimensional this time, but the extra blades and obvious choreography (I was never once convinced that they were trying to hit each other and not each other's blade) made them much less exciting, as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I hate the over-choreographed swordplay. I get that two evenly matched swordsmen could conceivably spar interminably, but come on. They're not fighting, they're dancing. Anakin and Obi-Wan's final battle works pretty well, though, but I think that's due more to the actors actually putting some emotion into it for once. It's the only one that feels more like a swordfight than a fencing duel.

[BathTub]

Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes?

I like the wipes. They're a staple of the Star Wars feel.

The Kurosawa feel you mean.

[Sharktopus]

Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes?

I like the wipes. They're a staple of the Star Wars feel.

The Kurosawa feel you mean.

True, it's an homage to Kurosawa, but I think a Star Wars movie without those wipes would feel wrong. Well, even wronger than the prequels already feel.

[6079SmithW]

Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes?

I like the wipes. They're a staple of the Star Wars feel.

The Kurosawa feel you mean.

True, it's an homage to Kurosawa, but I think a Star Wars movie without those wipes would feel wrong. Well, even wronger than the prequels already feel.

It's funny, they never stuck out to me in the original series, but I noticed them every time in Episode 3. I don't know if they're any different or if I'm just giving the better movies more credit, though.

[Sharktopus]

Why all the damn powerpoint style wipes?

I like the wipes. They're a staple of the Star Wars feel.

The Kurosawa feel you mean.

True, it's an homage to Kurosawa, but I think a Star Wars movie without those wipes would feel wrong. Well, even wronger than the prequels already feel.

It's funny, they never stuck out to me in the original series, but I noticed them every time in Episode 3. I don't know if they're any different or if I'm just giving the better movies more credit, though.

I haven't counted, but I think he did use the wipes more in the prequels. But that may simply be due to there being more opportunities for them.

[BathTub]

I'm sure that since going Digital makes the wipes incredibly easy to do would have helped.

[J-Proof]

I kind of always wondered why /any/ kids that young were considered in the first place for the part of Ani, ya know? My littlest brother is about Anakin's age for Ep1, and he looks and acts nowhere near as immaturely as Jake Lloyd's character does.

Interesting.

[jedi2187]

If you can locate online the original draft for Episode I, Anakin was actually a little more mature than in the final film, and Obi discovers him first and then introduces him to Qui-Gon when they arrive on Coruscant.