TV's Frink said:
Akton said:
generalfrevious said:
And now Disney comes in to make us pine for the glory days of Hayden Christensen.
Not humanly - or inhumanly - possible. I'm hard pressed to come up with a performance in all of film history that I hate as much as I despise that mushmouthed, testosterone-deficient, barely sentient canuck mannequin's rendition of that character ostensibly meant to be the selfsame Darth Vader we all know and love.
TFA might be good. It might be bad. But in the whole of the spectrum of possible outcomes, nothing exists that would ameliorate in the slightest the absolute nadir of cinematic dramaturgy that Hayden Christensen's performance as that male character inexplicably named "Annie" represents.
Perhaps I can explain it to you. He's named Anakin (not Annie). Many of us have cutesy nicknames when we are little thanks to our parents, and his mom gave him the nickname Ani (not Annie).
Well, yes, the in-universe explanation is pretty apparent. But it remains inexplicable to me from a creative standpoint. I cannot fathom the creator of Darth Vader sitting before his yellow legal pad, pencil in hand, writing the definitive backstory for the iconic villain, considering the use of an affectionate diminutive form of the name "Anakin," coming up with "Ani," but somehow not immediately dismissing that due to the glaring fact that this nickname will ring in the ears of the Anglophone world (the franchise's primary audience) as "Annie."
"Oh, no. Forget it," the reasonable internal reaction to that initial creative inkling would have gone. "I can't have the future Darth Vader being referred to as 'Annie.' I'll just scrap the nickname idea and have the mother call him 'Anakin'"
And yet, somehow, that internal objection was never raised. Or, if it was, it was never acted upon. Instead we were subjected to the future Darth Vader being called "Annie," or Ani" (not really any better, as the only real life public figure I'm aware of bearing the name "Ani" is a female folk singer that an ex girlfriend of mine annoyed me with all through college), even past the first film and into the character's adulthood.
Remember Luke Skywalker? Remember how great it was that everyone just called him "Luke?" Aren't you as grateful as I am that we never had to hear Beru (and Leia after her) refer to Luke as "Lulu?"
It's certainly not the worst crime committed by the prequels, but it is one of a seemingly endless list of creative decisions made by George Lucas, Hayden Christensen, and (to a much, much lesser degree, obviously) Jake Lloyd that served no other purpose in the final analysis than to strip Darth Vader of two of the traits that contributed most vitally to his having become the beloved, iconic villain that he is - his mystique and his dignity.