Octorox said:
No, I'm not talking about Jumper. I just saw "Shattered Glass" a docudrama about Stephen Glass, a fraudulent journalist who worked as a writer for The New Republic magazine. I have to say that I no longer think Hayden is a terrible actor. He certainly has his niche and is by no means "versatile" but I was surprised that he was able to evoke so much sympathy and emotional scenes seemed pretty real. The delivery of some lines felt eerily reminiscent of Star Wars but overall the performance wasn't bad. I think Hayden was either miscast or misdirected or both as Anakin but he's not all that terrible of actor if put in the right role.
I agree that not all of Hayden's performances are as bad as his prequel ones, but I think you're being too enthusiastic. I've seen many performances of his and I've never seen one in which he didn't make the character come off lame. When the character is supposed to be lame (such as in Shattered Glass) he can get away with it, but I wouldn't call those great performances. I didn't I felt any particular sympathy for his character in Shattered Glass, though it was a better performance than his prequel performances. His best performance is probably in Life as a House, in which he had to play a sulky teen. As you can guess, Hayden can do sulky teen well enough, but that's not to say it was a masterpiece of acting. If you give him a character who's supposed to be a lame twerp he can do it well enough, but I wouldn't call any of his work particularly special. Whereas if you give him a character to play who's not a lame twerp he fucks it up, though usually not as badly as in the prequels. In no role have I seen him do anything of special depth or strength.
CO said:
Hayden was actually pretty good in Shattered Glass, but he just can't pull off anything dramatically, especially in key scenes in a movie. He is so bad in the PT, especially in ROTS when he is arguing with Obiwan on Mustafar, that scene is laughable.
The ranting in Mustafar has to be some of lamest stuff ever. And "You underestimate my POWER!!" which has me in stiches laughing it's so bad.
I wouldn't go so far as to say he was good in Shattered Glass, but his performance there worked far better than his prequel performances. He certainy is good at making a character come off lame, which worked well in the scenes in which Stephen Glass gets all emo and whines and pleads and argues. He made the guy so pathetic. And he made Anakin that way too, which didn't work so well.
If you want to see early Hayden, rent the TV series Higher Ground, where he plays a troubled teen who is sent to a reform school. He does the same exact whiney crap in that show, and is just as bad as he was in the PT.
That sounds disturbing. lol
But the big budget movie roles go to the 'good looking' actors who can't act for shit like the guy in Indy IV and Transformers, can't think of his name, but he sucks.
I would disagree rather strongly about Shia LeBeouf. He's no empty pretty boy. He's a good actor who makes his characters very human. He was one of the good points of both those films. His brings a lot of personality to his roles.
skyjedi2005 said:
Don't forget Samuel L. Jackson was in Jumper too. Remember when he had street cred after being in Pulp Fiction?
Look at his awful perfromances in the prequels, jumper, etc.
I don't think he was bad in Jumper, but his prequel performances were awful and Mace Windu is one of the most annoying characters in those films.
Jumper was one of the worst films i have literally ever seen. and Awake was not any better.
I think Awake was even worse than Jumper. It was such a fucking lame film. And did you notice how the main character did fuck all to save himself? It was all other people. All he did was run around being lame.
But the Prequels could not be cast this way because anakin was a kid in episode 1,
I think if Lucas had kept to his original backstory the character would have been an adult from the first film. But it wouldn't have been Hayden if Lucas had kept true to the original vision of Anakin.
Else they would have had Hayden in all three,lol. 2 is more than enough, never mind putting him into Return of the Jedi.
Hayden in ROTJ is right up there with the revision of the Han-Greedo scene as one of the worst things ever done to a film.
Besides they were Looking for that sullen, whiny quality which Hayden has in spades
I very much doubt Lucas originally envisioned Anakin like that, so that later version of him represents destructive revisionism.
