C3PX said:Whoa, I think I am going to have to read Skywalking.
As much of a movie whore Sam Jackson is these days, he is not a bad actor. A lot more could have been achieved with him than was. I do not find Natalie Portman to be all that great of an actress, but I hear she has pulled off some impressive roles since ROTS his the screens. And as for Christopher Lee, my goodness, this is where the Pollock quote rings the truest. How do you have a guy like this in your film and not throw him into as many scenes as you can? Instead George gives the guy less screen time than Ahmed Best! How does that happen?
I haven't read 'Skywalking' either, but I did read 'Empire Building' which is also pretty rough on Lucas.
Sam Jackson is good in some roles, but I think TPM just kind of revealed his acting limits. I've only seen bits and pieces of Natalie Portman in other roles, but from what I've seen, I'm not really impressed with her acting either.
I think Ewan McGreggor is a better actor than both of them, and his performance as Obi-Wan was decent. Liam Neeson gave a very good performance too, despite his being under-used as well (like Lee).
Dale Pollock: I think the unique way these films are made puts strain on any actor, particularly those with classical training like Liam Neeson (as it was for Alec Guinness, the only actor in STAR WARS who declined to be interviewed for my book because I was told he had nothing good to say about Lucas as a director. To be acting in front of a blue or green screen, holding objects that are not there and speaking to creatures who do not yet exist, is difficult for any actor, particularly when the director is not overly sympathetic.
Zombie84 said: I believe this is the quote you are referring to. I made this for use as my sig a while ago. I got the quote from The Making of ROTJ paperback.
This is the quote I meant (from the link canofhumdingers provided):
"One of the fatal mistakes that almost every science fiction film makes is that they spend so much time on the settings, you know, creating the environment, that they spend film time on it and you don't have to spend too much film time to create an environment. What they're doing is showing off the amount of work that they generated and it slows the pace of the film down and the story is not the settings the story is the story, it's the plot."