Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

I thought the acting was universally horrendous, but I don't blame the actors. No matter how good an actor is, they need good material, a clear vision of their role, and be given guidance and context by the director. That so many good actors could give such utterly wooden performances speaks of bad script, bad direction, and a general lethargy that must have permeated the whole moviemaking experience.

If you had put Christopher Walken somewhere in there, do you think a bad script would've made him boring?

Did the memorable performance by McDiarmid (not so much in Clones, imo) have to do with the fact that his character was the only one Lucas had a connection to? Or because the actors made it on his own?

Having that said, some musicians are put off by a bad instrument, or co-players, others say "fuck it" and manage to produce something awesome out of it.
I've heard Art Tatum made horrendous pianos sound good.

So it goes both ways, I just wanted to point that out.

Neeson and McDonald were okay. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes very boring, but never really off-puttingly artificial like lots (but not all) of the moments with VINH or Her Highness.