Thread: I decide to watch Star Wars Episode 1-3 again...

Piss poor acting and piss poor writing. It's too bad Lucas didn't give the main story idea to a more talented writer and then just tagged his name on the writing credits. The RLM reviews are the best thing that came out of episodes 1-3.

Originally Posted by HeavyG

You cannot blame the director for having to work with piss poor actors. Poor casting, perhaps, can be blamed on bad directing and producing. Let's face it. Hayden Christensen flat out sucked. In fact, he sucks in pretty much everything he has ever done! Have you seen Jumpers? Barf! Young Aniken flat out sucked. One of the key players to the entire first trilogy was casted by terrible actors, as a child, and an adult.

I don't blame the good actors that actually did a good job. I blame the awful actors that did an awful job. And let's not forget about Natalie Portman. She is hot... and I like her in other stuff... but wow, was she awful in Star Wars.

I will agree with you about the love story... it was awful from day one. It was creepy and just didn't fit very well at all. I blame this partly for the actors being, well, awful. It got particularly awful at the end of the third episode.

Yeah but what I'm saying is how can you explain how very good actors (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman etc) would all somehow end up turning in awful or below average performances in the same films. You can't blame that on the actors. Well you can blame it somewhat on the bad actors (Like Hayden, Jake Lloyd etc) but for the actors who we've seen do superb acting before, to all mysteriously turn in horrible performances in the same 3 films is not a coincidence.

The writing, the directing, the screenplay, the casting, the sets, everything about the way this film was created made it impossible for good actors to show off their chops. I defy any good actor to deliver such horrific lines against a greenscreen and not come off as dull and lifeless.

The only actor in the ENTIRE prequel trilogy who did a decent acting job was Ian McDiarmid, and even then it wasn't up to his usual caliber.

Keep in mind I'm a huge Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman fan, but they were both so plastic and boring just like the rest of these godawful films.


A lot of people touch on the technical problems with the prequels, the bad acting, bad writing, bad casting, bad cinematography etc. But I always felt like the part that was REALLY missing was heart. It's hard to explain what I mean exactly, but there's no life in these films. You feel so detached and un-involved in the characters and what's happening, there's never a human spark behind any interactions. There's no scene where you find yourself inadvertently smiling for the on-screen characters.

There's nothing genuine, it's all a facade, greenscreen and computer generated sets, plastic, clean, sterile, it's not real, there's no friendship, there's no romance, there's no suspense. Nothing matters because nothing is real.

@ Thorsen. +1

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I still think it was bad casting... once you hire someone for the part and release one of the movies, you are pretty much locked in.

Thank goodness they removed Jar Jar Binks (pretty much) from the other two movies. Unfortunately, Portman was locked, as was Christensen, after the second movie anyways.

But to say the movie was emotionless, I just cannot agree with. I can agree that the love story was dry, but some of the relationships and decisions were pretty serious.

I guess it's a matter of personal taste, but to me NONE of the relationships in any of the prequels seemed the least bit genuine to me. It's not that they weren't TRYING to be genuine, or that the situations and relationships weren't serious or emotional. It's that all the seriousness and emotion was undermined by the horrible acting, directing, writing and locations.

As far as bad casting, I don't know if I agree. Some of the casting was definitely bad (Keeping in mind that Lucas is responsible for that too). But how can you say Liam Neeson (One of my all-time favorite actors) was badly cast? He's fucking PERFECT for the older-but-still-badass Jedi Master/Renegade. But he comes off as such a boring character in the movie, you hardly feel sad when he dies.

Shit, I tear up when the Terminator dies in Terminator 2... fucking Arnold Swarzeneggar acting as a ROBOTIC KILLING MACHINE FROM THE FUTURE evokes more emotion in me than ANY character or scene from the entire prequel trilogy.

And it's sad because some of the scenes in the prequels could have or should have been SO powerful. I mean, the old jedi knight having to basically kill his best friend and apprentice of many years. That's some sad shit man.

But there's nothing behind it, there's no weight to their relationship because we never saw them interact as friends. We never get that human spark of brotherly love between the actors, and it all falls flat.

Originally Posted by Thorsen

Yeah but what I'm saying is how can you explain how very good actors (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman etc) would all somehow end up turning in awful or below average performances in the same films. You can't blame that on the actors. Well you can blame it somewhat on the bad actors (Like Hayden, Jake Lloyd etc) but for the actors who we've seen do superb acting before, to all mysteriously turn in horrible performances in the same 3 films is not a coincidence.

The writing, the directing, the screenplay, the casting, the sets, everything about the way this film was created made it impossible for good actors to show off their chops. I defy any good actor to deliver such horrific lines against a greenscreen and not come off as dull and lifeless.

The only actor in the ENTIRE prequel trilogy who did a decent acting job was Ian McDiarmid, and even then it wasn't up to his usual caliber.

Keep in mind I'm a huge Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman fan, but they were both so plastic and boring just like the rest of these godawful films.


A lot of people touch on the technical problems with the prequels, the bad acting, bad writing, bad casting, bad cinematography etc. But I always felt like the part that was REALLY missing was heart. It's hard to explain what I mean exactly, but there's no life in these films. You feel so detached and un-involved in the characters and what's happening, there's never a human spark behind any interactions. There's no scene where you find yourself inadvertently smiling for the on-screen characters.

There's nothing genuine, it's all a facade, greenscreen and computer generated sets, plastic, clean, sterile, it's not real, there's no friendship, there's no romance, there's no suspense. Nothing matters because nothing is real.

For me, I think it because the films (prequels) don't really seem connected to the originals. You don't get the sense that that's what really happened, in my opinion, at least.

The story is spot on, the progression of story and how Anikan stumbles into the dark side is great. I just failed to care that he was actually turned, all the Jedi dying except for two should have hit me harder, but I just didn't care. The story is ALL there.

Maybe Bioware will reignite my interest in the Star Wars story and lore.

Originally Posted by BrockSamson

The story is spot on, the progression of story and how Anikan stumbles into the dark side is great. I just failed to care that he was actually turned, all the Jedi dying except for two should have hit me harder, but I just didn't care. The story is ALL there.

Maybe Bioware will reignite my interest in the Star Wars story and lore.

Ugh... I can't forgive a story that basically makes some stupid shit up to give Anakin a reason to fall to the dark side. I thought the whole "Premonitions of dying in childbirth" thing was so fucking stupid.

So many better ways to go than some durp-ex-machina "He wanted to save padme from... himself killing her?!?"

How about Anakin started off as an idealistic young man, was sent off to fight in the Clone Wars and as he witnessed the horrific truth of war, found himself losing faith in the Jedi and Republic.

How about Anakin is slightly older, maybe mid 30's, and Obi Wan as well, and they're both well regarded Jedi Knights. We spend some time seeing them interact as good friends, saving each other from tough situations and SHOWING us their friendship (Note to Lucas: show, don't tell). Then when the Republic starts to split up, their different political views begin to push them apart. Anakin favors harder stance against evil, while Obi-Wan warns him against aggressiveness. Anakin eventually becomes a leading figure of the Imperial party, without realizing their Sith influence. Eventually it all comes to a dramatic conclusion where Anakin must chose, and ultimately he falls to the darkness.


There's just so many better ways than.... fucking hell... Palpatine tells the Trade federation to attack some random planet so he can get the queen of that planet to call for a vote against the current chancellor, so he can run and win... and also so he can get 2 Jedi Knights to randomly find Anakin on some backwater planet so Anakin can grow up and see visions of his girlfriend dying... because he ends up killing her (wtf infinite loop), so Palpatine can tell Anakin that Sith can save people from dying (Anakin has never apparently heard of the other mystical order of death defying people known as Surgeons and Doctors.) so Anakin can decide that saving his wife from dying is worth KILLING CHILDREN (WTF!? Would any of you kill children to save your wives lives?! I fucking hope not), betraying all his friends, basically throwing away all the training he spent his life on, and helping an ancient evil Sith Lord take over the ENTIRE GALAXY.

Which is sort of like a story about a Holocaust survivor who finds out his wife is going to die so he resurrects Hitler, reinstates the Third Reich, helps Hitler take over the world and kills all the Jews himself.... Sounds plausible right?

The only thing left to ask about the prequels is what the fuck Lucas was on and where can we all get some?

I really would have loved them if it were not for the stupid JarJarBinks character. He makes me want to shoot my television. I would have liked to have seen the first sith apprentice included into more of that episode as well. Other than that I like them for the most part. Just watch the Lord of the Rings movies after you are done and you will feel better