So, there I was, scrolling to see what people had to say... I saw this post, and I catch this reluctant villainous laugh, "Mmmwuhhhuhahha..." Suddenly escaping From my own lips now quaking But on it went For minutes yet And now I'm writing poems I'm calming now And sad somehow For I have what Younglings lack You see, my breath came back
Something really amazing here is that in the fight choreography, Count Dooku tries to go cut of Anakin's arm again. But because Anakin learned from that duel, he sees it coming and acts accordingly by dropping his saber into his other hand so he can move his arm out of the way and stay on the offensive since he didn't have to move his saber away from Dooku's body, not giving Dooku any chance to recover from the missed swing. Beautifully done.
Same goes for Obi-Wan during the Mustafar duel. He sees the move that cut off Dooku's hands coming and counters it. There's some high level 4D chess embedded in prequels choreography.
They honestly made a mistake bringing Christensen back for _Ahsoka._ Not because he's no good, but because when it comes to the saber duels, he is obviously so much better than everyone else that you can tell he's really holding back just so they can keep up with him.
I agree with another commenter. While they do screw up a LOT in these shows, Anakin is supposed to be one of the best to ever live in most aspects of being Jedi/Sith/whatever (most if not all skills) and honestly if he comes off a bit full power Neo vs. Ahsoka I guess that's fine. Lets be honest. She is incredibly low skill level in this show. Nearly all the time it's amazing she ever survives anything. Vs. Anakin ... a laugh. He would win every time if she had 1000 attempts.
There's so much Star Wars content now that it's hard to keep up with, but Hayden's lightsaber skills significantly raises my interest in Ahsoka. I want to see him make everyone look less skilled by comparison.
He did great. Only real counterargument people could muster is him being whiny. But he’s a hormonal teen who has also been a slave all his life. It made sense.
I never had a problem with him as an actor, I only had a problem with Anakin seemingly falling to the dark side so quickly (This being before the clone wars cartoons and expanded story)
The prequels had some truly incredible lightsaber duels. I really respect Hayden and Ewan's dedication to their craft in terms of their skill and practice for the lightsaber duels. And that move with the lightsaber switching mid battle was pretty neat ngl
Truly. Some of the criticisms those movies get are fair (particularly about the some of the dialogue and acting), but the duels really stand out as one of the best elements. Just so amazing. And the music--those two things go hand in hand.
@@Darkness-ie2yl yeah I grew up w the prequels too, so it feels good to have fans who once disliked them reconsider after how bad the sequels were. I’ve always felt the story of the prequels and lightsaber duels were great, they were mainly held back by poor dialogue
I challenge anyone who believes that fight was good to watch the throne room fight in slowmo in EP8 with the disappearing weapons, people waiting patiently next to Rey for their turns to attack, or when she misses her mark they just collapse and run in a direction aimlessly. It's a joke and its a pretty bad one lol
Some of the fights in the sequels were cringe, but I remember being in the crowd when "Clones" came out and the Yoda/Dooku fight happened...EVERYONE laughed, and not in a "wow, this is so cool" way. I remember being embarrassed watching that scene.
I learnt Stage Combat from Kyle Rowling (Count Dooku) he was also the choreographer for the fights in Star Wars, he made a very big point that people unfairly were harsh on Hayden and that he was an absolute talent, very hardworking and a natural combatant.
@@alieninsectbass it was indeed! He was a great teacher and also a pretty funny guy. I definitely look back fondly on those classes it's such an underrated artform. Script writers normally just write dialogue and then the action "and then they fight" which is crazy because so much character development can be revealed from the choreo
Yo, that saber catch is smooth af. IDK how impractical it might be, but Star Wars has always been more in favor of the rule of cool, and that should have been in the movie.
It’s cool but also useful. It’s a way of dodging an attack to his arm without having to move his lightsaber away from the enemy, turning his situation from a defensive one to an offensive one in a split second (and giving the enemy almost no time to defend him/herself). It’s an extremely practical move, that happens to look smooth af.
Look at the other guy's move - he was gonna slice his hand off with an upward slash. It's flashy but not completely impractical. Realistically, letting go of your weapon is always a big no-no, and he could have taken the saber away with the hand and attempted to slice at Dooku's head.
People back then didn't appreciate hayden, now everyone's a fan of him. Why did we ever need that first step? Why can't people just appreciate how good of an actor and duelist he is from the start? He is one of the greatest actors i've ever seen, you don't feel like you're watching a person acting as anakin, you feel like you're watching anakin, he is an incredible duelist in real life as well, imagine trying to do half of what he's doing
That's what is funny, while admittedly, I have never been more than a casual fan, but in those two Prequel movies, when I saw them in the theatre, the thing I took into consideration is who Anakin was in the first one. Beyond anything to do with the force, he was a child prodigy. With regards to mechanics and electronics. The inner workings of things, as it were. So, to me it always stood to reason, that he would be the same way as an adult. So I always took the things Hayden was deeply criticized for (Like his constant hesitating and such), as just how the role was. As if he was just constantly observing and analyzing.
As sad as that is, he just took the bullet that should've been aimed at old Georgie's bad character writing. It's not the rarest thing, for actor to be blamed for the portrayal of character due to no fault of his own. And he's really tried - he might not be a some sort of legendary actor, but he was (and is) good at his job. Just fucking unlucky.
well, he was passable as a dramatic actor, but still amazing in physical scenes like this. the reason peopled have warmed over time i believe is because disney has shown just how bad it CAN be and by comparison the prequels don't seem that bad. they are just viewed relative to hot garbage, not some of the most iconic films of all time.
Episode 3 was violent. Episodes 1 and 2 were honestly the most kid friendly Star Wars movies out there besides that one Clone Wars movie I do not choose to acknowledge
How? TPM has a main character getting impaled, Maul getting chopped in half with some blood mist, AOTC opens with a bombing, has centipede assassin bugs, Shmi’s torture, the first time in a Star Wars movie where women and children are discussed on being killed, and the first decapitation in a SW movie. I don’t think outside of Obi-Wan in the Cantina, so we see another limb get severed in a SW film. Not to mention green Geonosian guts when Anakin slices through them in the Factory.
Some of the sequels get pretty up there, more than ep 1/2 and the OT but not quite ep 3 imo, mostly cause of Anakin killing kids and him also getting burnt alive. Then again some of the Disney series like Obi-Wan do get pretty brutal in comparison.
He's a great swordplay actor. He really caries that fight with Obi Wan all the way to the end. It's about his descent into hell and the range of emotions across his face, combined with the increasingly erratic and violent way he fights in that duel.
@@PedroMcCloud then why is Ewan Mcgregor's acting fine, and everyone else in the prequels? Can't blame the direction there. Why is Hayden not known for any other roles? It's very simple. He's a famously bad actor. Edit: he WAS a bad actor in the prequels. Not bad in Ahsoka at all
@@yeeaahBUDDY hayden was bad and ewan wasnt because they played different characters and the way he was directed to play anakin was to be very akward and cringy and obi wan was not written or directed to be super cringe
He was so good and naturally talented that when he was brought back for Ahsoka they had to nerf him, you can just tell he wanted to let loose but he wasnt allowed to.
I had to rewind and slow down that moment where he drops the lightsaber and catches it on his off-hand several times because my mind was like "WHAT???"
That same "catch the saber in the other hand to doge a swing" move is used to excellent effect in the fan-film Ryan vs. Dorkman II and I'm wondering if they were inspired to do that by this footage or if they came up with that idea independently. Amazing lightsaber fight if you haven't seen it, highly suggest checking it out
0:12 that was like a Jackie Chan with a prop kinda move where he takes his grip off the lightsaber to avoid a slash from Dooku and grabs it again while it just sorta floats there. Never caught that before
Hollywood is getting lazy. Hayden's saber play is head and shoulders above everyone else because they put a real emphasis on training the choreography back then. They don't do that now.
It is the writing. Some of the lines he had to deliver in episode 2 and 3 were like something out of a bargain bin Nicholas Sparks "novel." I also think he was far better showing emotion in 3 than 2, but you can't really out-act bad dialogue.
@@slayerhuh404 I mean I'm not gonna like If Natalie was sitting across the table in that black dress she wore in EPII I'm pretty sure I would be "wooden" as well. :)
@@slayerhuh404 - well, his character is a teenager who was born into slavery, then abruptly taken away from his mother, his newly acquired father-figure suddenly murdered and him being transferred to a life in a martial cult monastery, where half the adepts were telling him that he was the chosen one, while the others treated him as a dangerous and unwanted aberration. He seems wooden because his character was supposed to feel wooden. At the very least he'd have been diagnosed with CPTSD in real life. That traumatisation + lack of any social experience + teenage hormones + sudden privacy with a female of his pre-pubescent dreams + his reunion with his mother instantly ending up with her dying in his arms... => "I hate sand" is more than an appropriate reaction...
@@Othaman999 definitely not, George cannot write dialogue, and it was painful to listen to. Even some of the best actors in the world would struggle to make that sound normal, and you have to remember that writing often dictates how the actor is supposed to act, in this case he supposed to act awkward
You can act awkward unawkwardly, good actors do it all the time even with bad writing. Christensen isn't a good actor. He is actually quite bad. What he IS is a great showman and stunt performer, but that doesn't mean you can make lines work.
I mean... and what? We all say corny cheesy things to people we love when no one else knows about it. What they wanted is for him to have no emotion of humanity at all. He's a character in love with a whole lot of weight on his mind. And young. These idiots don't want people to actually act. They want lifeless and talentless characters.
He was a 19 year old who had no actual father and kept getting traumatized with scenes of his mother dying (By palpatine), I don't think his interactions with Padme were unrealistic, they were cringe but I think he fit perfectly the "90s/early 2000s angsty teen" role, which Anakin basically was.
Actually, the sand phrase has cool, deep meaning (heard somewhere): Padme "likes" the sand, because she was raised in Nabu, the sand is assosiated with beaches, relax, and stuff like that. Meanwhile, Anakin was raised on Tatooin, for him sand is associated with desert, sandstorm, etc. so he really doesn't likes it. This dialog kinda reminds us of his rough past.
when you get a fresh, young actor and give him the role as a master swordsman in one of the biggest franchises in the world, there's no way that dude isn't gonna go 150%
Star Trek and GoT have epic world building. Star Wars is Samurai Castle Attack in space, with some elephant ma looks thrown in. Ever notice how half the planets seem to be a variation on "empty desert world with bounty hunters" or "busy busy city, with bounty hunters"?
0:22 That is a sick move. Edit: It's also a counter to what Dooku did to him in the earlier fight I suppose; if he didn't do that he'd lose another hand.
His duel against Ashoka is one of the few good things about the show. There was so much intensity, style and character in his movement that completely set it apart from the sluggish action in most of that show.
Are you talking about Vader's duel with Ahsoka in the cartoon, Star Wars Rebels? Because this video is about actor Hayden Christensen and his performance in the live-action movie, Revenge of the Sith.
The prequals are just amazing. The issue with the writing is that the writing was less normal talking and more Shakespeareian, so of course, the lines sound dramatic, yet not natural.
The Prequels just had a bit...too much talking and dragging into the first 2, but the Lightsaber duels in each made up for it. They were well done. The movies get brutal too, which is something star wars shouldn't be afraid to hold back on, due to the galaxy's nature. When disney bought Star Wars, they added on more dark elements, like showing the younglings being slaughtered, while George Lucas cut that down to a holo recording cuz it was too dark.
I agree. The first film especially. Phantom Menace had so many damn political and just people talking and arguing with each other, that it’s a total slog to get through. Pod race scene and Darth Maul fight excluded.
@@scrotor189The fight scene with Darth Maul made everything else in that movie worth it, even that weird droid battle that took place on the Windows XP desktop image.
I really never understood the hate towards Hayden. I always thought the movies were amazing and found out years later people had some weird problem with him. Why? His acting is great, the saber fights were amazing and generally the movies were and are thrilling to watch.
I've been a fan of Hayden since I saw him in the prequels. I saw him in Jumper and that just solidified my love for his acting. People whine about his acting in the prequels not realizing that it was the writing that was terrible and not the acting. He went based on what they wanted for the films, the lines were never on him. In Jumper he's awkward as hell and just so weird, BUT that's exactly who his character is in the movie. His character finds out he has these powers to "Jump" to locations he wants to go as a young teen and then he just becomes a loner for the rest of his teen years up until it shows him (Hayden) as an adult and then when he encounters the girl he had a crush on back in the day, he's awkward and weird not really sure how to talk to her WHICH MAKES SENSE. The fucking guy had been alone for most of his life, never making friends and never talking to people. The same can be said for Anakin, he was just a child when he was bought and taken from his mother in order to become a Jedi. He didn't know much of anything in life and he grew up to be this awkward guy who just didn't understand anything but eventually fell in love with a former Queen and they had to keep their relationship a secret.
Ive seen Jumper. You are wearing nostalgia goggles because he wasn't even as good in Jumper as he was in Sith, and that was mostly a good physical and facial acting performance. Its awesome to like him and he seems really cool, but let's not be sycophants here.
Once I saw this clip the first time, I have been so angry the took the saber drop out of this fight. It was so damn good. Such a missed opportunity. Hayden was a magician with that saber.
I always thought all the acting was spot on for a galaxy far far away. Also considering how Anakin was raised. He didn't have the best social skills. And we saw that done very damn well. He deserves all the love he didn't get back then. And some
All three trilogies had amazing fight sequences but the prequels were the first time it was so intense (prime example: mustafar) especially because it had been so many years since the OT. Thats why lightsaber fights of the prequels hit different.
To be fair, he got months of training and practice over years and continued to work at it after the performance, whereas Dawson probably got a few weeks training, tops.
It's funny how the prequels were hated for being too political plot-wise with clunky dialogue. Then Disney came along and made the rotten fecal dumpster fire that's the sequel trilogy and shows. And now the prequels look like fricking Shakespeare 😂😂😂
I think that Hayden had the same problem as Robbert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart. They are great actors which were given the instruction of "be as much of a plank as you can". Whenever there wre some time of emotion, the director probably yelled at them "NO NO NO, No emotion! We are on our emotionless-phase in cinema, because no emotions means profound and deep!"
it'll happen..no doubts. it's why your comm wont get likes..they know it's true. ppl have painted themselves lightyears into a corner on anti sequel vitriol..its amazing. there are more examples of this effect..in the movies..auto industry...etc.
Nah, just look at the lightsaber duels of the prequels compared to the sequels.... The prequel looked at the lightsaber duels in the original movies like: "well okay, but at that time, in the storyline it's almost a lost art and they had no blueprint on how to do epic lightsaber battles because they are the blueprint". The sequels though... They looked at the prequels and original movies and were like: "the prequels are too hard and difficult with choreography~ it's unfair, let's slow it down again" *proceeds to degrade lightsaber duels into 2 people just wailing on each other or swinging for the fences with no focus, like a bunch of cavemen*
And in that same movie a boy's foster parents are literally set on fire and left as smoldering skeletons. And in Empire a man beats his son nearly to death before maiming him. And in Jedi a giant slug is strangled with a rusty chain after feeding his slaves to a monster in a pit. I am not sure where the "old Star wars had no violence" trope comes from. Do these fanboys even watch the films?
I was not kidding when I said Hayden's the Chosen One born to play the Chosen One Prequels Forever and yeah Starwars as a whole but mainly Prequels Forever❤️🤷♀️
prequels are always such a fun watch. They dont have the best acting, cgi, or script but they have a charm you cant find anywhere else. And the lightsaber duels are so iconic too, especially Obi wan vs Anakin. Watching it with the boys and finnding all the iconic memes and scenes is also p funny too
By who? They made millions, have a devoted cult following, and even had ok reviews at the time (not Clones. If you claim to like Clones I know you are fucking around). Who is under rating these films? If anything they get too much benefit of the doubt from nostalgia-drunk nerds and anti-Disney partisans.
If I remember correctly new Star Wars actors have studied exactly what Hayden and Ewan do in order to get the combat and form right during training and when Hayden found that out he was like "I was just making shit up, why are they doing that lol" specifically I think it was his like twirl spin move that he does.
I dunno if Hayden was just a bad actor or if he was directed to be as much of a whiny child as possible (probably the latter) but I feel like he could've brought to screen a much more believable performance without playing it up to whiny-baby man-child extremes, but that is probably what George wanted so... Not really his fault. But nobody can deny his lightsabering was top tier. I'm guessing George in his view specific and inflexible view of the world just couldn't envision a more realistic human turning evil so quickly, so he had to just make him an extremely emotionally unstable kid so it would be believable in his mind. I would've loved to see a more nuanced and realistic depiction. I mean they gave Anakin a lot of motivation and incentive to turn against the Jedi, but going from Jedi Knight to killing younglings was a little too fast. Its believable he would've turned on them, and I could see how decades in service to the emperor, especially after being maimed, would make him more bitter and hateful than ever and drive him to do awful things later, but I just can't see Anakin chopping down kids so quickly, especially as a father expecting a kid soon. Maybe one day when AI is good enough to fully generate whole movies with the acting and script and everything, maybe we can get a fan made creation of a better version of the story that seems more plausible and sensible.
Glad I was 7 years old and "bad dialogue" wasn't even a concept to me when RotS came out, I didn't understand half the dialogue in movies anyways lol. I grew up thinking Anakin was the coolest and was definitely a butthurt fanboy when I found out people hated on him for the prequels. The parts they don't like wouldn't have been better with another actor saying the same lines, and the overall portrayal of Anakin would have suffered greatly without Hayden. I'm glad these days he's getting the love he deserves.
The thing about the prequels that never gets old, is the younglings
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
Bruh
yea they wont ever get old cause they dead lol
@@jadonfideler3138 super sleuth
So, there I was, scrolling to see what people had to say...
I saw this post, and I catch this reluctant villainous laugh, "Mmmwuhhhuhahha..."
Suddenly escaping
From my own lips now quaking
But on it went
For minutes yet
And now I'm writing poems
I'm calming now
And sad somehow
For I have what Younglings lack
You see, my breath came back
Something really amazing here is that in the fight choreography, Count Dooku tries to go cut of Anakin's arm again. But because Anakin learned from that duel, he sees it coming and acts accordingly by dropping his saber into his other hand so he can move his arm out of the way and stay on the offensive since he didn't have to move his saber away from Dooku's body, not giving Dooku any chance to recover from the missed swing. Beautifully done.
..the best comments are always underrrated. thnx for the cool insight
I never realized that
Heck yeah.
Same goes for Obi-Wan during the Mustafar duel. He sees the move that cut off Dooku's hands coming and counters it. There's some high level 4D chess embedded in prequels choreography.
it's like poetry it rhymes @@LCTesla
They honestly made a mistake bringing Christensen back for _Ahsoka._ Not because he's no good, but because when it comes to the saber duels, he is obviously so much better than everyone else that you can tell he's really holding back just so they can keep up with him.
I mean, that's pretty close to canon anyway, so seems like a win-win to me.
@@sbcguitarist eh, the choreography could be better
You had me in the first half😂😊
I agree with another commenter. While they do screw up a LOT in these shows, Anakin is supposed to be one of the best to ever live in most aspects of being Jedi/Sith/whatever (most if not all skills) and honestly if he comes off a bit full power Neo vs. Ahsoka I guess that's fine.
Lets be honest. She is incredibly low skill level in this show. Nearly all the time it's amazing she ever survives anything. Vs. Anakin ... a laugh. He would win every time if she had 1000 attempts.
There's so much Star Wars content now that it's hard to keep up with, but Hayden's lightsaber skills significantly raises my interest in Ahsoka. I want to see him make everyone look less skilled by comparison.
A lot of people don’t like Hayden because of his acting in the prequel’s but to me I think he is the perfect Anakin Skywalker
i think he did a great job in rots especially conveying emotion through facial expression
@@aamirrazak3467 agreed
He did great. Only real counterargument people could muster is him being whiny. But he’s a hormonal teen who has also been a slave all his life. It made sense.
I think he would have done better with a decent script.
I never had a problem with him as an actor, I only had a problem with Anakin seemingly falling to the dark side so quickly (This being before the clone wars cartoons and expanded story)
The prequels had some truly incredible lightsaber duels. I really respect Hayden and Ewan's dedication to their craft in terms of their skill and practice for the lightsaber duels. And that move with the lightsaber switching mid battle was pretty neat ngl
Truly. Some of the criticisms those movies get are fair (particularly about the some of the dialogue and acting), but the duels really stand out as one of the best elements. Just so amazing. And the music--those two things go hand in hand.
@@zoyadulzura7490 yea agreed and I think the prequel duels are arguably the greatest lightsaber duels in the whole franchise
Some professional sword fighter who travelled a ren faire circuit definitely tried to find a window to pull that off. Did he ever?
you have no idea how awesome it feels having defended the prequels for decades only to have everyone now recant because of how bad the last ones are 😄
@@Darkness-ie2yl yeah I grew up w the prequels too, so it feels good to have fans who once disliked them reconsider after how bad the sequels were. I’ve always felt the story of the prequels and lightsaber duels were great, they were mainly held back by poor dialogue
Hayden had the perfect look & voice for anakin. I cant picture anyone else ever replacing him. GOAT
I think I like Clone Wars Anakin. Have you seen the fan made revenge of the sith in Clone Wars style? Pretty legit.
And like 20 years later, we have Reylo baseball battling each other like toddlers. What an improvement.
I challenge anyone who believes that fight was good to watch the throne room fight in slowmo in EP8 with the disappearing weapons, people waiting patiently next to Rey for their turns to attack, or when she misses her mark they just collapse and run in a direction aimlessly. It's a joke and its a pretty bad one lol
"Unnecessary spinning of sabers from the Mustafar fight" enters chat.
"Hello, I would like to talk to you about something..."@@neutchain7838
@@neutchain7838 "Patiently waiting their turn." Lmao! That's so true! Compare that to the 2nd Dooku fight in RotS.
Some of the fights in the sequels were cringe, but I remember being in the crowd when "Clones" came out and the Yoda/Dooku fight happened...EVERYONE laughed, and not in a "wow, this is so cool" way. I remember being embarrassed watching that scene.
@@neutchain7838Dude you could shoot me in the stomach and I would still say that fight is trash.
I learnt Stage Combat from Kyle Rowling (Count Dooku) he was also the choreographer for the fights in Star Wars, he made a very big point that people unfairly were harsh on Hayden and that he was an absolute talent, very hardworking and a natural combatant.
Dannnng that's sick, that must've been an absolute honor. And I absolutely agree with Rowling! Hayden was super underrated up till now.
@@alieninsectbass it was indeed! He was a great teacher and also a pretty funny guy. I definitely look back fondly on those classes it's such an underrated artform. Script writers normally just write dialogue and then the action "and then they fight" which is crazy because so much character development can be revealed from the choreo
The prequels were amazing, where actually good saber fights took place
The fights are one thing that the prequels easily blow the originals out of the water.
Ep 6 vader vs luke is surprisingly good
the lightsaber duels in the prequels were the best in the series imo
Well other than some bad cuts the fights are really good
Never better since or before.
In the movies, I mean. Not talking about anything animated.
Yo, that saber catch is smooth af. IDK how impractical it might be, but Star Wars has always been more in favor of the rule of cool, and that should have been in the movie.
last time they fought Anakin lost his hand, so he was supposed to bait the old man. Just like Obi baited Maul in their final fight on Tatooine.
@@CommonSenzMy eyes aren't fast enough to see if that's really what's happening, but I like this explanation.
It’s cool but also useful. It’s a way of dodging an attack to his arm without having to move his lightsaber away from the enemy, turning his situation from a defensive one to an offensive one in a split second (and giving the enemy almost no time to defend him/herself). It’s an extremely practical move, that happens to look smooth af.
Look at the other guy's move - he was gonna slice his hand off with an upward slash. It's flashy but not completely impractical. Realistically, letting go of your weapon is always a big no-no, and he could have taken the saber away with the hand and attempted to slice at Dooku's head.
People back then didn't appreciate hayden, now everyone's a fan of him. Why did we ever need that first step? Why can't people just appreciate how good of an actor and duelist he is from the start? He is one of the greatest actors i've ever seen, you don't feel like you're watching a person acting as anakin, you feel like you're watching anakin, he is an incredible duelist in real life as well, imagine trying to do half of what he's doing
That's what is funny, while admittedly, I have never been more than a casual fan, but in those two Prequel movies, when I saw them in the theatre, the thing I took into consideration is who Anakin was in the first one.
Beyond anything to do with the force, he was a child prodigy. With regards to mechanics and electronics. The inner workings of things, as it were. So, to me it always stood to reason, that he would be the same way as an adult. So I always took the things Hayden was deeply criticized for (Like his constant hesitating and such), as just how the role was. As if he was just constantly observing and analyzing.
He’s not one of the greatest actors imo but still gave a very good performance, especially in the lightsaber fights.
As sad as that is, he just took the bullet that should've been aimed at old Georgie's bad character writing. It's not the rarest thing, for actor to be blamed for the portrayal of character due to no fault of his own. And he's really tried - he might not be a some sort of legendary actor, but he was (and is) good at his job.
Just fucking unlucky.
well, he was passable as a dramatic actor, but still amazing in physical scenes like this. the reason peopled have warmed over time i believe is because disney has shown just how bad it CAN be and by comparison the prequels don't seem that bad. they are just viewed relative to hot garbage, not some of the most iconic films of all time.
Dude, he's bad... There's a reason there's no notable movies from him next to Star Wars.
These videos are echo chambers because you like him.
He has carried this seires. Im glad hes receiving the admiration he always deserved
Prequels were the 3 most violent star wars films yet they were the ones that were made just before Disney bought Star Wars
Episode 3 was violent.
Episodes 1 and 2 were honestly the most kid friendly Star Wars movies out there besides that one Clone Wars movie I do not choose to acknowledge
Episode 1 wasn’t violent, 2 and especially 3 are candidates for that title, though.
How? TPM has a main character getting impaled, Maul getting chopped in half with some blood mist, AOTC opens with a bombing, has centipede assassin bugs, Shmi’s torture, the first time in a Star Wars movie where women and children are discussed on being killed, and the first decapitation in a SW movie. I don’t think outside of Obi-Wan in the Cantina, so we see another limb get severed in a SW film.
Not to mention green Geonosian guts when Anakin slices through them in the Factory.
Some of the sequels get pretty up there, more than ep 1/2 and the OT but not quite ep 3 imo, mostly cause of Anakin killing kids and him also getting burnt alive. Then again some of the Disney series like Obi-Wan do get pretty brutal in comparison.
@@deliveranze3342 pretty cheesy tho
Hayden’s skill and dedication reminds me of keanu reeves in the john wick movies
He's really good at acting with his body - all the duels, subtle changes in how he walks after becoming Darth Vader...
He's a great swordplay actor. He really caries that fight with Obi Wan all the way to the end. It's about his descent into hell and the range of emotions across his face, combined with the increasingly erratic and violent way he fights in that duel.
Hayden's a beast. He's so good people don't realize he MADE US hate him
Haha it's not that complicated. He was just a terrible actor.
Im not sure you can blamee the acting, he was cursed with terrible direction.@@yeeaahBUDDY
@@PedroMcCloud then why is Ewan Mcgregor's acting fine, and everyone else in the prequels? Can't blame the direction there. Why is Hayden not known for any other roles? It's very simple. He's a famously bad actor.
Edit: he WAS a bad actor in the prequels. Not bad in Ahsoka at all
@@yeeaahBUDDY hayden was bad and ewan wasnt because they played different characters and the way he was directed to play anakin was to be very akward and cringy and obi wan was not written or directed to be super cringe
@@thisfeatureissostupid lol ok buddy
He was so good and naturally talented that when he was brought back for Ahsoka they had to nerf him, you can just tell he wanted to let loose but he wasnt allowed to.
I had to rewind and slow down that moment where he drops the lightsaber and catches it on his off-hand several times because my mind was like "WHAT???"
omg same
That same "catch the saber in the other hand to doge a swing" move is used to excellent effect in the fan-film Ryan vs. Dorkman II and I'm wondering if they were inspired to do that by this footage or if they came up with that idea independently. Amazing lightsaber fight if you haven't seen it, highly suggest checking it out
Link please.
Link?
0:12 that was like a Jackie Chan with a prop kinda move where he takes his grip off the lightsaber to avoid a slash from Dooku and grabs it again while it just sorta floats there. Never caught that before
Hollywood is getting lazy. Hayden's saber play is head and shoulders above everyone else because they put a real emphasis on training the choreography back then. They don't do that now.
Anakin's Saber drop was epic
Hayden never seemed like he had bad acting to me, growing up with it and now as an adult I still don’t see bad acting.
Some of his scenes with Natalie Portperson seemed a bit wooden, but I thought his acting in the Revenge of the Sith was superb.
It is the writing. Some of the lines he had to deliver in episode 2 and 3 were like something out of a bargain bin Nicholas Sparks "novel." I also think he was far better showing emotion in 3 than 2, but you can't really out-act bad dialogue.
@@slayerhuh404 I mean I'm not gonna like If Natalie was sitting across the table in that black dress she wore in EPII I'm pretty sure I would be "wooden" as well. :)
@@neutchain7838 ayyyyy lmao
@@slayerhuh404 - well, his character is a teenager who was born into slavery, then abruptly taken away from his mother, his newly acquired father-figure suddenly murdered and him being transferred to a life in a martial cult monastery, where half the adepts were telling him that he was the chosen one, while the others treated him as a dangerous and unwanted aberration. He seems wooden because his character was supposed to feel wooden. At the very least he'd have been diagnosed with CPTSD in real life.
That traumatisation + lack of any social experience + teenage hormones + sudden privacy with a female of his pre-pubescent dreams + his reunion with his mother instantly ending up with her dying in his arms... => "I hate sand" is more than an appropriate reaction...
The prequel fights were so badass!
It's not his acting, it's George's writing.
Bad actors can still spoil a good writing, it definitely is his acting
@@Othaman999 definitely not, George cannot write dialogue, and it was painful to listen to. Even some of the best actors in the world would struggle to make that sound normal, and you have to remember that writing often dictates how the actor is supposed to act, in this case he supposed to act awkward
You can act awkward unawkwardly, good actors do it all the time even with bad writing. Christensen isn't a good actor. He is actually quite bad. What he IS is a great showman and stunt performer, but that doesn't mean you can make lines work.
@@Othaman999get real
tbh he nailed the role. THe only parts that make ppl think he acted badly, and tbh I get it. Are interactions of him with Padme. Like the sand meme.
I mean... and what? We all say corny cheesy things to people we love when no one else knows about it. What they wanted is for him to have no emotion of humanity at all. He's a character in love with a whole lot of weight on his mind. And young. These idiots don't want people to actually act. They want lifeless and talentless characters.
If you've ever listened to a young man try to flirt, you'd know that all his lines are totally believable. Perfect portrayal.
If you've ever lived in the desert, the sand line doesn't seem bad at all. Or maybe its just me...
He was a 19 year old who had no actual father and kept getting traumatized with scenes of his mother dying (By palpatine), I don't think his interactions with Padme were unrealistic, they were cringe but I think he fit perfectly the "90s/early 2000s angsty teen" role, which Anakin basically was.
Actually, the sand phrase has cool, deep meaning (heard somewhere): Padme "likes" the sand, because she was raised in Nabu, the sand is assosiated with beaches, relax, and stuff like that. Meanwhile, Anakin was raised on Tatooin, for him sand is associated with desert, sandstorm, etc. so he really doesn't likes it. This dialog kinda reminds us of his rough past.
when you get a fresh, young actor and give him the role as a master swordsman in one of the biggest franchises in the world, there's no way that dude isn't gonna go 150%
The droping the sabre thing. dope.
We need a character that disengages their sabre several times mid battle to throw the enemy off balance.
Lucas couldn't write dialogue to save his life, but his worldbuilding and casting are legendary
Star Trek and GoT have epic world building. Star Wars is Samurai Castle Attack in space, with some elephant ma looks thrown in. Ever notice how half the planets seem to be a variation on "empty desert world with bounty hunters" or "busy busy city, with bounty hunters"?
just imagine if we could get just one more star wars movie like these
You mean shitty and badly written?
Hayden is the man
"The Chosen One" after all...
This really shows how dedicated Hayden was, imagine the amount of actual training and practice that is required to achieve this.
But we mustn't forget the importance of Thomas to these scenes.
The Clone Wars we're also violent and they say that show is for kids. It's my favorite show
0:20 This move is amazing
He is the PERFECT Anakin Skywalker
If I remember right, the scenes with Ewan had to actually be slowed down because he was such a menace on set.
He has that look of determination and hidden savagery in his eyes, even when practicing. Damn!
0:22 That is a sick move.
Edit: It's also a counter to what Dooku did to him in the earlier fight I suppose; if he didn't do that he'd lose another hand.
That’s a great observation, not gonna lie.
back when they actually had badass lightsaber fights
We’re keepers of the peace not soldiers
Cuts to every brutal Jedi kill
i still wish for "a revenge of the sith" director's cut version where the entire battle against the mighty younglings is shown
The Prequels Are Fire Man
facts especially rots and the end with vader on mustafar being burnt to a crisp
@@aamirrazak3467 ah yeah for sure man definitely one of the greatest moments in the Star Wars Prequels
Still sends shivers down the spine when I watch this mans duels
His duel against Ashoka is one of the few good things about the show. There was so much intensity, style and character in his movement that completely set it apart from the sluggish action in most of that show.
Are you talking about Vader's duel with Ahsoka in the cartoon, Star Wars Rebels? Because this video is about actor Hayden Christensen and his performance in the live-action movie, Revenge of the Sith.
@@ImCptnAwesome ah I was talking about his duel in the live action Ashoka. I probs should've been more specific
@@cal7447 Oh I forgot about the world between worlds duel.
Idk how ppl used to actually dislike Hayden. Anakin in episode 3 is my fav character ever in star wars and its mainly because of Hayden's performance
The prequals are just amazing.
The issue with the writing is that the writing was less normal talking and more Shakespeareian, so of course, the lines sound dramatic, yet not natural.
Tell me you've never read Shakespeare or seen it performed without saying you've never read Shakespeare or seen it performed.
Saw the video of the deleted scene for this and its ON ANOTHER LEVEL !
The Prequels just had a bit...too much talking and dragging into the first 2, but the Lightsaber duels in each made up for it. They were well done. The movies get brutal too, which is something star wars shouldn't be afraid to hold back on, due to the galaxy's nature. When disney bought Star Wars, they added on more dark elements, like showing the younglings being slaughtered, while George Lucas cut that down to a holo recording cuz it was too dark.
I agree. The first film especially. Phantom Menace had so many damn political and just people talking and arguing with each other, that it’s a total slog to get through. Pod race scene and Darth Maul fight excluded.
Wait, when do they show younglings being slaughtered? (I have not kept up with current Star Wars content.)
@@scrotor189The fight scene with Darth Maul made everything else in that movie worth it, even that weird droid battle that took place on the Windows XP desktop image.
in the Obi wan show. Anakin and the 501st walk down a hallway purging the younglings in a flash back@@zoyadulzura7490
Star wars is goated. Regardless of it's crappy sequels, there is still enjoyment out of it@@scrotor189
It is insane how much effort they put in
I never understood the hate Hayden got back then. I was always behind him in Episode 2 & 3.
May the non-Disney Force be with him. 🙏
Episode 3 he is very fun. I find it hard to believe even a die hard fan would have positive feedback for his Episode 2 performance
Hayden showing that he is more of an ACTor than an Actor.
I really never understood the hate towards Hayden. I always thought the movies were amazing and found out years later people had some weird problem with him. Why? His acting is great, the saber fights were amazing and generally the movies were and are thrilling to watch.
He was given bad direction and an awful script and people blamed him for it.
Then why didn't McGregor or McDiarmid or Lee sound as bad delivering lines that were just as badly written as Christensen got?
I had to slow this down to realize how impressive this is
I've been a fan of Hayden since I saw him in the prequels. I saw him in Jumper and that just solidified my love for his acting. People whine about his acting in the prequels not realizing that it was the writing that was terrible and not the acting. He went based on what they wanted for the films, the lines were never on him. In Jumper he's awkward as hell and just so weird, BUT that's exactly who his character is in the movie. His character finds out he has these powers to "Jump" to locations he wants to go as a young teen and then he just becomes a loner for the rest of his teen years up until it shows him (Hayden) as an adult and then when he encounters the girl he had a crush on back in the day, he's awkward and weird not really sure how to talk to her WHICH MAKES SENSE. The fucking guy had been alone for most of his life, never making friends and never talking to people. The same can be said for Anakin, he was just a child when he was bought and taken from his mother in order to become a Jedi. He didn't know much of anything in life and he grew up to be this awkward guy who just didn't understand anything but eventually fell in love with a former Queen and they had to keep their relationship a secret.
Ive seen Jumper. You are wearing nostalgia goggles because he wasn't even as good in Jumper as he was in Sith, and that was mostly a good physical and facial acting performance. Its awesome to like him and he seems really cool, but let's not be sycophants here.
Once I saw this clip the first time, I have been so angry the took the saber drop out of this fight. It was so damn good. Such a missed opportunity. Hayden was a magician with that saber.
"The prequels had everything!"
Cool stuff
Jedi
Sith
Clones
Droids
Politics
Bad dialog
Story
Death
Violence
Power
Balance
A force.
may a force be with you
I always thought all the acting was spot on for a galaxy far far away. Also considering how Anakin was raised. He didn't have the best social skills. And we saw that done very damn well. He deserves all the love he didn't get back then. And some
All three trilogies had amazing fight sequences but the prequels were the first time it was so intense (prime example: mustafar) especially because it had been so many years since the OT. Thats why lightsaber fights of the prequels hit different.
Sequel trilogy is rubbish. Lazy, weak fights.
Hayden got hosed by bad direction. He was capable of the role.
...And bad writing, and he was given too much to do given his limited acting chops
Unpopular opinion: I don’t mind the prequel’s except Phantom Menace. Phantom Menace sucks
you are right.
but at least it gave us qui gon, maul, duel of fates, and a badass lightsaber fight at the end.
not really unpopular anymore everyone loves the prequels especially rots
Phantom Menace has Ben Quadinaros. Your opinion is invalidated. :P
@@imimori yea that’s good
You can still see this in Ahsoka, it's clear that Hayden is holding back against Rosario.
To be fair, he got months of training and practice over years and continued to work at it after the performance, whereas Dawson probably got a few weeks training, tops.
It's funny how the prequels were hated for being too political plot-wise with clunky dialogue. Then Disney came along and made the rotten fecal dumpster fire that's the sequel trilogy and shows. And now the prequels look like fricking Shakespeare 😂😂😂
I think that Hayden had the same problem as Robbert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart.
They are great actors which were given the instruction of "be as much of a plank as you can". Whenever there wre some time of emotion, the director probably yelled at them "NO NO NO, No emotion! We are on our emotionless-phase in cinema, because no emotions means profound and deep!"
People 20 years from now: The sequel trilogy was amazing.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
it'll happen..no doubts. it's why your comm wont get likes..they know it's true.
ppl have painted themselves lightyears into a corner on anti sequel vitriol..its amazing.
there are more examples of this effect..in the movies..auto industry...etc.
Nah, just look at the lightsaber duels of the prequels compared to the sequels....
The prequel looked at the lightsaber duels in the original movies like: "well okay, but at that time, in the storyline it's almost a lost art and they had no blueprint on how to do epic lightsaber battles because they are the blueprint".
The sequels though...
They looked at the prequels and original movies and were like: "the prequels are too hard and difficult with choreography~ it's unfair, let's slow it down again"
*proceeds to degrade lightsaber duels into 2 people just wailing on each other or swinging for the fences with no focus, like a bunch of cavemen*
That hand change is so slick, I had to slow down the video to 50% to see it
I can actually agree here, good on you for being honest, albeit rarely honest, but once is better than not at all
In a New Hope the Empire destroys an entire planet.
And in that same movie a boy's foster parents are literally set on fire and left as smoldering skeletons. And in Empire a man beats his son nearly to death before maiming him. And in Jedi a giant slug is strangled with a rusty chain after feeding his slaves to a monster in a pit. I am not sure where the "old Star wars had no violence" trope comes from. Do these fanboys even watch the films?
Just proves they made the right choice when casting anakin/Vader
I was not kidding when I said Hayden's the Chosen One born to play the Chosen One
Prequels Forever and yeah Starwars as a whole but mainly Prequels Forever❤️🤷♀️
I misjudged him to be half-assed, only now do i realize how dedicated and talented this beautiful man was/is.
yeah.. he even committed a victory dance at the end
People hated this man so much but I always thought he was perfect for this role
prequels are always such a fun watch. They dont have the best acting, cgi, or script but they have a charm you cant find anywhere else. And the lightsaber duels are so iconic too, especially Obi wan vs Anakin. Watching it with the boys and finnding all the iconic memes and scenes is also p funny too
I LOVE seeing the prequels get some love…. EPISODES 1-6 are my Star Wars canon.
Even that god awful Ewok Stuff? If the Disney Star Wars had done Ewoks, I cannot imagine the butt hurt yelling Prequel stans would have engaged in.
Hayden is an awesome actor, especially in the Star Wars prequels.
The Prequels were underrated.
By who? They made millions, have a devoted cult following, and even had ok reviews at the time (not Clones. If you claim to like Clones I know you are fucking around). Who is under rating these films? If anything they get too much benefit of the doubt from nostalgia-drunk nerds and anti-Disney partisans.
That's some pretty tricky manoeuvring. He's better than I thought.
Honestly the prequels were pretty underrated for the novelty elements they put into the Star Wars franchise at the time.
This look good for Attack Of The Clones part 2
He kill it at the asian youngling comedy stand up😂
If I remember correctly new Star Wars actors have studied exactly what Hayden and Ewan do in order to get the combat and form right during training and when Hayden found that out he was like "I was just making shit up, why are they doing that lol" specifically I think it was his like twirl spin move that he does.
"the prequels had everything man!" lmao
there's a 6 hour version of phantom. just let that sink in
Hayden did a wonderful job of perfecting his sword skills until they looked buttery smooth...truely masterful.
nah him actually levitating that saver was just... oh my god.
I dunno if Hayden was just a bad actor or if he was directed to be as much of a whiny child as possible (probably the latter) but I feel like he could've brought to screen a much more believable performance without playing it up to whiny-baby man-child extremes, but that is probably what George wanted so... Not really his fault. But nobody can deny his lightsabering was top tier.
I'm guessing George in his view specific and inflexible view of the world just couldn't envision a more realistic human turning evil so quickly, so he had to just make him an extremely emotionally unstable kid so it would be believable in his mind.
I would've loved to see a more nuanced and realistic depiction. I mean they gave Anakin a lot of motivation and incentive to turn against the Jedi, but going from Jedi Knight to killing younglings was a little too fast. Its believable he would've turned on them, and I could see how decades in service to the emperor, especially after being maimed, would make him more bitter and hateful than ever and drive him to do awful things later, but I just can't see Anakin chopping down kids so quickly, especially as a father expecting a kid soon.
Maybe one day when AI is good enough to fully generate whole movies with the acting and script and everything, maybe we can get a fan made creation of a better version of the story that seems more plausible and sensible.
The new series make me appreciate the prequels more than I ever thought possible
Wait what... is that bit where he releases his saber and catches it with another hand actually in the movie??? I never even noticed!
Me either man...
Mans got flow.
Haydens acting in 2 was so-so. Still good but he really murdered episode 3 what a legend.
This just solidifies Episode 3 being my second favorite Star Wars film.
Glad I was 7 years old and "bad dialogue" wasn't even a concept to me when RotS came out, I didn't understand half the dialogue in movies anyways lol. I grew up thinking Anakin was the coolest and was definitely a butthurt fanboy when I found out people hated on him for the prequels. The parts they don't like wouldn't have been better with another actor saying the same lines, and the overall portrayal of Anakin would have suffered greatly without Hayden. I'm glad these days he's getting the love he deserves.
Still, after all these years, the "no-look-cutoff" of Windu looks real badass.
Its incredible to think how many stuntmen gave their limbs and lives for this movie, and people were hating on it...
Talented stunt performers do amazing work in awful films all the time. It's called a job, and you get paid in money to do it, not in praise.
I never noticed the saber drop and catch until now.
say what you want. he was a skilled swordsman. Well done!
Hayden looks like young Arnold here.. :D