The chosen one the boy may be...

Krash · Jedi Knight Joined: Mar 20, 2004 Posts: 3495

I was curious, what you guys thought was BOTH the good and the bad about his portrayal of the young Anakin Skywalker?

Bear in mind, that all we're doing is sharing opinion...the movie was released in 1999. i doubt GL is going to redo an entire character.

Beltayn · Jedi Knight Joined: Apr 18, 2004 Posts: 1712

All in all, he wasn't a bad little actor for his age. For a kid that young to be doing everything he had to in that movie, you have to give him credit. I remember reading an article on Jules Asner, who said he was obnoxious when she interviewed him. I haven't heard anything on the kid since.

TheRandomMenace · Jedi Knight Joined: Mar 30, 2004 Posts: 1886

The Good:

I like how GL decided to portray Anakin as a totally pure, angelic little kid, and I'm really glad he left out the fight with Greedo for that very fact.
Jake Lloyd looked like he could be a young version of Luke's dad... and now in retrospect resembles Hayden enough.
I don't really think he screwed up any of the major scenes, such as "Are You An Angel?," the Podrace, and saying goodbye to Shmi.

The Bad:
I blame Lucas's writing for some of it... (i.e. "Yippee!," "Now this is podracing!")
There are some scenes where Jake Lloyd is just bad. (Granted the kid was 8/9 at the time)
I would've liked to have seen more establishment of "we're friends" between Obi-Wan and Anakin after Qui-Gon's death, leading into AOTC. I'm not so sure the elevator scene in AOTC does this relationship we've been hearing about for 27 years justice... a little more of them together acting as friends (despite the age gap) would have been nice to make Anakin's eventual fall and betrayal more dramatic. After the elevator scene, (which wasn't even in the original shoot of the movie, GL brilliantly decided to add it during pick ups to establish that they do have somewhat of a good relationship) the saga goes right into constant disagreement between Anakin and Obi-Wan with only this one brief scene to show the audience that they do have somewhat of a history of not disagreeing.

Krash · Jedi Knight Joined: Mar 20, 2004 Posts: 3495

TheRandomMenace wrote:

I would've liked to have seen more establishment of "we're friends" between Obi-Wan and Anakin after Qui-Gon's death, leading into AOTC. I'm not so sure the elevator scene in AOTC does this relationship we've been hearing about for 27 years justice...

I think that aspect of the relationship was handled well. I have always described the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin as that of brothers...not "he's like my father" as mentioned in AOTC. Obi-Wan had grown up under Qui-Gon's care, anyone who's read the Jedi Apprentice series can testify that relationship has had it's ups and downs. By the time TPM rolls around, they have learned to work beyond their different styles as a team. Then when Qui-Gon takes such an interest in the boy...Obi-Wan feels abandoned; the scene in the Council chamber says it all. So it wasn't until their mutual "father-figure" makes Obi-Wan promise to train the boy...does he really even care if Anakin is accepted for training. Without reading Jedi Quest (yet) , I don't know if they go into why Anakin seems to challenge Obi-Wan at every given opportunity...but for me, it has always been that "you are not my father" kind of attitude.

Having said that, I liked how Jake's portrayal of Anakin didn't spend alot of time between him and Obi-Wan. And most of the lines people don't like I think are the kinds of things "average kids" say...and at the time Anakin was just an average kid.

Padme92 · Treasury Councillor Joined: Mar 27, 2004 Posts: 2123

I thought Jake did just what he needed to do...he was good in my eyes, then again I didn't need a perfect performance from him to think he was good, I think he did a good enough job then any other boy they were trying out!!!