SPECULATION What if we get another Hyaden Christensen situation?

Agree, though the original post did bring up Hayden as a specific comparison.

 

I find it interesting that ONLY Boyega's acting is in question, and not Ridley's or Isaac's. As if "well if anybody Would screw up it would be him!"

 

I assumed it was because he believes Finn will be the lead actor. Isaac is pretty universally considered a great actor, though Daisy is the unknown among the three. I doubt any of them will be bad.

 

The lightsaber thing has people suggesting as such, even though I'm pretty certain he is a poorly concealed red herring

On a sidenote I've been a huge Oscar Isaac fan for awhile

 

Why would they NEED a red herring? What's the big mystery? We've seen from the concept art at the beginning that Finn has Luke's light Saber, Either he's going to use it in the film or not..period. Why would anybody feel like that's something to hide?

 

I liked Hayden. I think he's a good actor.


As for John Boyega, I won't care who he is or what he does as long as they don't make him Han, Leia, Luke, or Chewbacca's "long lost" son. He could be the descendant of Lando, or even Mace Windu somehow since apparently Episode 7 is into retcons, or he could be a completely new and original character as the galaxy is more than large enough to sire a black character that isn't related to any pre-existing one in Star Wars continuity. That would be best, and that's what I hope for. But other than that -- and I know I'll catch hell for this and I say this having not seen them yet -- I don't give one f*** about these new characters. I hope they're cool, but I'm way more interested in seeing Han, Luke, Leia, etc.

 

I think he means that Finn having the saber in the film itself will be a red herring to draw people away from the final owner of the saber.

 

We will think Finn is the ultimate hero until....

Think Wolverine in the first X-Men movie

 

I guess I'll have to watch X-Men, because I haven't followed their films: I've only seen First Class.

 

WTF is with this Boyega hate? What if Harrison Ford sucks like the newest Indiana Jones? What if Carrie fisher sucks because of the years of drug addiction? What if Daisy sucks because she has zero relevant acting experience? What if Max Von Sydow sucks because they wrote him a blast character and he is getting old? What if Adam Driver's "emotionally driven" Kylo Ren comes of as unbelievably whiny and pathetic? Wait until the movie (or at least footage that shows more than 5 seconds total of Boyega) and then make your decision. I hate all these snap judgements about an actor's ability based on ABSOLUTELY nothing.

Call it what you want but it's veiled racism. I don't see ANY threads about Daisy and her potentially movie ruining acting.

Boyega might not be the best actor in TFA or maybe he will be the greatest. Wait for release, then speak

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 23, 2015, Original Post Date: Aug 23, 2015 ---

It was his voice that kills me. Crappy writing aside, he had a whiny voice with very little depth or masculinity. He didn't even try to make himself sound better. For instance look at Tom Hardy and all his roles and different voices and accents. Or Andy Serkis. I would have appreciated a little more effort from Hayden to portray Anakin as a badass with a problem with authority, not an insecure and whiny man that never seemed to leave his teen angst behind.

Before the PT never once did anyone think that Vader was ever anything other than a powerful and intimidating person. When the PT was announced I was thinking that Anakin would have been like Revan; an amazing tactician, wise and powerful, overly aggressive and foolhardy and that pride and arrogance would be what led him to the dark side. And I thought an actor with gravitas would be cast, like Christian Bale, Leonardo Dicaprio or Daniel Day Lewis.

Instead we got a poorly written character that would have been better off in a Twilight movie as the male version of Kristen Stuart's Bella.

 

I don't history will repeat itself, Anakin was a one trip pony, they will find another to get the seduction to the darkside going again.

 

Didn't Boyega just land a lead role in a movie with Tom Hanks? Boyega's acting ability is pretty low on my list of potential concerns for this movie. And I love his enthusiasm for all things Star Wars.

If I had to choose one actor to worry about, it probably would be...and I hate to say it...Carrie Fisher. Nowadays, she's a little nutty (in a good and humorous way). But I couldn't help but notice in the BTS video that she was on take 18 (though it looked like there were a lot of moving parts in that scene so maybe that was the issue). I hope she can pull off the dramatic stuff. But even this is only a mild concern for me because JJ seems to get good performances out of his actors.

 

I would be worried about Daisy Ridley. I haven't seen any of her work. Just a video of her singing but that's about it.

 

The only actor I'm worried about is Fisher: her voice is raspy from all the substance abuse, and she's really only portrayed herself since Wishful Drinking in 2008. Great directors can pull good performances out of bad actors, but they still have to be professional actors. I can't wait to see how Leia turns out -- got my fingers crossed.

 

Good post. However I disagree on a couple of things. Firstly as we all know Star Wars is very black and white. Good guys. Bad guys. Hayden had to practically be the very first character on screen to have to go through the transition. He definitely *couldn't* have been this authoritative figure, if he was that then why would he succumb so easily to the dark side? He is a character beset by conflicting emotions. His scene with Shimi was actually pretty good and that's one of the things which troubles Anikan the character, clearly. The other is his love affair or whatever you wish to call it with Padme, which he wasn't allowed. His true friend Obi Wan was even against it. His arguments with the Jedi Council who knew his talent was another issue.

By the time he had become Vader, he was emotionally stripped. He was led on by his anger not to save Padme and that's why we have a very powerful and intimidating Vader. His other identity, i.e Anikan, was *not* that and I think Hayden was probably specifically told that too. Again - I am not saying his performance was amazing but he had to juggle a lot. I think the voice in particular got worse and worse throughout because he was trying to portray an Anikan who was becoming more and more emotionally vacuous and confused. That said, I really liked how he screamed the line"I HATE YOU" at Obi Wan, that scene was nice and powerful.

Again, not saying he was the best for the role but I do believe that a bigger name actor would have cocked it. Bar Di Caprio haha, that guy is sensational!

 

I don't believe there was any red herring as who the lead hero is. Rey was front and center in the Drew poster, and now even more so in the empire poster as well.

 

I wouldn't worry about Leia, she sounds just as good back then just as now.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 23, 2015, Original Post Date: Aug 23, 2015 ---

At least she won't be smiling a lot, she has been doing that a lot lately, even it's getting to John here.

 

Well let me say a few things about Boyega..

I feel a little bit of the criticism is undue because he looks out of place/lost. This is in fact true. He (his character) is a deserter.. He is a storm trooper whose face is revealed to us for the first time (I don't believe we've seen anyone under the helmet before, correct me if I am wrong).. He is in transition from the dark side to the light.. His character is 'probably' meant to be slightly bumbling and a little pudgy (compared to how Boyega looks now in interviews where is fairly trimmed up and lean)..

I think the above confuses people about him but I am sure the look and the feel of this will make sense once it is played out over the course of a 2 hour movie..

And secondly.. I will make a bold statement..

Based just on what little acting we have seen in 2 teaser trailers.. I will say that I think Boyega's acting has actually been the best so far.. Better than Ridley and Isaac so far. Not to knock them because I am a big fan of Oscar Isaac and that's actually my point.

I'm sure Adam Driver is going to be the best of all them and we will see wonderful performances all round! But so far just based on the 2 trailers, Boyega looks very promising to me.. Based on raw art form and not preconceptions.

 

In fairness to Christensen, the character is written like a gossiping brat. Anakin spends a good portion of the film backtalking Obi Wan or complaining about him to Padme. That and the character goes full-on genocide -- and even Portman is stretching the imagination but sticking by her troubled beau.

Christensen actually tried to find frustration in a character that could've easily come across as more annoying and mealy mouthed. That's to his credit.

The dialogue isn't great either -- it usually references people or things that aren't there (expositional dialogue -- like Sweet Dee in It's Always Sunny Season 1 -- but most of the expositional dialogue doesn't even explain the off-screen references they're making). There isn't much subtlety or nuance into how the characters are feeling -- so the actor are making the most selling this script to the audience.