Wishful Improvements

Last night I was reading some information off The Force.net on Episode III and I couldn't help but think about the previous two movies.  They are generally recognized as being decent action flicks but just not up the standard of the original trilogy.  So I asked myself, what was it that made the first ones work and the second ones not. 

The answer lies in acting.  George Lucas is not the best writer in the world but the dialogue from both sets is pretty much the same.  Harrison Ford often joked that you just couldn't say the dialogue that George wrote.  In the first trilogy, you had three core actors who had some experience and schooling to develop their talent.  Then you surrounded them with classically trained actors such as Sir Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing.  With that working for you, the movie overcomes the cheese and stands out as a great action/adventure. 

In the first two movies of the prequels, things haven't gone that well.  Ewan McGreggor and Liam Neeson did a pretty good job rescuing their lines by a good use of emotions and action.  But Lucas chose for his two other leads, two child actors.  Lucas chose to make Anakin only 10 and Padme only 14.  Jake Lloyd was around that age and Natalie Portman was around 16 or 17.  Even though they had both been acting for a little while, neither actor could adequately grasp of how to manipulate the dialogue into a more usable medium.  Portman gave a good effort, but Lloyd just didn't have the tools yet to work out of it.  I've wondered a great deal why Lucas didn't cast older actors.  It certainly wouldn't have hurt the storyline at all if Anakin had started Episode I around the age of 15 or 16 and the Queen around 20.  In fact, there would have been significantly less suspension of disbelief.  As a teenager, Anakin's emotions would have been even more reckless, making him even more of a risk to the Jedi council.  It would have also been a little more believable to have a queen who was a little older and had a chance to start making some impact in other arenas before she was elected planetary ruler.  Actors of this age might have been able to work out the dialogue better and they certainly would have had more experience in trying to manipulate the love scene in Episode II.  Mrs. X's opinion is that Lawrence Olivier and Katherine Hepburn couldn't have made the love scene work in Episode II.  I'm not firmly convinced that it was that bad, but it definitely needed some work in both acting and development.  Having a 25 year old Anakin and a nearly 30 year old Padme would have been a decent start.  It also would have made the cut scene where Padme is wishing for a normal life a little more believable.

But blame cannot rest entirely on the Anakin and Padme actors.  Blame must also go to some the adults as well.  I'm a great fan of Sam Jackson but keep getting the feeling that he's trying to channel Jules from Pulp Fiction to much.  I think Lucas' writing is also influencing that.  We can assign the usual blame for letting Lucas get too enamored with the sets and effects at the expense of dialogue development, but I don't know that that's any different from any the first three movies.  Lucas just has better toys to work with this time. 

All in all, I remain hopeful that things will improve with Episode III.  But it will probably suffer from the same lapses that hurt the first two.  At least we know it'll be darker and more violent.  Maybe a change in the feel will help the movie down a different path.  Only 10 more months to find out.