Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

Okay, this may make me seem like a Star Wars apologist, but I can see how the stiff and awkward love scenes between Anakin and Padame fit into the general pattern of the three prequels. You see, Anakin has trouble forming interpersonal relationships, particularly romantic ones. The love between him and Padame flowers despite their embarrassing lack of chemistry. Those scenes are meant to be painful to watch -- to show how Anakin -- even though he has fallen for Padame -- has great difficulty expressing himself emotionally to her. Even before donning the helmet, he is really "more machine than man."

Even in his interaction with Obi-Wan, there is a palpable lack of genuine bonding. When they rib each other, it feels forced -- as if they are trying too hard to have the kind of camaraderie that Luke and Han had in the later episodes.

The one person Anakin does feel comfortable with is Palpatine -- his wooing of Anakin to the dark side in ROTS have a very natural flow. You can sense that Anakin feels very at ease -- in a way he never achieves with Padame, Obi-Wan or Yoda. And those scenes really give a sense of how good an actor Christensen really is.

In AOTC, Lucas goes to great lengths to show how Anakin and Padame fall in love. As almost every critic has pointed out, their relationship is never believable and the audience has no sympathy for their romance. But that is really what Lucas intended! It is a love affair pursued by two powerful and somewhat arrogant individuals -- one who became queen of a planet at a young age and now has been reduced to nothing more than essentially an Ambassador, the other a Jedi Council proclaimed "chosen one" who is being held back from what he perceives as his destiny. Two spoiled immature egos thrown together -- no wonder they have such difficulty effectively expressing their emotions.

After Anakin fully embraces the dark side, one can view these critically panned scenes (or "exposition" as innumerable clever reviewers have dubbed them) in a very different light -- they served to illuminate the evolving character of Anakin on his path toward evil. Lucas must be laughing to himself that so many people got it wrong.

I agree Rocktopus. The stilted, bland dialogue between Anakin and Padme was in many ways intended. While Christensen and Portman appear to be giving lackluster performances, it's really the opposite. Lucas obviously wanted their relationship to be difficult to watch, especially knowing that Anakin will eventually be the cause of Padme's death.

And for crissakes, it's spelled and pronounced, "P-A-D-M-E!" There's no "a" in the middle of her name. It's TWO syllables!

Sorry about the misspelling of Padme's name. I need to do a better job of proofreading. I would also point out that Lucas never seems to intend for Star Wars to be viewed as a romance. In reminds me of how Hamlet's courthip of Ophelia was so terribly executed. That play was not a romance, it was a tragedy. And so are the prequels viewed as a whole. Hamlet's inability to express his love to his soulmate gives sharper perspective to his personal tragedy in much the same way that Anakin's descent to the dark side is accentuated with greater textue by his exhanges with Padme (spelled it right that time!).

True. But as a whole, the films suffer from bland dialogue from characters outside of the Anakin/Padme love story, for which there's no excuse.

"you're so..............beautiful"
lordy. it was like watching a piece of wood spew bad dialogue. but the thing is, most of the cast are good actors. does lucas say, "well, no acting is required here." ?

We just discussed this. The stilted dialogue between Anakin and Padme was probably intended to be painful to watch, as we know the inevitable outcome of their relationship.

but if the love story didn't have such stupid dialogue, maybe most people wouldn't hate it so much. it's not impossible to write good lines for a love story.

Actually, I wouldn't agree that the bad dialogue of other characters serves no purpose. For instance, Samuel L. Jackson seemingly does some of the worst acting of his career. But it is clear that Lucas instructed Jackson to portray the Mace character as a distant, out of touch mystic who deals with Anakin in Jedi platitudes -- he is not meant to have a dynamic personality. This is part of what drives Anakin to the dark side.

Also, the little annoying kid who played the young Anakin was meant to be a complete brat -- we all see that kind of spoiled kid at malls and playgrounds around the country. This foreshadows Anakin's inability to form social bonds. His juvenile sense of entitlement is reinforced by his early success and the Jedi's proclamation of him as the "chosen one."

Lucas pushes the theme of Anakin's awkward social position throughout the prequels and even introduces it into other characters to give it more color. For instance, the fate of the hated Jar Jar Binks runs parallel to Anakin's. Poor Jar Jar is a social outcast among his own race of beings and yet becomes a a hero and later a Senator! Unfortunately, on his head rests the unfortunate act of paving the way for Palpatine's ascendancy to absolute despot. It is really a shame that Star Wars fans goaded Lucas into all but phasing out the misunderstood Jar Jar -- it would have been interesting to see Jar Jar become a Jedi himself.