Natalie Portman is a world-class, Oscar-winning actress, and like most of the good actors in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was absolutely powerless against George Lucas' aggressively awful script work. Though colossally wooden lead Hayden Christensen actually seemed to improve between Episode II ("I hate sand") and Episode III, Portman's Padme, who appears in all three movies, went completely the other way. She begins as a likeable presence in The Phantom Menace, but by the time Episode II rolls around, she's forced to recite gag-inducingly terrible romantic dialogues, culminating in the laughable, "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!" Most actresses would have struggled to pull that pathetic line off, but Portman's delivery helps make the scene funny rather than dramatically engaging. After being given an interesting dual-ish role in Episode I, she has very little to do in the subsequent two movies, and she unsurprisingly seems pretty bored as a result. Her mostly brilliant work ever since suggests that to probably be the case. Did we miss any progressively bad performances from movie franchises? Let us know in the comments!
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
