10 Reasons Star Wars Sequels Are Still Superior To The Prequels
5. The Acting In The Sequels Is Great, The Acting In The Prequels Is Ghastly
Easily the single-greatest strength of the Sequel Trilogy is the uniformly fantastic acting all the way through and that is something even the many who disliked the trilogy will probably feel too. Adam Driver's masterful, franchise-best turn was the standout but nearly every actor, both new and returning, did an excellent job - hell, even actors who were ultimately wasted such as Benicio Del Toro and Lupita N'yong'o did fine work.
But as for the Prequels... yikes.
OK, fine, the acting in the Prequels wasn't all bad. Ian McDiarmid was completely brilliant as Palpatine, Ewan McGregor was a wonderful Obi-Wan, Christopher Lee was a bad-ass Sith Lord, Frank Oz and Anthony Daniels slid back into their Original Trilogy roles nicely, Pernilla August is solid as Anakin's mother and... well, that's it.
Hayden Christensen is risible, Liam Neeson sleepwalks, Natalie Portman gives a career-worst turn, the various vocal performances as the racist aliens are groan-inducing, Samuel L Jackson is a total bore, both of the child actors who played young Anakin and young Boba Fett respectively were very weak and Ahmed Best was... well, he was playing Jar Jar Binks. Not even Daniel Day Lewis could've escaped from that disaster.
And in general, several other smaller roles were terribly played (the youngling in Revenge of the Sith, anyone?), many great actors were completely wasted and few actors had much presence on-screen.
The Prequels might genuinely be one of the worst-acted trilogies ever put to film.