Christopher Lee: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Count Dooku/ Darth Tyrannus - The Star Wars Prequels (2002-05)

Last month I wrote a piece on actors whose careers were irrevocably changed by their involvement in the Star Wars franchise, some for better, some for worse. I didn't include Christopher Lee on that list, since if anything the prequels sustained the career revival he'd experienced on the back of The Lord of the Rings. But while the prequels are mostly George Lucas' fault, Lee doesn't acquit himself quite as well as perhaps he could. As with The Lord of the Rings, it is rather pointless to recap the plot of the prequels: everyone knows the stories (or lack thereof) and everyone knows the jokes that flow from them. Count Dooku is the main antagonist in Attack of the Clones, who tries to kill Padmé Amidala and then confronts Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis. A former Jedi who turned to the Dark Side, Dooku is partially intended to foreshadow Anakin Skywalker's fate, both in his transition and his relationship to Palpatine. Like Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Count Dooku is a very boring villain, being essentially a stooge to Palpatine who is cast aside when the plot demands it. But while he's working with very little, Lee does surprisingly badly for a man who is used to playing villains. Despite doing most of his own stunts, he appears overwhelmed and out of his depth, phoning in most of his dialogue and not being all that intimidating. His only memorable act, at least canonically, is cutting off Anakin Skywalker's hand €“ and even then, we were so fed up with Hayden Christiansen that we were almost rooting for him.