The Chosen One (2005) (V)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Tippy Bushkin

Genre:

Short

Plot:

The story of Anakin Skywalker, the central character of Star Wars.

Cast

Hayden Christensen	...	Himself
Dave Elsey	...	Himself
George Lucas	...	Himself

Runtime:

15 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Company:

Lucasfilm

Trivia:

This featurette is included on the 2-Disc DVD for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Movie Connections:

Features Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Darth Vader: The Dot Connector

For those who think George Lucas never tells his actors what's going through their characters mind, this short documentary shows him directing and motivating Hayden Chrstensen (but not Natalie Portman, who is also in the scene). Footage from several different interviews in shot on varying locations (and in the case of Hayden, ever changing haircuts) are combined with footage from all six Star Wars movies to give a succinct summary of the live and times of Darth Vader. Once more they feel the need to point out that the entire saga is all about Annie, who is really a sad and lonely victim, only redeemed in the end by his son.

Hayden is nice enough to explain every single emotion Annie felt during Episode II, and smack in the middle of this, unannounced and without a fanfare, there is Yoda's "Fear leads to anger" quote from the Phantom Menace. Only this time, rubber Yoda has been replaced by a pixelized version. Apparently all of Frank Oz's puppetry from the first Episode were reanimated by Rob Coleman and co in preparation for episode III, but since nobody bothers to mention that here, you can be pretty sure this new version's going to be inserted on the next DVD release.

There is some nice footage of Hayden trying on the burned Anakin make up (with trendy blue-screen socks) and George keeps repeating that all the movies should be watched in numerical order and that Anakin is indeed the chosen one (that should settle some IMDb message board arguments, or not). One thing I don't understand is that if no one starts out evil at birth, how come Palpatine is referred to as the devil incarnate? Do I sense another pre-prequel trilogy coming up? Featuring young Palp, the innocent lad who built R2D2, who met young Dooku (while flying the Millennium Falcon) and bumped into clumsy Gungan Boss Nass before turning to evil when not allowed to adopt an infant Lando Calrissian.

8 out of 10