Hayden Christensen defends the awkward dialogue of the Star Wars prequels

George Lucas and his Star Wars prequels come under fire for many things but the one criticism that stands out the most tends to be some of the film’s extremely awkward dialogue. Lucas is great at universe building but he’s not often cited as a great writer. Hayden Christensen had to spew some of that dialogue in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith but, as he’s set to make his Darth Vader return on the just-released Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, he’s coming out in defense of the awkward dialogue of the Star Wars prequels.

During a chat with The Guardian, Christensen touched upon the issue that some fans have with the prequel trilogy dialogue and he argued that, “George Lucas creates such a unique world where everything is so specific, from the way these characters look and the way they talk, and I feel like sometimes people lose sight of that and they expect them to speak the same way that we speak, and that’s not what we were going for.”

This seems to fall in line with a similar statement that George Lucas made himself back in 2020 regarding the dialogue. Lucas referenced Anakin Skywalker’s line in “The Star Wars Archives. 1999-2005”, via Syfy Wire, which was, “I am haunted by the kiss that you should never have given me.” Despite saying the line was “pretty corny,” he also defended it:

“It is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue-in-cheek at all, and it’s played to the hilt but it is consistent, not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don’t understand the style of Star Wars. They don’t get that there’s an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s Western or Saturday matinee serial. It’s in the more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film is even more of a melodrama than the others.”

There you have it! Star Wars dialogue is a particular style. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just different. If Anakin chooses to express why he doesn’t like sand in that particular fashion, that’s because that’s how you make that disdain public in the Star Wars universe. Take it, or leave it.

Do YOU agree that some don’t understand the Star Wars prequel dialogue or do YOU think it’s just bad writing?