I would be more upset with Hayden Christensen playing Vader than I would be with Pringles coaching the Rockets. Even if he is in a suit. He will still screw it up.
I hear this often, but I honestly don't think he's a bad actor. It's hard to be convincing when the script is something out of a 10th grade creative writing class. He's done well in other movies and I think he'd be fine under the right circumstances. I'm not entirely sure how he'd play the role if Vader is in his suit though.
It's true enough that even Sir Laurence Olivier could not have done anything useful with the dreadful writing Lucas came up with. However, Hayden has left such a completely sour taste in every fan's memory that it would be a huge mistake for him to be anywhere near Star Wars, in any capacity, forevermore hereafter. Besides, the Vader in Star Wars was a large bodybuilder, David Prowse (and occasionally Bob Anderson), not some emo skinny kid, and as long as they get James Earl Jones for the voice, then it doesn't matter all that much who is in the suit anyway - just make him the right size and reasonably good at communicating menace through the physicality. They'll JEJ's voice in after.
4 Weeks of reshoots is never a good sign. For comparison, Tron Legacy had Brad Bird and Toy Story 3 Writer Michael Arndt come in at the last minute for about a week worth of reshoots.
Force Awakens is too high a bar to set with these anthology films, but that it's not testing well is worrisome. The one complaint I have with his Godzilla remake is that the characters/actors fell flat, save for Cranston. Binoche and Olsen were fine but had next to nothing to do. Edwards really completely underutilized the talent he had. And for an ensemble piece like Rogue One, getting the most out of the cast from both a story and performance standpoint should be a pretty high priority. Not that that's the problem, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Thing is, did the initial film that execs saw really suck, or is it that they just made $950,000,000 domestic with "Star Wars: The Reboot" and weren't going to settle for a "Godzilla"-like return at the box office? Maybe somewhere in between. I did like "The Force Awakens" but let's keep it real. Clearly Disney had designs for a crowd-pleasing popcorn movie and so moved the Hand of God over the whole production....thus, the plot virtually duplicated from "A New Hope". Hopefully the final product of "Rogue One" will be thumbs-up. Films with too many hands in the cookie jar sometimes come across too hodge-podged; see also "A.I. Artificial Intelligence". Rarely do they come out great. Those that survive studio interference usually had the interference near the beginning of production, not after the cut had been handed over (these usually result in pared-down films and then later "Director's Cuts", which I don't think Mickey Mouse will allow).
Vader went south when Skywalker pulled off the helmet to reveal a gooey fat man underneath, which while realistic to what would probably happen to a man in armor sitting around all day, but was a huge WTF moment for the character. Then came the kid. And Hayden. It's amazing the character still demands so much respect. A tribute to Earl Jones I reckon and the suit of armor.
I trust Disney knows how to make a good movie. The lost their entire director for Ant-Man and still made a good movie. Reshoots might not be a good thing for their final profits but I bet the movie turns out to be quality.
Reading all the positive stuff on Force Awakens is disheartening. Such an awful, boring film that took little to no chances. Terrible...
A sense of fun? I'm almost positive essentially everyone in this movie dies, right? Yay, we're having so much fun being killed by lasers and lightsabers! Weee! I'm worried about this movie, the trailers looked amazing.
I really liked TFA, but admit it probably had a lot to do with my nostalgia for the franchise. Taking my kids to see it at the theater, like my dad did with me 40 years ago, was very special to a life-long Star Wars nerd like myself. I would have liked it much better if it was still the Empire instead of the First Order. That's the reason I'm so excited about this film. I want to see the Empire kicking ass, not this weird First Order with the smiling Stormtroopers.
