Oh, and nothing from "Star Trek Beyond Awful" should ever appear on a "Best" anything list.

Nothing from "Jane Got a Gun"? Every scene in it is better than half the movies on this list.

My reading is that she'd already tried the "appeal" tactic in earlier scenes. (The one where she says "Don't shut me out" etc. especially.) By the Mustafar scene, after everything Anakin's done, plus the collapse of society generally, plus the physical stress of being nine months pregnant, it all combines to just…

I agree, the dialogue should have been modified a little. "Path I can't follow" etc. is just too awkward of a line for that character in that situation. But my position is that Portman plays it as well as it could be played. Doing it in a more calm way would just exacerbate the problem.

The sand line doesn't flow—it would if Padme's line before that ended on the part about sand, but it doesn't. Lucas should have rearranged it. I agree that in itself it is not actually a terrible line, but Lucas needed to edit that dialogue a bit.

I'm sorry; but no—the "path I can't follow" line is just not right, at least not for Padme under those circumstances. Something like it might work for Obi-Wan or some other Jedi, but since she just said, "you're breaking my heart", Lucas was just wrong to put the line there. A someone who has just found out the…

No, "path I can't follow" is just more awkward Lucas dialog getting in the way of the performance. (The same issue exists with McGregor's "you were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them" etc.). Lucas writes everything in this overwrought, faux-poetic style. It would make no sense…

No, it's completely convincing. Those aren't "artificial attempts to sound exasperated"—they are genuine attempts to sound—of all things—heartbroken. And it's not a "stoic" speech—it's actually 180 degrees opposite from "stoic" ; it's a heart-broken plea from someone undergoing total emotional collapse as she sees…

Her acting is great throughout—never remotely weak. And no, trust me, I'm not scared of the bandwagon. I think the prequels are all better than the originals.

I disagree. I re-watched it recently, and was impressed by how her acting in that scene overcomes the weak dialogue. It's the most powerful scene in any of the six Star Wars movies, thanks entirely to Portman and McGregor's acting. (Christensen is actually a bit better in that scenes as well—though I would hesitate…