Personally, I don't see this move in and of itself as particularly problematic. Setting aside Obi Wan Kenobi's very real flaws, the 100% digitally-replicated voice in that sounded all-in-all pretty good. It wasn't perfect - words occasionally struck me as a little over-enunciated - but it never took me out of the moment. Ultimately, it felt like I was watching Darth Vader (even if Darth Vader was making some odd decisions).
Regardless of our opinion on whether the character should continue to reappear on screen, it seems like a foregone conclusion. I would therefore propose asking which is least off-putting: this method, or hiring someone else to mimic the voice? The latter has been tried in video games, but none of them really capture Vader to my ear; they sound like an imitation.
I think a key distinction here is that as great as James Earl Jones is, Darth Vader is fundamentally a step removed from the voice actor in several respects. If you got a bunch of people to close their eyes and listen to Jones reading some neutral text as Darth Vader (which, notably, wasn't quite the same tone as his regular speaking voice) in a recording that was subsequently vocally modified and layered in with breathing effects, and the people were then asked to identify the voice, I bet the vast majority would immediately answer "Darth Vader," not "James Earl Jones" - even those who know full-well that Jones provided the base dialog. Contrast that with hearing Harrison Ford speaking as Han Solo or Indiana Jones: I bet a substantially larger percentage would answer "Harrison Ford." That's because Han Solo and Indiana Jones essentially ARE Harrison Ford; Darth Vader is James Earl Jones, yes... but he's also Ben Burtt and David Prowse in pretty equal measure. He's a wonderful amalgamation.
Setting aside actors willfully signing over their voice “likenesses”, it just comes down to respect. Respect for the talent, respect for the craft, respect for history and the passage of time.
Using digital technology to keep actor likenesses and voices “alive” just so The Mouse can continue to nostalgia-milk them is both creepy and sad. Insert the appropriate Skynet/M5, “AI dystopia” reference here.
Despite man’s best efforts, nature is still a thing. The limited nature of life is what makes us appreciate it. STAR WARS used to be a limited thing—just a few movies. Beginning, middle, end. That was what made it special. A constant barrage of STAR WARS would have greatly lessened both its impact and the audience’s hunger for more. Oh, sure, you had the Expanded Universe, but that was its own thing, which you could ignore if desired. Voice actors would be brought in on occasion to play existing characters from the movies, but it was still its own thing.
Now, we continue to be bombarded by an endless glut of “content”, and The Mouse is more than happy to use every technological trick at its disposal to keep the money flowing and to exploit the likenesses (and now the voices) of the original actors.
On the one hand, it’s certainly tempting to be able to tell new stories with those existing characters/actors, freed of the constraints of time and aging, but, on the other hand, it’s unnatural and creepy and exploitive. Nothing can be allowed to end, nothing can be allowed to rest.
Having an actor’s likeness appear in a comic book, or a character performed by a voice actor doing an impression in a video game or radio show is one thing. Creating computer-generated golems is another. And the fact of the matter is that they’re not
real. Sure, you can say that cinema is all about the art of illusion, and thus ALL fake, but essentially creating digital “actors” based upon real elements of real people, and who perform by the whims of a corporate committee, drains the art and humanity out of everything.
And I must also point out the hypocrisy of people who lambasted George Lucas for creating CG characters and using digital editing to splice different takes of scenes together, and yet will surely applaud this continued, creepy grave-robbing from The Mouse. Lucas never went so far as to remove the humanity and the artistry from his characters. Despite the accusations of being a control freak which have been lobbied against him, I could never see him using AI to voice a character, or using CG to recreate dead actors. Remember, when Tarkin appeared in ROTS, he was played by an actor in makeup made to resemble Peter Cushing, rather than creating a CG golem.
Recasting is one thing, but this is something else.
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