To get back to Brandon Routh’s miscasting as Superman, there’s always trouble with superhero movies that attempt to cast the superhero. The superhero is just someone in a suit. You need to cast the alter ego. That’s what made Chris Reeves so good as Superman, because you could believe he was Clark Kent. That’s why Tobey Maguire is a good Spiderman, and George Clooney such a crappy Batman. George is just too affable to pass as a character as conflicted and dark as Bruce Wayne.
Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds. That was a Michael Rapaport character if there ever was one.
(I’m guessing I’m alone on this one.)
That’s part of it. But I think his physical type was way off. I think the Man of Steel needs to be a big, imposing guy.
That might be said of any role where she is wearing clothes.
Gotta disagree; Natalie Portman sucked BIG as the incredibly wooden Senator. A wooden post has more range…
Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai.
Tom Cruise as an experienced Civil War veteran? Gimme a break.
Agreed. It’s amazing how Fisher, Ford, and Hammil brought such emotion, personality and excitement into their roles in the Lucas universe.
And then how Portman and Christensen just sucked the life out of theirs.
I think that was a case of her being overwhelmed by the script and director.
I don’t like the SW prequels, but I don’t blame the acting. I think the dialogue is so insipid and the direction so poor that the young leads simply could not compensate. Ewan McGregor, with a bit more experience under belt, and Christopher Lee, with ENORMOUSLY more experience under his, was able to compensate for the deficiencies of the dialogue and Lucas’ crack-addicted directorial style. Portman and Christensen could not.
In the version of the prequels showing in Heaven, Lucas wrote the story outline and handled the special effects; J. Michael Straczynski and Joss Whedon collaborated on the screenplay; and Jaws-era Spielberg directed it.
Also, Portman was naked during long stretches.
Of course. Everyone knows the Naboo don’t wear clothing!
YES.
Even at the start, when he’s being interviewed, he DRIPS CRAZY on the floor. And when he gives that whole “see honey? He saw it on the Tv” talk in the car on the way to the Overlook… I mean, jack go crazy? He didnt have to go far, I say. Robert Redford in this part, now THERE would have been good casting.
However, underage Nabooans (Portman was only 14 during Episode I) do wear clothing, right?
Wikipedia says she was born in '81, and the movie was released in '99, so I take it it was likely filmed in '98. That’d make her 17, which is still below my minimum leering age, damn it.
The films had a great cast, but good casting means putting the right actor in the right role, and with such an impressive cast, the casting in these films was atrocious.
If you were to argue that Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Terence Stamp, Pernilla August, and Jack Thompson were good actors, but the only evidence you could submit were the Star Wars films, people would think you were nuts.
(I omit Liam Neeson & Christopher Lee because they are actually good in the films, and I omit Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen because the jury’s out on whether they’re reliably good or just lucky in being periodically well-cast)
Ya know…I wanted to think that, I really did, but the more I watch it (it’s on one of the Encore stations on occasion and I enjoy the movie as a whole) the more I realize that it’s just a role where his whiney bitchiness works instead of damageing the movie.
Similarly, Gwyneth Paltrow utterly failed at the Spunky Girl Reporter role in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. As I’ve said before, Blythe Danner in her prime could have nailed it.
If you’re going to cite Robot Arm’s First Law of Superhero Movie Casting, you should attribute it. On the how-not-to-do-it side, there is Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movies. Somewhere in Hollywood there must be an actress who looks good in blue, skin-tight spandex, and is believable as an astronaut; but it’s not Jessica Alba.
This actually jogged my memory on another horrible miscasting: Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough. Yes, I enjoyed seeing Ms. Richards as a Bond girl. No, she is not believable in that movie as a person who is smart enough to handle nuclear material.
Not really relevant, but can you imagine what a disaster “THE GODFATHER” would have been if Danny Kaye had been cast as the Godfather??
This can’t be serious! I did hear that Danny Thomas was considered, but Kaye?
Surfing past a random 40’s Gangster movie on TV today, I was reminded that Robin Hood was originally to star that quintissential movie gangster, Edward G. Robinson, as Robin Hood until the movie was recast and rewritten for Errol Flynn.
Now imagine how the EGR version would have worked, or not worked.
Now see here Sheriff. Hand over the loot. Yeah. And don’t try no funny stuff.
Oh crap. I just looked at his IMDB page and see that he was originally supposed to play Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes too.
No. No. OH GOD, NO!
The best thing about all the live action Superman actors - from Reeves to Routh, in any case…I don’t think I’ve ever seen Colyer - is that none of them have been ‘big, imposing guy(s)’…Reeves was the biggest, but even he was merely solid.
Big problems with the idea of Superman as a ‘big, imposing guy’:
It doesn’t make sense for someone with Super Strength. He can juggle planets, yet he usually settles for juggling Luthor. How is he going to build that muscle mass?
It really doesn’t make sense with his secret identity. He’s got to be able to pull off the identity of mild mannered, non-athletic Clark Kent. Clark should be fit - even solid - as befits a farmboy, but that’s as far as it should go. He shouldn’t be built like a linebacker or body builder, because the closest he gets to athletics is going to a Monarchs game.