DBWI: Best/Worst of Superhero Castings?

MightyXRay

MightyXRay

Hi folks! So, the newest Spider-Man movie, Home Game, is coming out soon, with Dane DeHaan as the (presumably) main villain, Arcade. It's got me wondering, with the hindsight of a decade or two, how's the casting been?

The Return of Superman wasn't the best, but Sir Patrick Stewart knocked it out of the park as Brainiac. Henry Cavill as Bruce Wayne in that Batman: Year One adaptation, though? Definitely not a high point, but I hear he's gonna play Zod in the next Superman movie, so hopefully he can pull that off.

But yeah, who are some of y'all's favorites?

(OOC: hi, first DBWI! I think these are pretty neat, & going through the back catalogue of Jim Henson At Disney is making pop culture AH stick in my brain, but I don't have the brain power right no to dedicate to researching a timeline. No real specific POD here, maybe something around Batman '89? But anyone's ideas are welcome, just don't step on anyone's toes, you know?)
 

northstar88

I wish a different actor had accepted the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Tom Cruise would have worked in other roles, maybe as Arno Stark, but not Tony. Maybe that's the reason that the MCU didn't really get off the ground. Tobey Maguire was great in Spiderman, and so was Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Edward Norton tanked the Hulk franchise after the boat load of money he got to cameo in the 2nd Iron Man. After that movie, the audience pretty much lost interest in the MCU. At least the Snyder inspired DCEU is doing great!
 
Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

Who can forget the gem that is Superman Lives! Nicholas Cage was so not the right man for the role, but the whole movie is so hammy. William Shatners Perry White really saves the movie though. Turning it from a disaster of a movie into something that is silly and almost endearing.
 

West

Nick cage was awesome in green lantern you know the frist one set in WW2 and 50 cent was surprisingly good as lantern Stewart in the second one though in my opinion he didn't really find his stride until the justice league movies.

Worst one hands down it's pitbull in the vibe movie which was just terrible.
 
RiverDelta

RiverDelta

northstar88 said:
I wish a different actor had accepted the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Tom Cruise would have worked in other roles, maybe as Arno Stark, but not Tony. Maybe that's the reason that the MCU didn't really get off the ground. Tobey Maguire was great in Spiderman, and so was Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Edward Norton tanked the Hulk franchise after the boat load of money he got to cameo in the 2nd Iron Man. After that movie, the audience pretty much lost interest in the MCU. At least the Snyder inspired DCEU is doing great!
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Honestly, the MCU was like half a Scientologist money laundering operation.
 
MightyXRay

MightyXRay

RiverDelta said:
Honestly, the MCU was like half a Scientologist money laundering operation.
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Half at least .
John Travolta as Hank Pym? Really?? Good lord. I'm sure that he could've done a good job if he tried, but literally no one in that movie was giving anything approaching 100%.
 

AltBBCGordon

Say what you want but the decision to do the 2012 JSA film as a period piece was inspired.
Jesse Plemons was great at portraying the simmering rage that is Al Pratt's The Atom.
Brendan Fraser as a slightly over the hill Hourman addicted to Miraclo? Fantastic!
 
RiverDelta

RiverDelta

MightyXRay said:
Half at least .
John Travolta as Hank Pym? Really?? Good lord. I'm sure that he could've done a good job if he tried, but literally no one in that movie was giving anything approaching 100%.
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Yeah, and when it wasn't serving the Church of Scientology it was serving the Pentagon, with all of those military battles that were clearly trying to be Transformers.
 
MightyXRay

MightyXRay

RiverDelta said:
Yeah, and when it wasn't serving the Church of Scientology it was serving the Pentagon, with all of those military battles that were clearly trying to be Transformers.
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Ugh, right??
Like come on, the Iron Man franchise could have been a great critique of militarism & that whole industrial complex. But once they realized how many zeroes the military could add to their paychecks, all sense of artistic integrity went out the window.

Oh well, at least we'll always have Man of Tomorrow.
 
RiverDelta

RiverDelta

MightyXRay said:
Ugh, right??
Like come on, the Iron Man franchise could have been a great critique of militarism & that whole industrial complex. But once they realized how many zeroes the military could add to their paychecks, all sense of artistic integrity went out the window.

Oh well, at least we'll always have Man of Tomorrow.
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Man of Tomorrow was a fun popcorn flick with a great depiction of Superman, but honestly like I said Ian McKellan stole the show. He embodied Lex as a character and gave him so much depth.

Iron Man at least had Robert Pattinson, who was clearly having fun with the role. That can't be said for Secret Wars.
 
MightyXRay

MightyXRay

RiverDelta said:
Man of Tomorrow was a fun popcorn flick with a great depiction of Superman, but honestly like I said Ian McKellan stole the show. He embodied Lex as a character and gave him so much depth.

Iron Man at least had Robert Pattinson, who was clearly having fun with the role. That can't be said for Secret Wars.
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Yeah, I loved Pattinson's Justin Hammer. So many memes!

(OOC: someone earlier already said Tom Cruise was Tony Stark, & I wasn't sure if "the role" was meant to be vague or not. Not contradicting previous posts is part of the DBWI sorta code of conduct, yeah? [That's not meant to be a snarky rhetorical question I swear, text just always reads as sarcastic])
 
RiverDelta

RiverDelta

MightyXRay said:
Yeah, I loved Pattinson's Justin Hammer. So many memes!

(OOC: someone earlier already said Tom Cruise was Tony Stark, & I wasn't sure if "the role" was meant to be vague or not. Not contradicting previous posts is part of the DBWI sorta code of conduct, yeah? [That's not meant to be a snarky rhetorical question I swear, text just always reads as sarcastic])
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OOC: I meant Pattinson as Stark, but you're right that it works better for Hammer.

IC: It was kind of Pattinson's big "redemption" for a lot of the anti-Twilight nerd guys who had spent years shitting on "sparkly vampires" but then he proved he actually could act.
 

northstar88

Was anyone else confused when Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Black Widow? To have her in the MehCU and the X(tremely boring) Men franchise killed the appeal of both. Maybe if the MCU is rebooted, hopefully quick, she can be cast as Scarlet Wtich?
Travolta nailed the asshole side of Hank Pym, but didn't bring anything else worthy to the role. I can't believe they got away with bringing that many trash movies to fruition. Pattinson was a great Justin Hammer. He should switch to the wildly popular DCEU and make himself a legacy character!
 
volantredx

volantredx

I really liked Kate Beckinsale as Wonder Woman. Sure it was clearly her trying to get out of the rut of endless Underworld sequels, and Zach Snyder openly admits to only agreeing to direct in order to be allowed to direct Watchmen a year later, but she felt really authentic in the part. Sure the film is way darker than The Return of Superman, and even Batman Year One, but Beckinsale really pulled off the idea of a darker more bitter Diana who left her home for a man who she ended up outliving by decades. Sure it's sort of just a retread of Highlander (complete with Clancy Brown as the bad guy) but it was a new take on Wonder Woman as a character. Also Clancy Brown as Aries, for the 15 minutes or so he's actually on screen was great.

On the flip side of that Milla Jovovich as the Cheetah in the sequel was sort of not good. Like she's a decent badass, and her "pre-transformation" as a sort of evil Indian Jones character is fun if a bit over the top. It's just clear that once the mo-cap suit came out she was really not used to having to act in that sort of situation, and both she and Snyder seemed to take "woman becomes cat-like" as an excuse for her to make weird cat noises. I mean I'm pretty sure we all got the idea, she didn't need to hiss when she was mad.
 
MightyXRay

MightyXRay

northstar88 said:
Was anyone else confused when Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Black Widow? To have her in the MehCU and the X(tremely boring) Men franchise killed the appeal of both. Maybe if the MCU is rebooted, hopefully quick, she can be cast as Scarlet Wtich?
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Honestly I've never been a huge fan of hers. She had some high points as Rogue, but she seemed really flat the rest of the time. I guess she was trying to play like, cold & detached but she just came off as disinterested.

volantredx said:
I really liked Kate Beckinsale as Wonder Woman. Sure it was clearly her trying to get out of the rut of endless Underworld sequels, and Zach Snyder openly admits to only agreeing to direct in order to be allowed to direct Watchmen a year later, but she felt really authentic in the part. Sure the film is way darker than The Return of Superman, and even Batman Year One, but Beckinsale really pulled off the idea of a darker more bitter Diana who left her home for a man who she ended up outliving by decades. Sure it's sort of just a retread of Highlander (complete with Clancy Brown as the bad guy) but it was a new take on Wonder Woman as a character. Also Clancy Brown as Aries, for the 15 minutes or so he's actually on screen was great.

On the flip side of that Milla Jovovich as the Cheetah in the sequel was sort of not good. Like she's a decent badass, and her "pre-transformation" as a sort of evil Indian Jones character is fun if a bit over the top. It's just clear that once the mo-cap suit came out she was really not used to having to act in that sort of situation, and both she and Snyder seemed to take "woman becomes cat-like" as an excuse for her to make weird cat noises. I mean I'm pretty sure we all got the idea, she didn't need to hiss when she was mad.
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I definitely agree! Focusing on the darker & more magic-y side of the character (& the DC Universe as a whole) was a really good way to set her apart & show that Diana's not just "Superman But A Girl", like so many people seem to think. Plus, I'm pretty sure that was a Zatanna tease at the end of the sequel??

How are we feeling about Fawcette's upcoming attempt at a big blockbuster franchise? Favreau's gonna direct Captain Marvel, think they're gonna try a Bulletman & Bulletgirl movie or just skip to something slightly less Golden Age?

(OOC: That's right, even in DBWI there's no escaping everyone's favorite comics POD! It's a good idea & one that I think we can all have fun with)
 
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