Episode 1791 Talkback - Top 5 Performances in Comic Related Movies
i_am_scifi
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Some actors and actresses are so good at a role they make it their own, while still managing to honor the source material that came before. This Top 5 respects and represents these performances throughout the comic book movie genre. Will there be crossover amongst the Geek's choices, or will each list stand alone? Is each choice a superhero, or do some non-superhero portrayals make the cut? Are they all actors taking on lead characters, or is there a side character or two? I'll never tell, I prefer leaving you all in suspense. And...cut! (1:52:16)
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4 - Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman - Not sure what to say - she simply embodied the part. Grace, strength, a slightly exotic accent.
3 - Hugh Jackman as Wolverine - From the first appearance, he absolutely nailed it.
2 - Chris Evans as Captain America - somewhat of a stand-in for so many of the Marvel hero cast - Evans, though, I think had the most depth to express - some great comments about the barracks scene in the episode, but I'd hold the alley scene with the garbage can lid, the flag pole and the grenade.
1 - Christopher Reeves as Superman - The scene in Lois' apartment where he wants to tell her. So much done with some subtle body language.
I have Honorable Mentions but will need to append later.
The cast of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, particularly Mark Webber’s Stephen Stills, Allison Pill’s Kim Pine, and Ellen Wong’s Knives Chau. Chris Evans’ Lucas Lee was a lot of fun too. I'll watch Scott Pilgrim over even the best of the Marvel movies any day of the week.
Louise Bourgoin’s Adèle Blanc-Sec in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (adapted from the work of the great Jacques Tardi). It's a French film, so I'm not surprised she wasn't mentioned, but it's very well done, and she's great in it.
Timothy Dalton’s Neville Sinclair in The Rocketeer. Subtle when he needs to be, and just over the top when he needs to be.
Rocketeer was coming in on multiple levels in my honorable mentions - Billy Campbell, Timothy Dalton and Jennifer Connelly all were pretty perfect.
I will diverge on all things Scott Pilgrim. I found it to be almost completely forgettable. In all honesty, all I really remember about it is that I have a strong dislike for Michael Cera.
Hmmm, my own top 5 performances, I'll have to think about that. Great topic!
I had definitely read the book, @nweathington, before seeing the movie, although everyone forgets the last volume of the book came out nearly concurrently with the movie, which is why the endings of both are different.
That’s cool, @dbranning! I will say that the books are a little more adult-oriented than the movie (drinking at parties, more frankness re: sex, etc.), but it should be okay for a young teenager. I think you’ll find them in a lot of high school libraries, in fact. The pacing is also much slower than the movie’s, as you would expect with a 1200 page (or so) story. All the themes of a young adult trying to figure out what to do with their life, what they really want in a relationship, etc. was stripped away in the movie, so the books have a different feel (for the better), but hopefully your youngest will enjoy it.
I didn’t see the film in theaters, so I’d finished the books by the time I got it on DVD. They cut out so much of Ramona’s story for the movie for time that the books’ ending wouldn’t have made much sense anyway. And Scott does really experience much growth (and is also much less of a dingus at the start) in the movie like he does in the books—he doesn’t really have an arc in the movie, per se; he doesn’t really earn his “level-ups”—so ending with basically the status quo in the movie feels more or less right.
So going by the “survey” so far, small sample size aside, it appears that reading the books first does affect one's enjoyment of the film. I hadn't really considered it before, but the more I think about it, the more that makes sense.