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Episode 1791 Talkback - Top 5 Performances in Comic Related Movies

i_am_scifii_am_scifi Posts: 781
edited February 2021 in CGS Episodes & Spin-Offs
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)

Listen here.

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  • hauberkhauberk Posts: 1,511
    5 - Mickey Roarke as Marv - Sin City Admittedly, Marv isn't a particularly deepp character but I really liked him in the role.
    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.

  • I won't argue with any of your choices, though for me, Jack Nicholson's Joker is nowhere near my Top 50, much less Top 5 (felt more like Jack Nicholson doing a caricature of his previous "crazy guy" performances than the Joker to me). Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is probably my number one. And Ron Perlman’s Hellboy is definitely in there somewhere, probably my number two. Then there are probably 20 others who I could swap in and out to fill out the list, including a few that weren't mentioned:

    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.

  • @nweathington Shame on me for not thinking of Scott Pilgrim! I agree wholeheartedly with each of those choices. And that the dust will be cleaned up on Monday.
  • hauberkhauberk Posts: 1,511

    I won't argue with any of your choices, though for me, Jack Nicholson's Joker is nowhere near my Top 50, much less Top 5 (felt more like Jack Nicholson doing a caricature of his previous "crazy guy" performances than the Joker to me). Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is probably my number one. And Ron Perlman’s Hellboy is definitely in there somewhere, probably my number two. Then there are probably 20 others who I could swap in and out to fill out the list, including a few that weren't mentioned:

    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.

    I cannot believe that I forgot about Hellboy!

    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.
  • hauberk said:

    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.

    Fair enough. I really liked the books, and I thought the movie did about as good a job at capturing the spirit of the story and the style of storytelling as one could expect from a 2-hour movie, and Cera, like him or not, was a pretty spot-on choice for the title role. Plus I love the music.
  • hauberkhauberk Posts: 1,511

    hauberk said:

    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.

    Fair enough. I really liked the books, and I thought the movie did about as good a job at capturing the spirit of the story and the style of storytelling as one could expect from a 2-hour movie, and Cera, like him or not, was a pretty spot-on choice for the title role. Plus I love the music.
    Perhaps it was the lack of reading the books.
  • hauberk said:

    hauberk said:

    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.

    Fair enough. I really liked the books, and I thought the movie did about as good a job at capturing the spirit of the story and the style of storytelling as one could expect from a 2-hour movie, and Cera, like him or not, was a pretty spot-on choice for the title role. Plus I love the music.
    Perhaps it was the lack of reading the books.
    Ah, I can definitely see that being an issue. I don't think you even see Scott play video games in the movie (or hang out in his apartment much at all, really), which is important in helping the meta video game storytelling gimmicks make sense. A lot of the supporting cast’s roles are severely cut down from the books (particularly the roommate, Wallace), so they're much more 2-dimensional in the movie. I mean, I think the movie is pretty good on its own, but having the knowledge of the books to fill in some gaps will almost certainly elevate it for whoever watches it.
  • The first time I watched the Scott Pilgrim movie, it put me to sleep! Something about all of those jump cuts and the quirky tone, the way it forces you to keep up relentlessly while keeping all of its characters at arm's length, just knocked me out -- literally. But on a second viewing about a year later, I really enjoyed it, and my kids love it! I don't think I'd put it ahead of the best Marvel movies though.

    Hmmm, my own top 5 performances, I'll have to think about that. Great topic!
  • dbranning said:

    The first time I watched the Scott Pilgrim movie, it put me to sleep! Something about all of those jump cuts and the quirky tone, the way it forces you to keep up relentlessly while keeping all of its characters at arm's length, just knocked me out -- literally. But on a second viewing about a year later, I really enjoyed it, and my kids love it! I don't think I'd put it ahead of the best Marvel movies though.

    Hmmm, my own top 5 performances, I'll have to think about that. Great topic!

    So in order to get a little more data for our impromptu survey, the question is, had you and/or your kids read the books before seeing the movie the first time? And how about you @i_am_scifi?
  • Hey Eric! I've only read the Scott Pilgrim FCBD issue, and it didn't grab me enough to want to read more. I do wonder if my kids might like the comics. Well, I just surveyed my younger one (age 13) and he's interested!
  • 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.

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