As several readers let me know today, Jamie Foxx has been talking at the Django Unchained junkets about his upcoming role as Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with the money quote coming from Blackfilm.com, where they asked about the costume. Foxx responded:
It won't be green and yellow. It will be a different color. They (the producers) want something for the future. They want to have it more grounded and not as comic book-y, so it won't be green and yellow. They want to try new things, like a liquid rubber and things like that, and there are all these bolts and stuff in my arms when they are hanging me upside down and trying to figure out what happen. How did he become this way? So, it will be some new stuff.
Fair enough - Electro's costume was always a bit silly looking, so even in an era where filmmakers finally have the guts to give the X-Men yellow and blue outfits, some reinvention makes sense. Just so long as the filmmakers know when to change things up...and when not to. Here are five good examples of getting it right:
Good practice for playing Nixon years later
5. Skeletor (Masters of the Universe). Filmation took a scary looking, pumped-up death lookalike and made him a whiny sniggerer whose plans always failed ridiculously. The live-action movie got many things wrong, but in casting Frank Langella, they made the Eternian evildoer into a genuine threat - one who'd kill his own warriors to become a god. If he'd known that god powers could be destroyed just by his staff getting cut in two, however, he might not have bothered.
In America it's bling-bling, here it's bling-BANG
4. Galvatron (Transformers: The Movie). Megatron was a great bad guy, but his transformation from giant robot with arm cannon to tiny handgun never made much sense. Reborn as a new toy in the animated movie, he was able to become a much bigger gun, and gained Leonard Nimoy's voice. That's what we call an upgrade.
"Quack quack this, bitches!"
3. The Penguin (Batman Returns). Purists may disagree, but the Penguin is one seriously un-scary villain in most comic-book portrayals: a short, fat guy in a tux is going to beat the world's most highly trained, semi-psychotic billionaire genius...with an umbrella? Turn him into a circus freak raised by sewer birds, and he gets a little scarier; Tim Burton's only major misstep with the reimagined Oswald Cobblepot was to make him - rather than Batman - the protagonist of the movie (look closely at the story structure, such as it is - it's the Penguin's journey, not Bruce Wayne's).
"I'ma flip this bird!"
2. Top Dollar (The Crow). A relatively unimportant drug dealer in the comic book, he became the main mean man in the movie version, and Michael Wincott's distinct, gravelly delivery made the character. Able to swing a samurai sword and book awesome bands like Medicine to play in his club, this guy pretty much had it all until he killed Bruce Lee's kid. Yes, the father was no longer around to kick his ass in retaliation, but a bird brought the son's soul back in clownface. Shoulda seen that one coming.
I dare you to make fun of those outfits.
1. General Zod (Superman II). "Why do you say this...when you know I will kill you for it?" The biggest challenge Michael Shannon faces as the new Zod in Man of Steel is not living up to the comic-book character, but living up to the portrayal by Terence Stamp, who defined him not as a dude in a dorky military uniform, but a black-clad bad guy obsessed with making people kneel. You know it was effective because even after seeing Stamp in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, we're still scared of Zod.
There's a lot more competition when it comes to the five worst...
Talk to Shatner - he can fix that hairline
5. Lex Luthor (Superman, Superman II, Superman IV). To be fair, it was early days for the big-budget comic-book movie, and Richard Donner was taking as realistic an approach as one can in a movie about an alien orphan who flies around in a red cape. But Luthor's big plan is...creating real estate with nuclear missiles? And he wears a hairpiece - with a receding hairline, no less - almost all the time? Donner was never going to give us the green "Super Powers" armor, and his movie predated the reimagining of Lex as a ruthless tycoon with a metal hand. But as a super-genius who has to rely on the help of a bumbling idiot and an unfaithful sex object, he really isn't as smart as he ought to be. Gene Hackman's good as Gene Hackman, but he isn't Luthor.
4. The Red Skull (Captain America). Don't panic - we're not ragging on Hugo Weaving, whose Werner Herzog imitation kept The First Avenger consistently hilarious for cinephiles. That Red Skull rules. The 1990 version, played by Scott Paulin as an Italian...doesn't.
"Do you fancy a shag, baby?"
3. Venom (Spider-Man 3). Sam Raimi never liked Venom, and boy, did it show. From the miscasting of Topher Grace to the misunderstanding of how he should even look - unmasked face with crooked teeth? - the director seemed determined to make the rest of us hate the character just as much. Mission accomplished, for now.
"It's nahht a zirconiaaa!"
2. Mr. Freeze (Batman and Robin). Otto Preminger played Mr. Freeze on the Adam West TV show as a funnyman with a German accent. Paul Dini fleshed him out as a tragic figure with a broken heart. Joel Schumacher decided to try and do both versions at once, while simultaneously casting an actor who didn't remotely have the range to pull it off. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance is hilarious for all the wrong reasons - the desperation in the way he overplays the bad puns is palpable - but it's not any Mr. Freeze we know.
Three Mile Island isn't the only disaster here
1. Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Really? Really, Fox? This should have been a home run - buff wiseass Ryan Reynolds as buff wiseass "merc with a mouth" Deadpool. So the first thing you do is make him mouthless, then give him completely unrelated powers? Like your butchered version of the character, we're practically speechless. We know there are a lot of Rob Liefeld haters out there, but this seems like a ton of work just to spite him.
Nice list, and I generally agree, although I wouldn't put either Luthor on it. Even though all the criticisms are spot on, that movie and that performance still hold up as good, and there are plenty of much more disappointing things to choose from.
I am a bit worried about Electro now, though. I'm fine with casting Jamie Foxx and I'm fine with redesigning the uniform -- that lightning bolt mask has always been a goofy design. But there's nothing wrong with green and yellow colors. And liquid rubber? "Bolts and stuff" in his arms? That's just replacing one kind of goofy with another.
It's Electro. He shoots electricity. This is not hard. Don't over-think it and make it stupid.
As an aside, I would totally love to see a character named "Foxxy Electro".
I like Penguin better as a Cockney gangster, like he was portrayed in the Arkham games. Reminded me of Bricktop from Snatch, who is one scary motherfucker.
For the worst list, how about Kevin Spacey as Luthor in "Superman: Returns". Like I've said many times, that movie came out during the middle of "Smallville's" run, so it was hard to accept Spacey as Luthor instead of Michael Rosenbaum. Of course, the movie producers cast Spacey for the same reason as Schwarzenegger: they needed a big-name star, rather than someone who fit the part.
@john8585 Nah. Spacey was perfect as the "new age" billionaire ruthless tycoon meglomaniac. His Luthor was one you could see running and winning a Presidential race as well as one bent on the destruction of an individual whose very existence was a threat to his ego.
@Kozmik_Pariah Seriously? There were good things in Spidey 3? And Topher's Venom was one of them? The basic sentiment that there were good things in that movie negates that opinion all together.
Top Dollar loses credit for being a major part of the lousy half of the film.
First half of the film, with Eric getting his vengeance, is great. The latter half, which revolves around Top Dollar and Myca (and the whole "kill the crow to take his power"), is painfully bad.
actully think the dead pool in wolverine was a clone. but still wrong for fox to screw up the character like that. and was going to be suprised if arnolds take as mr. freeze did not make the worse list. though wound have also included uma thurmans take as poison ivy from the same film.
Skeletor was almost perfect. You have to wonder if Langella got indigestion from chewing all that scenery. I really wanted him and James Tolkan to have a scene together while Meg Foster's eyes haunted everything.
Every other aspect of the movie made me want to throw out my He-Man figures, but my religious nut dad had already beaten me to it.
i went to see spider-man 3 my freshman year of college after the cliche beers and toke i went to see it at midnight as soon as teh lights went out for teh movie to start i fell asleep i only woke up for 3 parts/ i woke up for teh jazz dance number, i mumbled to my friend "whats going on?", i woke up again for kirsten dunst and james franco making omelettes and finally i was conscious for eric foreman in a venom costume talking to sandman. now i don't remember but my friends swear i blurted out loud "what the fuck is going on here?!"
@CaptainZADL I think we have seen nothing yet. It appears he was walking around Hollywood with a "Will Act For Food" sign judging by the new credits in his IMDB profile
Venom is one of my personal favorite villains, and when I heard he was going to be in Spider-Man 3 I was hyped.... I was so sad by the end of the movie.
I liked the Wolverine movie, but the Deadpool part really was just stupid.
"People like this character, so let's put him in this movie, but let's change everything they like about him and make him into a completely different character. Brilliant!"
@js16nite As far as I'm concerned the Wolclops at the end of the Wolverine movie wasn't deadpool and we'll find Deadpool in one of the later movies, turns out, he was still in the scrap pit in this movie....
@foxorama@js16nite My ideal start to a Deadpool movie would begin by showing that final fight from Wolverine Origins, then panning out to show that we're in a movie theater. The camera moves over to a popcorn-munching Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) who stares right into it while flipping off the movie screen and says "Can you believe this crap? I swear, I'm gonna have to shoot my agent..."
@foxorama@js16nite What made the whole thing even worse is that they started off so well with the build up to Deadpool in this movie. They had Ryan Reynolds, who is a perfect choice for the character, and his character was very much in line with what I'd imagine Deadpool would be like. All they had to do was add the proper powers and a bit more crazy later in the movie, and they would have had Deadpool.
But nooooo. They go and tease us and get our hopes up, then BAM! Laser eyes without a word spoken.
@js16nite@foxorama What I never got was how to manage to cover up his mouth when isn't deadpools regeneration factor even higher then wolverines? Course that the least of deadpools problems in that movie lol
@js16nite@foxorama well they kind of started him off with powers that he never had and just took it to the XTREME!!! The bullet swatting sword thing was goofy
How about Cobra Commander in GI Joe? I do agree with Penguin, though. DeVito gave a stellar performance. I also enjoyed Jim Carrey as Riddler in Batman Forever.
How does Dr. Doom not make the list? This is THE comic book villain and they cast Julian McMahon, model him after the crappy Ultimate version with the metal skin and just terrible to see him as a dry wiscracker, not the brilliant regal figure we all know and love to hate.
Sorry, I love Gene Hackman's Luthor. Granted, he's far removed from the comics version but he's hugely entertaining in the role and I think is able to switch from looney to dangerous effortlessly. Yeah, he's no Clancy Brown Luthor, but he's a hell of a lot better than Kevin Spacey who does a very pale imitation - HE should have been on your list.
@PCabezuelo He might have been...except I feel like his job was to transition between Hackman Luthor and comic-book Luthor, and as such, he did his job well.
@LYT Ok so you criticize Luthor's portrayal in the first Superman movie (not necessarily Hackman's performance) but you give Spacey a pass despite the fact that he's portraying the character the exact same way 25 years later? Sorry, but there was no transitioning in Superman Returns - there is absolutely nothing of the comic Luthor there, it's 100% Hackman Luthor, just done by a different actor. For god's sake, his masterplan was exactly the same. Hell, they even used the same one-liners!
Not trying to beat a dead horse, just think if you're going to smack-talk the Luthor in the first Superman movie (and I see your point) I think you need to point out the poor carbon copy in Superman Returns. Again, not criticizing Spacey's performance, just that the character was exactly the same despite having another couple of decades of prime Luthor material (in the comic and the cartoon) to draw from. But then, that was pretty much my problem with Superman Returns, they should have been looking forwards not (selectively) back.
@Ford_Thundercougarfalconbird@PCabezuelo@rabidronnie Yeah, Lionel was pretty much the reason I watched longer than I should have, though Rosenbaum had his moments even as he struck me more as a young bald David Xanatos with bigger daddy issues.
@PCabezuelo@Ford_Thundercougarfalconbird@rabidronnie Well, it was a sequel to Superman II. And Routh just proved he couldn't act. Plus Kate Bozworth was too pretty for Lois. She would have made a better Lana. I've always imagined Lois as a hardened New Yorker, not a cheerleader from the burbs.
@Ford_Thundercougarfalconbird@PCabezuelo@rabidronnie Well, I will grant you that Spacey was the best thing in Returns - my problem is he was just channeling Hackman in the same way Routh was channeling Reeve and just didn't work.
@PCabezuelo@rabidronnie The only thing I loved about Superman Returns was Kevin Spacey's Luthor. I also think Lionel Luthor on Smallville was a better Lex than most of them.
