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seriousficApparently, yes.
Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post. Possibly withpictures GOGA.
Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post. Possibly with
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-23 10:30 pm (UTC)As first commenter I will take the bullet of sounding out what kind of Top Fives you're looking for.
Top Five characters who would have been good if they'd been played by a different actor
Date: 2009-08-24 12:12 am (UTC)1. Puck, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). If there's one thing all movie-goers can agree on, it's that if you can do a movie without child actors, you should. It's not their fault, it's just that child actors generally haven't had a chance to learn how to act and that children are naturally annoying. Unfortunately, children are somewhat necessary to tell certain stories. Like the ones about children.
But casting a child to play an adult character? Now, that's just evil. Mickey Rooney takes Puck and turns him into the most annoying, ADD, attention-starved douche you could ever imagine. 50% of the movie is a character saying a line, then cutting to Mickey Rooney repeating it. It takes all the awe and majesty of having someone talking in the audience and then puts it up on screen. No thank you!
2. Duke, G.I. Joe. You can see what I mean here, since for the hero, this guy is criminally underwritten. The faceless ninja who's taken a vow of silence easily has more personality. But still, Channing Tatum, who was so captivating in Fighting, doesn't do anything with the character. Someone with natural charisma, like Brendan Fraiser in the Mummy movies, would've made this character much more watchable.
3. Storm, the X-Men movies. This is what happens when you cast someone for their place on the Maxim Hot 100 rather than acting ability. See also Jessica Alba in the Fantastic Four movies. Unlike those piles of shit, this character was redeemable. The X-movies never did a great job of juggling characters (see Cyclops: aka, Sir Not Appearing In X2), but they at least gave Halle Berry something to work with. Naturally, she didn't, and her diva-like take-over of X-Men 3 was a franchise killer. There's no reason to have a love triangle and then devote a goodly portion of the story's attention to someone who doesn't even seem to be friends with anyone in the love triangle. I weep when I think of how good the X-Men movies could've been if they'd cast a Gina Torres or an Angela Bassett, someone who could capture the comic book character's personality instead of just cashing a paycheck.
4. Mutt Williams, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've ranted on this before, and the character is odiously underwritten in comparison to Henry Jones Sr. and Short Round in the previous movies. Even Sallah has more of a personality. But Shia LeBeouf is so terrible in the role of a badass greaser that attention must be paid. If the character of Mutt Williams arrives stillborn (and look at that name. Holy shit), then Shia LeBeouf's casting is the nail in the coffin.
5. Caroline/Echo, Dollhouse. Again, this is probably the worst thing Joss Whedon's done in recent memory and it seems churlish to complain about a character who is literally written to have no character, but Eliza Dushku is clearly better at looking nice in those skeevy "Dollhouse will return in 90 seconds, with Faith's boobies" spot than at portraying a different character every episode. When contrasted with the work that supporting characters like Victor and Sierra do, it's just incredibly dispiriting. I know the show is Eliza Dushku's baby, but she would've been far better off playing an easier part like Dr. Saunders or the Paul Ballard character, where she could settle in with a character for the long haul and make the best use of her talent. As is, she's dragging the show down from Epic Exploration Of The Human Spirit to Eliza Dushku Plays Dress-Up. That said?
I would watch the shit out of Eliza Dushku Plays Dress-Up, Now 100% Rape-Free!
Re: Top Five characters who would have been good if they'd been played by a different actor
Date: 2009-08-24 04:23 am (UTC)Re: Top Five characters who would have been good if they'd been played by a different actor
Date: 2009-08-24 09:20 am (UTC)Re: Top Five characters who would have been good if they'd been played by a different actor
Date: 2009-09-01 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-24 09:40 am (UTC)(My best example of what I mean would be the Aeon Flux movie, in which Charlize Theron decides to fight for human extinction and the audience is apparently supposed to agree with her.)
Less seriously, but in hopes of more pictures, Top Five Hottest Women (or Heroines or Villainesses) ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-24 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-01 05:15 pm (UTC)1. Peter/MJ/Felicia. If I ever get a job writing for Marvel, I swear I'm going to write so many Spider-Man comics under the subtext that they're in a menage a trois.
2. Scott/Barda. Forty years later and the woman being the badass is still a revolutionary concept.
3. Davis/Chloe. I could take away points for the ending the show gave them, but the fact that they were as awesome as they were even on a show like Smallville... well, if people can ship Piper/Trickster from Countdown, I can have this.
4. Wendy/Lacey. Everything you could want in a femslash couple. Damn you, ABC Family! Damn you!
5. Dick/Kory. They could've easily been the Clark/Lois of the new generation. It's a shame that bad writing, nostalgia, and a institutional disdain for domesticity screwed them over.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-24 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-01 05:24 pm (UTC)2. Xavier/Magneto. It has to be said. What other rivalry has Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan?
3. The Doctor/The Master. Probably the definitive 'good friends, better enemies' rivalry.
4. Lex Luthor/Clark Kent. There's honestly as much bad as good here, from the car salesman Lex Luthor who is more often Superman's comic relief than his arch-nemesis, to the cluster of fail that the uber-promising Smallville fell into with regards to their characterization and relationship (love triangle with LANA LANG, WTF?). But when it's on, it's really on. There are so many interesting takes on the two characters, from a simple hatred that is still compelling in its obsessiveness, to friendship gone bad, to a philosophical grudge match between wish fulfillment and harsh reality. This is the rivalry that I think has the most to say
5. Batman/the Joker. Even dragged down by the increasing preposterousness of Batman not just killing the Joker (or letting someone else do it. Or crippling him. Or lobotomizing him. Or launching him into space. Or SOMETHING), there's no denying that this rivalry brings out the best/worst in both players.
The_Lurker
Date: 2009-09-02 01:03 pm (UTC)