Superman Returns Rate Kevin Spacey's performance as Lex Luthor

[Prognosticator]

I don't know about all of this "10" talk??? I gave him a 6, and I could have gone with 7 but seriously, does no one watch Superman:TAS b/c "THAT" performance deserves a "10", not Spacey 'great one moment, okay the next' performance. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good...but far from perfect.

 

[DV8]

^hey, thanks . . . I gave him a 6 too . . . and I really don't get how all these people giving him a 10 are being honest with themselves . . .

 

[Mr. Socko]

I gave him an 8/10

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

I voted a 10.Spacey did a great job.

 

[the_scream]

Kevin Spacey is too recognisable as "Kevin Spacey". I never could suspend my belief that he was Lex Luthor and his take on Lex was a hybrid of Spacey-Hackman.

 

[lordofthenerds]

I thought that he did great as Lex. Seemed more evil than the Hackman version. 10/10.

 

[ReptileOrion]

Kevin Spacey worked wonders with the screen time that he was given. It is not his fault that his character had another real estate scheme with a faulty execution plan.

 

[ILuvCyclops]

He was perfect!

 

[Doctor Octopus]

He was too campy/comedic for my tastes.

Not nearly as villainous as he should have been.

 

[Mister Sinister]

One of the highlights of the movie for me, his chemistry with Kitty was superb.

 

[ReptileOrion]

He was too campy/comedic for my tastes.

Not nearly as villainous as he should have been.

Luthor did have his campy moments but the scene on new Krypton where he stabbed him in the back with kryponite was pretty villainous. It was disturbing when he told Supes "Now see if you can fly."

 

[DrMylesOBoogie]

He phoned it in.

 

[Sardaukar]

Spacey's performance was schizo.

One moment he's camping it up, the next he's genuinely menacing, the next he's psycho.

At least Hackman kept it consistently tongue in cheek.

Like Routh, Hackman didn't make the character his own like he could have. He seemed disinterested throughout.

 

[FaT_tONle]

Only good thing about the film... along with Routhe... everything else was blah....

 

[phoenixstorm]

Gene Hackman ripoff.

 

[FOG3]

I gave him an 8. Mainly because beat the crap out of Superman. It's not his fault that the writers wanted him to be an imitation of Hackman. Im glad he at least made it a little more intimidating.

I like Posey as Kitty, but I dont think they had the best chemistry in all scenes. This might have been because of the writing, but I also think (someone already said this in the beggining of the thread) that it was more Spacey's fault cause hes not that great with comedy. The train scene was especially flat. For the whole movie it seemed like Spacey himself was bored with the cliched comedic villain thing. The best scenes are when he gets seriously BAD. They should have just let him do his own thing instead of trying to tie him so close to Hackman. I dont think anyone would have complained. STAS Lex is way cooler..

I laughed when Lois & Jason stumbled upon the wig room and Jason says "I like the curly one". The way the voice over was done is hilarious to me for some reason...

 

[The Sage]

I'd give it a 10. Spacey was great. I didn't find him campy, and the only times he would seem to close to campy are those times with Kitty. He was a sadist, a hedonist, narcist, and a cruel bastard overall.

 

[Octoberist]

I GIVE Spacey an 8 for his performance.

However, I give the character Lex a 6. Why?

There was nothing persoanl about Lex's and Superman's rivalry. There was no tension at all. We knew that Lex is mad at Superman, but he didn't really show it until that one scene at New Krypton.

Lex's whole arc felt like a sidestory, due to his lack of interaction with the other characters (Until the third act). It was okay in the Donner movie..here I was expecting much more.

 

[FOG3]

I didnt really think about that but youre totally right.

 

[ec86]

Kevin is to me the best Lex Luthor, EVER. In my opinion he's even better than Hackman.

 

[The Kid]

Gene Hackman ripoff.

lol yeah. I respect spacey but he didn't do it for me. I don't want to see wacky gameshow host lex ever again.

 

[Stevens25]

I loved his performance! Way above Hackman's,imo. Hackman's Luthor was too jokey and I never really took him seriously. Spacey had that anger and evilness to him and I thought he was great!

 

[XCharlieX]

I loved his performance! Way above Hackman's,imo. Hackman's Luthor was too jokey and I never really took him seriously. Spacey had that anger and evilness to him and I thought he was great!

EXACTLY He felt like a man of power finally when his thugs were beating superman down and he was watching. I think this ambush was the most extreme hes done in all films.

 

[The Kid]

It reminded me of that scene from Short Circuit 2 when Johnny 5 got just completely ravaged by those thugs... Of course he had that antenna thing so he called some remote control planes in to fight off the thugs that were beating him.

I need to see Short Circuit 2 again.

found it on youtube

check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlMzPSElV8

 

[SatEL]

There was nothing wrong with Spaceys performance its just the way Lex was potrayed.