AnneFan
Avenger
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The first two Reeve movies are too good
Add STAS into the mix and that's a good collection of Superman media.
The first two Reeve movies are too good
He was the worstWhat you didn't like Nuclear Man?
"Destroy Superman"
That's where you lose me, I thought she was terrible.
SUPERMAN'S WORST:
1. Nuclear Man - Just flat-out awful, like everything else in that movie (sadly, even Reeve is pretty bad in it at times).
2. Gus Gorman - I named Gus as the chief offender in Superman III even more so than the film's actual villain (Ross Webster) simply because WB didn't know what to do with Superman after the second movie so they attempted to just cash in on Richard Pryor's popularity. And the result was abysmal. Superman III has its good points (Annette O'Toole and Reeve have great chemistry and the Superman vs. Superman fight works fairly well) but all in all, it was clearly the moment where Superman started to go downhill.
3. Lex Luthor (Superman Returns) - More disappointing than flat-out terrible, Spacey's Luthor is only made worse whenever I watch an episode of House of Cards and I see how great of a Lex he COULD have been. I mostly blame the writing and Singer, though Spacey really just felt like he was phoning it in.
BATMAN'S WORST:
1. Mr. Freeze - SOOOOOOO many bad one-liners. It was like Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman created a drinking game that revolved around ice puns. That movie is 100% awful and Arnold's Mr. Freeze is the worst part.
2. Two-Face (Batman Forever) - Tommy Lee Jones was so bad in this movie I almost named him the worst of the worst, but I guess since Batman Forever was at least marginally better than Batman & Robin, I have to give him the #2 spot here. He clearly didn't understand the character AT ALL; Two-Face isn't a raving lunatic like the Joker; he's psychotic but he's not batsh** crazy 100% of the time. I suppose a total lunatic version of Two-Face COULD work but you'd at least have to have an actor who could pull that off without it feeling completely fake and Jones is not that guy.
3. Bane (Batman & Robin) - Some people may not care for Tom Hardy's take on Bane and his wacky voice, but that portrayal was a godsend after what Schumacher did to the character in B&R. I know that Bane's primary asset is his strength and physicality, but he's also supposed to be a guy who can match wits with Batman. Turning him into a green-skinned freak with a two-word vocabulary was a horrid mistake.
I totally forgot about Faora ... Great actress and performance. She was legit intimidating and threatening. Forget Zod alone. I could see Faora wiping the floor with Loki, Ultron, etc. She was ruthlessHmm, the 'best' list makes sense too, yeah!
1) Ledger as the Joker - TDK
2) Hardy as Bane - TDKR
3) Shannon as Zod - MoS
4) Nicholson as the Joker - Batman
5) Traue as Faora-Ul - MoS
So basically any and every MCU villain? Co sign. A heroes worth is only weighted by the gravity of the obstacles or opposition he faces.I have really developed a curious reaction now to any CBM villain portrayal that is played for comedic relief: I can't stand them now. They make me shiver.
It is so rare that I agree with someone so thoroughly on these boards. Everything you have said is total truth.I can't enjoy Hackman's Luthor anymore for that reason. In 1966 when the first CBM got made in earnest with Adam West's comedic Batman, Silver Age comic books were written for children. Therefore studio execs for damn near three decades to follow conceived of CBMs mainly as for lighthearted whimsical entertainment. The same undercurrent continued with the Reeve Superman films. (I love Chris Reeve, but I now struggle with the overall tone of the films.) There were some godawful TV movie CBMs made in the 70s - 90s. For my taste, unfortunately the Burton and Schumaker Batman movies couldn't resist the pull toward corny villains.*
There was small amounts of camp with Nicholson's Joker but it worked for the character and he was still very menacing as a threat to the city in the movie. Batman Returns which ODed on Burtonisms actually ramped up the ham and camp with Devito.It wasn't until Blade in 1998 and X-Men in 2000 that we saw non-camp villains and a CBM truly written for an adult audience. This got cemented by a number of similarly geared films in the early to mid 00s, and the Nolan trilogy locked it into place: a mature, adult sensibility to storytelling for CBMs, that is. But my point is that I really struggle now to enjoy any CBM that makes the villain camp.
Valid points but Nicholson's performance is trend setting and actually iconic so that's why I ranked it slightly above.Nicholson is able to make the Joker truly menacing even though he somewhat crosses the line of playing him for comedy. I put Shannon above Nicholson because as great as Nicholson is, Jack is basically playing himself as the Joker. Whereas I think Shannon's role required substantially more of him as an actor (to me it's a little more like a Shakespearean performance).
Whole post isI'd rate Hathaway's Catwoman very highly too. Honestly, in some ways for me I might even place her at number four. I loved everything about that performance, which was a breath of fresh air for me in updating the character from the blatantly camp past versions. But she's ultimately Batman's ally by the end--it is at least a murky enough character not to be a pure villain.