Worst Performance EVER in a Comic Book Film?

[Rowsdower!]

I was just thinking about Tommy Lee Jones' awful performance in Batman Forever and it got me thinking... was it the worst bit of acting in CBM history? It very well might have been. Then again, Arnold in Batman & Robin makes me want to bash my head against a wall and the Nuclear Man in Superman IV is god-awful.

Who do you think delivered the worst performance in comic book movie history? And I'm talking about actors who played significant characters in superhero movies (i.e., not the "NO MORE DEAD COPS" guy in TDK). Who is the worst of the worst?

 

[Flint Marko]

 

[Rowsdower!]

Hahahaha I knew that one was coming.

Other (dis)honorable mentions:

Jamie Foxx in Amazing Spider-Man 2 (at least pre-Electro)
Peter Sarsgaard in Green Lantern
Richard Pryor in Superman III

 

[Flint Marko]

You've brought up a lot of really good candidates, but the main reason I think Luthor takes the cake is the simple fact that his performance felt so out of place in the context of BvS. He was a cartoon character in one of the most overbearingly ponderous superhero movies we've ever seen.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah, very true. It's like they were counting on him to be the sole point of levity in an otherwise morose movie. And I guess that could potentially work if the character is written cleverly, but he wasn't. He was more or less just a jackass, and hence the movie's Jar-Jar.

 

[BaelaTargaryen]

You've brought up a lot of really good candidates, but the main reason I think Luthor takes the cake is the simple fact that his performance felt so out of place in the context of BvS. He was a cartoon character in one of the most overbearingly ponderous superhero movies we've ever seen.

There is a review of BvS that touches on this:

http://reviews.antagonyecstasy.com/2016/04/heroes-villains.html

"Eisenberg is a complete disaster. Remaking the chilly industrialist/genius Luthor into an internet nerd with deep dark daddy issues was a peculiar choice, but not irredeemable; playing him as a kitschy clown proves to be the single biggest problem in a film that suffers from no shortage of them. The unrelentingly dour tone the film adopts is odd and ultimately tedious, but not unprecedented (it's one of the many things it lifts from Frank Miller's epoch-defining miniseries The Dark Knight Returns), and I'm inclined to say it's even a relief from the increasingly brittle, banal quips in Marvel's movies. But it can't support a performance like Eisenberg's embrace of full camp even in a tiny role; taking that approach to the antagonist (and then attempting to walk it back in the last act, badly) is insane."

 

[NotNickFury]

Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti, Dane DeHaan- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt in Watchmen, primarily because there's nothing subtle about his performance. You can tell right off the bat that he's the villain.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The first three that immediately come to mind are Jesse Eisenberg from BvS and Jamie Foxx & Paul Giamatti from TASM2. Although I'm not sure Giamatti counts as a "significant character."

But if it counts (and I personally think it should), I'm going to go with Justin Chatwin as Son Goku from Dragonball Evolution. That was a atrociously horrible performance. In a film full of bad performances, it was by far the worst.

 

[Boom]

Jamie Foxx as Electro
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Paul Giamatti as Rhino

 

[the last son]

Halle Berry Catwoman
Captain America 1990 version
Nuclear Man actor
Arnold as Freeze

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

For those picking Nuclear Man, do you mean Mark Pillow (who physically played him) or Gene Hackman (who did the voice)?

 

[Timebomb]

Jamie Foxx as Electro
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Paul Giamatti as Rhino

This if we are talking about movies in the last 10 years. Whole other list if we look at movies before that. We should set some parameters.

Although Lex is really really bad

 

[Rowsdower!]

For those picking Nuclear Man, do you mean Mark Pillow (who physically played him) or Gene Hackman (who did the voice)?

That's a good point. I suppose it's not really fair to single out Pillow since it's difficult to deliver any kind of real performance as an actor when they have someone else's voice dubbed over yours.

Thought of another one though... Shaq in Steel. That man couldn't act at all.

 

[Lantern Venom]

1. Blowpher as VINO
2. Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

Those two are in a class by themselves as being like nails-down-a-chalkboard every second they were on screen.

Others that were really bad performances: Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, George Clooney as Batman, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Matt Salinger as Captain America, and there are numerous performances in old, low budget adaptations that are nearly impossible to watch.

 

[The Joker]

1. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
2. Jamie Foxx as Electro
3. Paul Giamatti as Rhino

They are in a class of their own in terms of awfulness.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

1. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
2. Jamie Foxx as Electro
3. Paul Giamatti as Rhino

They are in a class of their own in terms of awfulness.

I don't know what the directors were thinking for allowing those performances. If it was me I would have done one take, and been like "Hahahahaha! That was hilarious! Now let's do the real take."

 

[JimThompson]

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Victor Freeze. They could have gotten Patrick Stewart -- but now that I think about it he'd have likely turned it down after reading the script.

And I disagree with those choosing Eisenburg. It wasn't a direction I would have thought to go with Luthor, but I think it worked in the movie. There was something truly malevolent about his Luthor.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Agree with Lantern Venom about Topher, but I don't know how you could say Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, at least right now. Maybe if she's awful in her own movie I could understand it, but she was in so little of BvS, it's hard for me to call her the worst of the worst, even if I wasn't particularly wowed by her.

Also strongly disagree about Margot Kidder. She was great in Superman '78 and also good in Superman II (though all the smoking grosses me out).

A few other ones come to mind...

Halle Berry as Storm and Catwoman
Christopher Eccleston as Malekith
Billy Zane and Treat Williams in The Phantom

 

[Boom]

I don't know what the directors were thinking for allowing those performances. If it was me I would have done one take, and been like "Hahahahaha! That was hilarious! Now let's do the real take."

It truly boggles the mind.

You're filming a live performance for a major blockbuster film, not a ****ing Saturday morning cartoon.

 

[LoganGambit87]

1. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
2. Jamie Foxx as Electro
3. Paul Giamatti as Rhino

They are in a class of their own in terms of awfulness.

these are far worse

 

[NotNickFury]

The only one of those I might be willing to give a very slight and minor pass would be Jim Carrey's Riddler because he was essentially doing an impression of Frank Gorshin and brought some level of energy to Batman Forever that Tommy Lee Jones didn't with Two-Face. It probably helped that this was Carrey during his prime, but yeah, generally speaking, still playing a cartoon character.

 

[Flint Marko]

Playing a cartoon character in a movie that was basically a live-action cartoon. That's why most of those performance's get a pass from me. They're terrible, but it fits with the movie.

 

[The Joker]

these are far worse

No they're not. The Schumacher villains were entertainingly bad, especially Carey and Arnie. Alba and Berry were bad, but not as cringe worthy bad as the three I mentioned.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

No they're not. The Schumacher villains were entertainingly bad, especially Carey and Arnie. Alba and Berry were bad, but not as cringe worthy bad as the three I mentioned.

I wouldn't say Carrey was bad at all. I liked his performance.

Agreed about the rest (and Uma Thurman is the same for another Shumacher villain). The one you didn't mention was Shaq, who can't act but at least he was his normal, charming self. He was bad, but he wasn't 'pull my hair out' awful.

I would take any of them over the terrible trio. Heck, throw Dane DeHaan in there too. He was almost as bad.

 

[brandeezy89]

1. Blowpher as VINO
2. Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

Those two are in a class by themselves as being like nails-down-a-chalkboard every second they were on screen.

Others that were really bad performances: Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, George Clooney as Batman, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Matt Salinger as Captain America, and there are numerous performances in old, low budget adaptations that are nearly impossible to watch.

LMAO, no