5. Topher Grace as Venom/Eddie Brock
Spider-Man 3 had a lot of problems, but Topher Grace wasn’t one of them. The thing about Eddie Brock is that he’s creepy, and always wants to be more than he is, and that the world is passing him over. Grace really does that creepy vibe very well, and as a counterpart to Tobey Maguire, he was perfectly suited. Perhaps some people had the hulking McFarlane version of Eddie Brock in mind, but Grace did the job, and did it well.
4. Keanu Reeves as John Constantine
Every Hellblazer fan knows that this made no sense, and John is a Brit. But, if you had to do it with a US star (which is the only way this is going to get made in the first place), it wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. While he didn’t do the accent (THANK GOD!), Keanu did actually have the bearing and attitude of Constantine, and the intention, if not he accent, or even the look, of what we think of as our favorite smoking mage.
3. Nic Cage as Big Daddy
Nic Cage is a movie killer for me. I cannot take him seriously. There was a point after he won an Oscar when it was all just goofy Nic Cage-ness in everything. There are exceptions though, and Kick-Ass is one of them. Cage is an actor who’s wanted to play a comic book fero desperately for what seems like, the entirety of his career, but as we saw with Ghost Rider, he’s a tough sell for the road, but in Big Daddy is a guy who desperately wants to be a superhero, even if he’s not quite right. Well that’s Nic Cage right there, isn’t it?
2. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
Maybe you weren’t there. Maybe you don’t remember, but no one knew who he was, and he wasn’t Glenn Danzig (awful, awful idea by the way), and he was too tall, and this movie is going to be– “Hey, that guy’s pretty good with this growling and his neck cracking!” Obviously it worked out, X-Men was a huge hit, and Jackman has made a career from playing Wolverine every once in a while between his dancing gigs.
1. Heath Ledger as the Joker
Again, most of you cried foul when this Dark Knight casting was announced, as happened again with the announcement of Bane. But you’ll probably be proven wrong again. Sure Ledger wasn’t Jack Nicholson’s Joker, nor was he the Joker from any comics we’d read before. No, he was something new. He was something true to the core of what the Joker can be, but it was something different, and it worked. It Academy Award worked. You could watch every scene he’s in at any point and still have your attention demanded just like it was the first time. Not everyone thought it was going to be awful, but no one expected it to be that great.
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Just so you know, typo on Heath Ledger. “annonced”
Heath Ledger is the ultimate unexpected casting. When i first heard the name it made no sense. Man was i glad i was proven wrong.
“Heath Ledger as the Joker” is the ultimate “shut up” to anyone blasting superhero movie casting decisions.
Am I the only one who hated Jack Nicholson as the joker? I honeslty thought it was terrible performance.
Great Top 5, and huge props for including Topher Grace. I couldn’t agree more with what you said. I wish the movie had been more of just Eddie Brock/Venom and Peter/symbiote. If you removed the Sandman stuff (and probably the New Goblin stuff… at least as it was done in the film), I think we could have had a movie no one (at least not as many) people would have complained about. Grace did such a bang-up job as Venom because he was literally the antithesis of Toby Maguire’s Spidey. That’s exactly what we needed. A crazy hulking dude wouldn’t have just made the movie worse. It’s really too bad we didn’t get more of his take on the character…
When I first heard about Heath Ledger as the Joker there was a brief “what?”. But anyone who’s seen his work knows how versatile of an actor he is. And Christopher Nolan isn’t your typical studio director, and he wouldn’t be pushed into casting someone that didn’t work, so after my initial befuddlement, I wasn’t too worried.
I thought Reeves was terrible as John Constantine. Indeed, I thought the movie was fairly terrible as well. It didn’t have any of the fun of Hellblazer.
@CougarclawsROB I feel the EXACT same way about Nicholson’s Joker. It makes me cringe anytime I see that movie. Not a fan.
This is a good list, I always feel like I’m alone in thinking Topher Grace was actully pretty good as Eddie Brock.
These all ended up being excellent choices. I would actually add Michael Keaton to the list. he worked surprisingly well.
@CougarclawsROB I don’t think he was terrible, but when I see it now I don’t feel like I’m seeing the Joker, it’s just a Jack Nicholson wearing makeup.
Michael Keaton was an unexpected choice. Until Batman he had mostly done comedic roles but he pulled off the superhero bits well.
i loved Jack Nicholson as the Joker…he was just ONE type. He was like a darker, more evil version of the 60s TV series version. Campy plus evil. love it. “where does he get those wonderful toys?”
Reeves was terrible as Constantine. That whole movie was terrible.
I think Keaton is the the unexpected good casting! He was so good as Batman, but if you’d have swung that past anyone back then I’m sure they would have been very confused.
I still don’t like Ledger that much in DKR, walked out of cinema at the end very lukewarm on the whole thing and multiple cinema and dvd viewings still hasn’t changed my mind. Although I did of course love Nicholson, insane casting! But so amazing
Agreed, Reeves’ Constantine was a very cardboard performance. On the other hand, at the time, Keaton hadn’t done anything but comedies, and he really proved himself as an actor playing Bruce Wayne/Batman.
I liked Ledger as the Joker, but I am not sure it was Academy Award worthy. Am I the only one that thinks dead=Academy Award, whether you did the work or not?
great list!
Loved the list Josh. Agree on the Keaton thing too, allthough to be honest i’m far to young to remember anything, was he a left field choice, did the comic comunity of the 80’s recoil when he was announced?? Dont forget Mark Hamill as the joker too, how the hell does that work so well!!
I thought Venom was the worst part about Spider-Man 3. Grace did an ok job as Eddie Brock, but the movie went downhill fast for me as soon as he became Venom.
@stuclach I agree with ya about Michael Keaton as well. I was pleasantly surprised. He was able to pull off a grim, serious Batman while Burton created a weird reality around him and Nicholson was simply the evil-er version of Cesar Romero.
Casting Nic Cage in anything is ballsy.
@Goaduk Yeah, there was a lot of “WTF?” in the 80s when Keaton was announced. No one thought it would work, and then… it really did. Remember this was coming out of the 80s when our “action stars” were all in phenomenal shape, and our “actors” didn’t have to be (interestingly, I remember Bruce Willis in Die Hard was kind of a big deal at the time because he was suddenly doing the action movie thing, but he wasn’t a former bodbuilder or martial arts superstar).
I’ll defend Josh’s choice of Keanu, too. While it wasn’t a great movie, it was a helluva lot better than it seemed it would be, and Keanu actually did a decent job of capturing John’s pissed-off, i-can-barely-tolerate-you attitude. I think it’s probably a bad move to remove the Brit from Constantine, but if you WERE going to, you’ve gotta keep that same pissed off, world-weary perspective, and Reeves did manage that in the film.
@Goaduk Keaton’s casting was controversial, to say the least. Had their been an internet back then it would have melted down.
what? no wesley snipes as blade? nobody could have seen that coming!
TheDoctorGeek@TheDoctorGeek I agree that the Venom story was the stronger of the stories
@CougarclawsROB At the time, it was an amazing choice. I was 11 years old and he scared the crap out of me.
I would like to disagree with Topher Grace but I haven’t seen the movie in long enough to be objective.
@CougarclawsROB
Seconded. I find his performance pretty cringeworthy, and just plain wrong. I hated the way they made him the killer of Bruce’s parents. (Do i remember that correctly?) Come to think of it i thought Keaton was wrong for Bruce too.
What’s the general feeling about Green Lantern Ryan Renolds (and generally how the film looks from trailer)? Personally i can’t help feeling it’s going to be a lame duck, too much videogame style CGI and not enough character depth to latch on to.
BQ: when people say its “cringeworthy” do you physically Cringe in your chair when watching said movie or reading said comic? Its a highly used phrase. Very curious.
I guess we can all be thankful to Mission Impossible 2 for breaking Dougray Scott’s ankle and making him give up his gig as Wolverine. I also said “Hubert Jakeman?!?…who is that?” I sure as hell knew who Dougray Scott was though and did NOT want him to play Wolverine.
Topher Grace……so–so.
I wish Hugh Laurie was 20 years younger so he could play Constantine.
I LIKE Ledger, but I’m not IN LOVE with him.
Did anyone notice that Hallie Berry lost her African accent during the X-men run??
Affleck was da bomb as Daredevil yo!!
Yes, if not the full cringe then some facial scrunching happens. It ain’t pretty.
Some people can’t stand that awkward, embarrassing comedy like in The Office (UK); i’ve seen people cringe and squirm while watching Brent’s dance.
Josh, it is heartening to hear a Hellblazer fan such as yourself give that movie some props. Never been a reader of the book, but I like that movie in a big way.
Yeah, Michael Keaton as Batman should get an honorable mention. Since I was too young to understand the concept of what I was watching wasn’t real life (I was a little kid back then), my dad gave me the jist of it: ‘Batman played by Mr. Mom?!’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=solr1W5idNY
So when the movie came out, there was just as much ‘Holy sh!t, Keaton is awesome’ as there was ‘Holy sh!t, Nicholson is awesome’ in the public at the time.
Heath Ledger was great but he was a very very different Joker than in the comics.
Nicholson was Also great and to my mind was classic early joker- don’t judge him by the costuming.
Keaton is by far the winner here- his Batman/Bruce Wayne is still the standard- other actors get one but not the other and some have done poorly with both.
Mr. Mom became Batman- that’s a range.
I actually found Constantine enjoyable. I’ll watch it if I’m surfing and happen upon it.
I thought Keanu Reeves was terrible as Constantine. Topher Grace was okay as Venom but there were so many conflicts in that movie that it was hard to get a grasp on anybody’s character.
@stuclach Seconded.
I remember my sister and I destroying with repeated viewing a VHS tape of three movies taped off of premium cable in the early 90s: Mr. Mom, Adventures in Babysitting, and Batman. She always wanted to watch the first two. I’d steal the remote and fast-forward to Batman. I did find it weird that the same guy was both Mr. Mom and Batman.
@stuclach –third-ed
Keaton Batman was a great casting. The Tim Burton Batman movies were great for what they were and when they were made.
I would disagree with Topher Grace as Venom. I found him to be a total cypher in the movie. Maybe that was because the movie was so bad, but he did nothing for me. He was just annoying, not really menacing or bad like in the comics. They tried to cram too much into S3, which ruined it. Don’t get me started on the musical number!
Nic Cage must have made a deal with the Devil, or have the best agent in Hollywood. Probably doesn’t hurt that Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle, either. Cage is the worst actor since John Travolta. I take that back, I don’t know which is worse (see Face-Off if you don’t believe me). I had to break my Cage embargo to see KA, and he was inconsistent at best. Horrible, horrible actor. One of the worst two things about KA (the other being that damned jetpack).
I remember how pissed people were when they announced Michael Keaton as Batman and Heath Ledger as Joker. Keaton was good in the first film, and Ledger gave the performance of his life, I though, in TDK. So, I guess you have to give people a chance to fail before condeming them – except for Cage and Travolta! lol
Keanu was NOTHING like Constantine. I agree with the rest of the choices, though.
Constantine was a good flick. Not very similar to the comics, but still a good flick.
For that matter, how about Christian Bale as Batman? A good actor and a good Bruce Wayne, but certainly not the obvious choice as the Dark Knight. Or RDJ as Iron Man? As Tony Stark, sure, but again surprisingly good as the whole package.
@conor there WAS an internet when the casting for Constantine was announed, and it was dissed.
it was in production in 2004, not 1994 .
i’ll disagree with Josh as an example that worked. Keanu was playing to type, like he did as Neo and Johnny Nemonic .
@wordballoon … I was talking about Michael Keaton.
“Keaton‘s casting was controversial, to say the least. Had their been an internet back then it would have melted down.”
If you ever saw Christian Bale in “American Psycho”, you never would’ve doubted him as Bruce Wayne.
I still love Keaton. Burton’s movies were very stylistic and they stand on their own as classics.
@conor ah … I stand corrected.
this is making me want to watch spidey 3 again just for Grace. haven’t watched it since the midnight showing and i love spider-man more than any character in fiction
I couldn’t believe how much kerfuffle there was about Heath Ledger. Anyone who had seen Brokeback Mountain had to have been certifiably insane to not trust that casting decision from day 1. Though perhaps the amount of comic fans who’ve seen Brokeback Mountain is not that high…
I remember there was a [different] geeky podcast I used to listen to back in the day when the casting first came out and they were hemming and hawing when it was announced. I defended it with a “You’ll see.” and made sure to come back a year and a half later to say to say “I told you so.” Because I’m a petty, petty soul.
Batman is so good. The production design alone blows any other superhero movie clear out of the water. Not to mention the music which is probably only topped in the genre (barely) by Wiliiams’ Superman score. Keaton brings a lot of depth, sadness, and humor to the character that Bale doesn’t really muster for me with his smug/barking dichotomy. I think the main problem is that Bale plays it as two characters while Keaton plays a man with different aspects to himself.
Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker was great but it wasn’t ‘Academy Award’ great.
Man, if Keaton had been cast now, the reaction would be off the charts. It would be like combining OMD with BOTH Charlie Sheen and Britney Spears meltdowns. It would make for great theater though
only agree with the last two. also, getting an oscar isnt true praise, they’re bought (not that he didnt deserve praise!)
Topher Grace made a great Eddie Brock… but mostly? He made me think to myself, “Boy, I wish Topher Grace had been cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.”
i remember hating topher grace in spidey 3, but it could just be that i don’t like the character that much, or that all of spider man 3 was bad and i couldn’t tell the difference after awhile
3. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor
2. Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne
1. Christopher Reeve as Superman/Clark Kent
Matthew
Symbiotes equal istant buffness. captured very well in the film.
and it’s also the reason fan dig venom right
@kidCharlemagne You’re thinking of the Golden Globes.
Good choices apart from Constantine. He bore no resemblence to the character at all. It was a movie about hell with Keanu Reeves in that coincidentally had the same name as Constantine.
‘Keanu did actually have the bearing and attitude of Constantine, and the intention, if not he accent, or even the look, of what we think of as our favorite smoking mage.’
When?
@houseian For pretty much the entire movie. Dude is an ass, pretty selfish, doesn’t get close to people because everyone he gets close to dies, very self destructive. I agree with Josh, while he didn’t have the accent he nailed the spirit of the character and even at the end he really wasn’t that likeable but you still root for him cause he’s really all you’ve got.
@RoiVampire You said what I would have said, and said it better.
@josh high compliments from my favorite writer on the site. thank you sir. This whole post makes me want to do a movie marathon with all of these. no easy task for someone who hated spidey 3 as much as i did. well done
@RoiVampire I don’t think there’s a good reason anywhere to rewatch Spider-Man 3. There are so many good things to enjoy.
@stuclach I enjoyed Constantine for 2 very different reasons.
#1, I actually thought it was an enjoyable movie. I am familiar with the Hellblazer comic, not a huge fan, but I’ve read a few and know the concept. Reeves was fine in it, i thought.
#2 When i went to see it, I met the woman who would become my wife. We were the ONLY two people in the entire theater on that Wednesday afternoon. Just me and her. Freaky part about that: the male and female leads in the movie are named John and Angela. Our names are John and Angela.
And they say there is no Fate???
@JohnVFerrigno Thats freaking awesome. was it a date or did you two actually meet for the first time in that theater?
Yeah, Nic Cage was in “Leaving Las Vegas”. That movie alone makes him one of the greatest actors alive.
The author of the Constantine movie novelization, John Shirley, also wrote a couple of prose novels based on the comic version of John Constantine that came out after the movie. In the first of the books, he makes light of the movie version, having John state that there are alternate reality versions of himself, including a dark haired counterpart located in LA.
@conor- well, golden globes too, just different people being bribed there!
@kidCharlemagne WAY too many people to bribe in the Academy.
@conor I don’t think Heath Ledger got the Oscar because of bribes. I personally think his performance was outstanding. He was my favorite thing in that movie, which I actually think is kind of flawed on a whole, but he is fantastic in it. But here is a question for you: If Heath Ledger didn’t die, would he still have won the Oscar?
@JohnVFerrigno Absolutely.
@conor fair enough lol
@conor- maybe ‘bribe’ was the wrong word. How about canvas?
Btw, is Ledger the only person to get an oscar for playing a comic book character?
@kidCharlemagne He is the only one to get an Oscar for playing a super-hero comic book character. Paul Newman got an oscar for Road to Perdition, which was a comic book first.
@JohnVFerrigno Paul Newman didn’t win an Oscar for Road To Perdition. He lost to Chris Cooper in Adaptation.
@conor Oh geez, you’re right. Everybody assumed he was going to win and then there was the big upset. For some reason my memory banks have that one wrong.
You know my problem with Keanu in Constantine? The movie was better than him. I like the movie quite a bit and I just sort of wish someone else had starred in it. He wasn’t bad at all; he just wasn’t as good as the rest of the movie was.
Didn’t get nearly enough enjoyment out of Nic Cage getting killed in Kickass. I’d have been more than happy if he’d never been in the movie at all. That said, I think the movie is *far* more enjoyable than the comic.
As I recall, Constantine and Ghost Rider were released pretty closely together. I think I’d have been much happier seeing Keanu Reeves as Ghost Rider and Nic Cage as Constantine, but thats just my own opinion.
@CougarclawsROB That movie was overrated for years. Thankfully, the Nolan films have proven that to a degree.
I really enjoyed Keanu in Constantine, not really familiar with the comic though.
I liked the idea that Jack Nicholson played a really good Two Face and Tommy Lee Jones played a really good Joker. Or something like that.
I’m really happy that someone else (Josh) doesn’t like Nic Cage either. Not only does he kill movies, but he kills the careers (for at least 3 years) of any co-star with him.
heath leadger as joker, hugh jackman as wolverine, topher grace as venom = PERFECT
arold swatsenegger (spelt THAT wrong, can someone correct me) as mr.freeze = killed a dead movie
Hugo Waving as V in V for Vendetta was pretty awesome too, especially as he took over from the originallly cast James Purefoy.
I thought Keanu Reeves as Constantine was crappy. I’m surprised to hear Josh, as a Hellblazer reader, saying he thouight Reeves had “the bearing and attitude of Constantine”. I though the film and Reeves presented a one dimentional dark and brooding emo Constantine, without the light devil-may-care trickster side to John’s personality
He might have been Constanteen, but he was no Constantyne.
Maybe it’s because I’m a Brit.
“Have a wah burger and some french cries”
Venom ruined Spiderman 3, if you were going to have Eddie Brock as Venom then you needed a body builder to play Eddie Brock. Also Venom looked horrible in the movie. I did want to see a more McFarlan looking Veom, if they wanted skinny and wiry they should have put Carnage in the movie.
I was in my first year of college (design & visual arts) when the Keaton/Nicholson Batman was announced. EVERYONE was up in arms over Keaton’s casting.
I had zero worries; clearly, no one but me had seen Pacific Heights. Keaton plays the quiet, calculating psychopath like it’s his second nature, perfect for channeling Batman’s darker side. Yet he’s quirky enough to pull off the eccentric rich dude.