I kept thinking throughout the movie this could've been significantly better with a charismatic lead who you cared about. John David Washington with his pretentious 3 names just outright sucks. No emotional range and just zero charisma. He will go the way of Sam Worthington soon. You can only try and shove him down audiences throats for so long.
shareI haven't seen this movie, but I did watch the trailer and instantly felt -- much like Tenet -- that this nepotistic actor was horribly miscast.
Quick list of actors who should have been considered for the role but weren't for obvious ideological reasons (i.e., Hollywood's obsession with putting black people everywhere they shouldn't be):
1: Gerard Butler (would play a grizzled vet in a dystopian future quite well)
2: Frank Grillo (same as above, but he has this kind of down-to-Earth, no-nonsense approach that would make him even more relatable)
3: Chris Hemsworth (proved he can do action well with Extraction, and looks intimidating AF when all kitted out)
4: Vin Diesel (keep this man away from ANY of the production roles, especially producer, writer, director, or executive producer, and get a director who can force him to use his great acting abilities, and he could have been an awesome pick for this movie)
5: Clive Owen (older and not really into active action roles, but Clive has that grounded believability about him, much like Frank Grillo, and he also carries that Harrison Ford vibe where he very easily portrays protagonists who seem disheveled and tired, which is great for movies like this, where fatigue makes the hero more believable.)
6: Tom Hiddleston (bit of a wildcard here, but he is a good actor, and he did pull off the action vibes believably in Skull Island. Not being a muscle-head also makes you care more about his survival, as he has to portray the hero from the underdog position.)
7: Christian Bale (would have been perfect for the role had he been a bit younger. I doubt he's going to be doing any more big blockbuster action roles as the lead. But he really does do a perfect job of capturing someone who can be driven, headstrong, competent, efficient on the battlefield, but also vulnerable, grounded, and human, too. He's also great at portraying morally grey characters.)
yeah i dont think many people would argue this movie would have been much better with Bale as the lead. I dont think JDW brought much to the table plus he also didnt have much to work with. Bale or someone of that caliber could maybe have pulled us along emotionally.
sharei'll take bale, but none of the others
shareI think it was all in the writing, or lack of, in the script.
Characters that you care about and great dialog can override almost any actor.
I felt the lead did fine, but the story was blah. Some potentially neat ideas over shadowed by pedantic cgi.
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I agree. He is not very good. I want him to be but he is not. Unlike his father, who I cant take my eyes off no matter what he is in, JDW just doesnt have it.
shareI thought he did a serviceable job. Would it have been better with someone like Christian Bale? Perhaps. But I wouldn't say Washington did a bad job with the script he was given. Of course, we all know nepotism is what gets him these roles, and he probably wouldn't have gotten cast in this had his last name been different. That being said though, he can still act and did a decent job here.
shareThis was ignorance on my part before viewing, but from the trailers, I thought Gemma Chan was supposed to be the lead, that's what I wanted and that's what we should've gotten. The lead they did give us was so-so, passable, but not great or even good. Idk why they even hired someone who has more range and a bigger name like Chan than the lead they went with, if they were going to show us so little of her.
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