Jesse Eisenberg Is Lex Luthor….Um…Ok
A reaction to the announcement that actor Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as Lex Luthor in the highly anticipated Batman & Superman movie
News is slowly dripping out from the planned Superman/Batman movie. Any new morsel of information is being scooped up by movie fans. This latest bit of news is a bombshell and may become one of the most debated pieces of casting in recent movie memory.
Jesse Eisenberg is Lex Luthor.
I honestly wasn’t even going to bother writing anything about this, but I’ve been asked how I felt about this bit of casting so why not. I think anyone who has ever read a comic book or watched a movie is being asked how they feel about this.
To be brief – I don’t get it. Nor do I care much.
My excitement for this Superman/Batman movie had already dropped after I finally got to see Man of Steel (I really came late to the game getting to watch that). After seeing what director Zack Snyder and writer David S. Goyer did with that movie any enthusiasm I may have had for these guys continuing to expand their DC movie universe declined even further. I’ve come close to bottoming out with this project.
Then all this news about casting and characters started trickling out. Ben Affleck. Gal Gadot. The Flash might be in it. Suddenly the idea of Supes and Bats sharing the screen seemed like it would merely be just one component of an attempted Justice League movie. It felt like too much too soon. I mean, they don’t even have a title for this thing! Plus, I really was hoping that some other filmmakers would do this.
Now we get the casting of Eisenberg. This is undoubtedly pretty radical casting. I don’t think any fan would have picked Eisenberg to play Luthor. I could see someone saying it as a joke actually. My pick for Luthor probably would have been Mark Strong. Sure that’s predictable and he played Sinestro in Green Lantern, but let’s forget that.
So it’s going to be fun to listen to all the opinions about this. I’m thinking most of them will be negative and fans and messageboards and youtube videos will be filled with endless ranting.
For myself, I just don’t see what they’re going for with this casting and besides I’m somewhat indifferent about this latest news about this movie anyway. I don’t have really high expectations for this and I checked out of it awhile ago, so controversial casting decisions won’t make me lean either way about this flick at this point. Eisenberg as Luthor might be the most interesting thing in this movie!
I’ve liked Eisenberg in other movies, but as Lex Luthor….I just don’t see what kind of interpretation of the character this will lead to. It might be that he’ll just be in a few scenes and won’t play a major role in this anyway. Maybe this will be just a character introduction to Snyder’s Lex and prepare everyone when he shows up in Man of Steel 3 in a larger capacity. Or perhaps this will be a huge bait-and-switch like that Mandorian thing in Iron Man 3.
Hey all us naysayers may be wrong when we get to see this in 2016 and Eisenberg might be brilliant in the role. Oh yeah, they pushed the release date back to May 2016. I hope they use that extra time to work on the script even more, something Snyder and Goyer should have done with Man of Steel.
One bit of casting news that has been eclipsed by the Eisenberg shocking announcement is Jeremy Irons will play Alfred. That I can definitely see.
I enjoyed the Man of Steel although the climax was a little long for me. What concerns me is that, at least with Superman, there is no development time with him. It's one movie and then, BAM, throw everything you have into the next Superman movie. Also, there is no continuity with Batman (I would like to see Bale in the role, then I would be much more interested) or any of the others such as Green Lantern. I am surprised they aren't going to follow the Marvel 'formula' (now there is a series for you!) which has proven to work so well. At this point with Ben Affleck as Batman I have no excitement for the Superman/Batman movie.
KrG