Re: Batman vs. Superman (2016)
Say what you will about Smallville, but Rosenbaum's version of Lex is easily the best live action portrayal of the character so far. He carried that show on his shoulders during those middle seasons when the show was absolutely awful.
Is he? I think that's subjective. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of Smallville. Hated it, in fact. To me it was just a bunch of kids who happen to have the same names of different charactors entirely. Playing Luthor is a lot more than just being bald.
I really don't want to see LL as some whiz kid. I want to see him as a grown-up. A man.
It's easy to say how Luthor should be portrayed now, as the billionaire industrialist who controls things behind the scenes, runs for President, acts as if he only has the best intentions for Metropolis, etc., etc, but that whole concept is relatively new. You have to look at when these movies or tv shows were made.
Take Gene Hackman. He gets a lot of flack because of the, "real estate scheme" in S:TM, but what else were the film makers supposed to do? They were trying to make a somewhat believable character from a comic book. A more realistic take years before Chris Nolan ever," invented" the idea.
Back in the early 70's when they were developing that movie, Luthor was just a "mad scientist", who built death rays and duplicating machines. After that, he headed up the, "Legion of Doom" and wore a pretty silly outfit. There was no way they were going to go in that direction.
So what was left? Personally, I always thought that his plan was pretty ingenious. Buy up all the worthless land in California, set off a nuke in the fault line, and presto, instant beach front property. It wasn't like no one would be hurt, millions of people would be killed. All for the sake of a room with a view. Sounds pretty evil to me.
As a kid seeing it, it wasn't unbelievable, just the opposite; it was entirely believable. It was only stupid when they tried going that route again in Superman Returns.
I liked Gene Hackman as Luthor. But then again, I like Gene Hackman. In fact, the only problem I had with him was that he was only bald at the end.
But even that made sense. He was a vain guy who hated being bald. It played in to the charactor.
Even with all that said though, I feel if you want the best live action version of Luthor, it would be Lyle Talbot, who played him in "Atom Man vs. Superman".
Bald, heavy, evil scientist- just like the comics. He looked like him, and acted like him.
Perfect.
, as this movie will indeed kill him off. These lot who are making this stupid movie are the kryptonite which will kill Superman......R.I.P
