most of them don't seem to be enjoying themselves tbh: Comic Book Movie Gravitas Bringers, The Poll

t, Ian McKellen

lol "Incredibly Hulk"

Kingsley having way too much fun to bring gravitas

Yes some of these options are ha-ha

inclusion of zombie Brando reminds me that OG Superman Brando is the template for this, isn't he

Robert Redford's performance in The Winter Soldier was totally phoned in, but I bet he was paid handsomely (see what I did there?)

all the talk of that movie being like a 70s spy thriller made me watch it and really the only thing that made it like a 70s spy thriller was that Robert Redford was in it.

And Jenny Agutter!

There's some Parallax View / 3 Days Of The Condor type stuff going on. I liked Winter Soldier a lot.

I think mixing the people who have supporting parts with people who were basically the film's stars (Stewart and Connery definitely) is kinda messing with this concept (ie old dudes who were like "I'll give five minutes but then fuck off I'm back to doing serious shit.")

Also Rutger Hauer will be in ANY old thing. He's not a decent/elder statesmen actor by any stretch.

Least favorite performance, probably Bridges in IM#1; most favorite, probably Kingsley in IM#3.

I figured it would be all low hanging fruit but started going through Wikipedia's List_of_films_based_on_English-language_comics and was surprised by how many superhero movies didn't have an obvious candidate for the concept. And I ended up leaving out Rene Russo, forehead whacked.

inclusion of zombie Brando reminds me that OG Superman Brando is the template for this, isn't he

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 25, 2015 2:35 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

definitely. with nicholson's joker positing the other approach of making the major established talent basically the star of the superhero movie, i imagine in hopes of winning over people otherwise suspicious of a "comic book movie." this pretty much doesn't apply, post-X-Men. as for the brando thing i feel like very few of these nail it exactly.... too many of these people are in multiple pictures each year and can't really bring gravitas as such even with an oscar gathering dust on the shelf like kingsley - just a busy working actor like all the others in the movie. hopkins and costner are probably closest in the "elder statesmen" department but hopkins has been in plenty of genre goofery.

basically none of these feel particularly "special" --- just like, depending on the size of the movie's budget they could cast some bigger names and for a really sure thing they could cast even more big names. in a way i guess x-men really did kick this off. bunch of considerably lower-tier actors or outright nobodies as the x-men and the baddies themselves, but two shakespeareans as the old dudes. one happened to be a super-recognizable TV star and kind of the most obvious casting in the world, but the other was a small independent arthouse-movie kind of guy and clearly their #1 job was to add gravitas so it didn't just feel like a made-for-TV special.

I didn't see Iron Man 2, but I'm amused that Gary Shandling is being characterized as bringing Brando-level gravitas to a film.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army by far the best movie on the list of the ones I've seen, so I'm voting for that, though I suspect that wasn't really the question.

Shandling brought Brando-level bloating

I think Glenn Close is the more obvious one from GotG.

btw i kinda like jeff bridges's performance in Iron Man, it's just unfortunate the character is tied so much to the bad last act of the movie, his big WHOAAA IM A BAD GUY GONNA KILL YOU ALL turn is really stupid. When he's just an old cynical arms merchant insisting "we're ironmongers; we make weapons" he works fine.

also, fwiw, sally field is also in the amazing spider-man movies which seems at least as big of a classing-up-the-joint move as having martin sheen.

I definitely rushed this poll and kinda want to rebuild it but oh well. When constructing it I apparently had a blind spot for actresses under 80

And Ant-Man (2015) - Michael Douglas

Doctor Strange cast is ridic btw

http://marvel.com/news/movies/25486/marvels_doctor_strange_begins_production

I assume Stuhlbarg is playing Dormammu

I think Glenn Close is the more obvious one from GotG.

Agreed, del Toro's role is about five minutes and he's hamming it all the way through, pretty much the opposite of Morgan Freeman style gravitas.

Seriously I should redo this poll. I'm properly embarrassed.

go for it imo

Mods blow this up plz

This thread will be locked by a moderator.

^^^ gravitas bringer