imdb/title/tt1502712/board/flat/226716851?p=1 casting people of varying ethnic backgrounds in films based on novels or plays is sometimes acceptable, depending on the impact it will or will not have on the story. two examples come to mind. one is the late 90s version of les misaerables, where enjolras was made black. in 1830s france, its not implausible that there would be a black professional student at the head of the spring rebellion, especially since his part in the film was reduced (along with many other characters parts, while others were just dropped outright) and his background, which i believe hugo went into some depth on, was omitted. the other, from just a few years earlier, was romeo and juliet, which was already altered in the sense of the setting, so why not make mercutio black and tibalt hispanic? they did stick to the script, line for line, after all... the problem is that comic books are a largely visual medium, and a characters appearance bears strongly on how recognixable they are on the screen, primarily in costume. itd be easier to change... oh, lets say spider-man, to feature a different skin color, because he wears a mask that covers his face completely. but you can NOT change the colors of the costume to red and black, or orange and blue, or whatever, because that detracts from his recognizability as spidey. that was something that i felt hurt the x-men films, giving them all more or less identical black uniforms. yeah, wolvies yellow and blue spandex might look a bit silly on screen, but they couldve done better than a black leather jumpsuit... one notable exception was michael clarke duncans portrayal of kingpin. he was both built right and had the commanding presence required to play the character, something im not sure they could have found so easily in a white actor at the time. and, again, changing his color didnt alter the character that much, the key visual elements were there. tall? check. muscular? yup. shiny bald head? all day long. well-dressed, carries a cane... chris evans nailed the human torch down perfectly when he played the part... partially because he looked the part, but also because he carried off the sort of innocent, cocky wise-ass aspect that is integral to the character. the only thing that really seemed changed was his normally wavy blond hair was shorter and a bit darker. and while i am happy that evans has gone on to greater success as captain america, it does sadden me a bit that we wont see him as johnny storm again. on a side note... another fu@#ing reboot? are you joking, marvel? are you seriously going to burn another 45 minutes of precious screen time feeding us their origin story again? WE ALL KNOW HOW THE FOUR BECAME FANTASTIC, JUST GET TO THE CLOBBERIN ALREADY!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 21:23:44 +0000