Over the weekend, I messed around and watched parts of the X-Men trilogy again. Each time, I was struck by how poor a choice Halle Berry was to play Storm. I don’t know if I can quite say it was the worst casting I’ve ever seen, but it was pretty bad. The only thing that character had in common with Storm is that they were both Black. Other than that, nothing. All that “regalness” that comes with being a princess/goddess? Not even close to being there. Honestly, her performance is painfully bad. And I know the producers are more interested in selling tickets than necessarily remaining true to the comic book mythology, but Angela Bassett would have been a far, far better choice as Storm – even down to the look of the character.
Now, Afronerd is saying that they’re thinking of casting Beyonce as She-Hulk. No. No. It wouldn’t be as epic a fail as Halle as Storm, but it’s bad just on the face of it. Honestly, I can’t see any real upside except that Beyonce can get certain fans into the theater. But if they wanna use a Black actress for She-Hulk, there have to be other options.
Oh yeah. On an unrelated note, the dude, Ovechkin might get me to watchin hockey again. Cuz is likes that.
Entries (RSS)
To tell you the truth, I think they need to stay away from all the female superhero genre.
Elektra – Sucked
Catwoman – Sucked
And I do agree that someone like Bassett would have added more strength to the role. But I’m not sure if that would have hurt ticket sales (Berry is young and a redbone).
Making She-Hulk her own movie is also a very dumb idea. With Beyonce? Puhleeze!
The one thing that left me scratching my head after Wolverine is how did Sabertooth go from having the stature of an average man to being about another 4 ft taller with solid black eyes in X-Men. Was there an experiment I missed?
Well, there’s always hmmm. Vivica Fox, Gabrielle Union, Sanaa Lathan and Regina King. That just about covers it, right?
My bad, D. Yonce might play Jennifer Walters in the Avengers movie they’re working towards. don’t get me wrong, I like Yonce and all, but no. Even if they don’t give her no speakin lines, no.
How did Cube ‘nem find LisaRaye? Why can’t they find more? I know there are plenty…and maybe even some who can act.
Soon-to-be AARP member Angela Bassett over Halle Berry as Storm?
No. Fuggin’. Way.
Storm’s supposed to be fine, y’all. That’s why Halle was an outstanding pick for the character. All she had to do was come off as believable as a very pretty, Black mutant woman. Angela Bassett can’t get arrested at a beauty pagent.
And you’re talking about acting ability? For the X-Men? It’s not like acting in a superhero adventure requires an actor to channel Olivier.
“How did Cube ‘nem find LisaRaye? Why can’t they find more?”
Raye as in “Player’s Club Raye?!” Gag. Eye candiness, aside: the acting? Damn. Just painfully damn.
Still, I get your ultimate point. Surely there has to be some brothas/sistahs outside of the usual suspects who could be called on to be the next great hero/heroine. If Bey gets the nod as She Hulk (though I’m sure producers have learned a significant less with the Halle Berry/Jessica Alba flops), it will be one of the more racially regressive moves since B.E.T. OK, that’s a bit extreme. But you get the point.
@ MIB, back in the early 90s when we usedta really talk about this stuff, the obvious choice for Storm was Iman. She’s actually the right build and all that. I ain’t want my comic book nerd to come out TOO much, though. But Angela Bassett…she could still get it. And definitely a few years ago. You gon make me run The List w/ only 40+.
But Halle’s Storm was a punk in the way that Storm wouldn’t have been. At all.
@ Dre, yeah, LisaRaye can’t act. But I swear, man, on the rare occasions that I do turn on the tube and that show she had w/ Duane Martin be on TV One? Maaannnn….
Yeah, back in the day the obvious contender was Iman followed with Ms. Angela B. Back then no doubt Angela could have pulled it off. Come on, this is Angela Bassett we’re talking about. lol. Halle was selected for obvious reasons. I’m not up to speed on the She-Hulk casting. I heard Bey has her sights on Wonder Woman. Either way, she wants to be a supershero. And personally I just hope it doesn’t happen.
Please, leave me one good superhero memory from childhood. lol
@MIB — Don’t know what you talkin ’bout but Angela Basset is the ONLY person I have EVER thought could pull off a believable Storm. An other good pick might Gina Torres.
http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/55/97/gina_torres.0.0.0×0.289×360.jpeg
In Halle’s Defense, she didn’t have much to work with in her roll. All 3 movies was the “Wolverine Show : featuring the X-Men”
Yonce as Diana is problematic too. I mean, on the one hand, I ain’t mad at somebody Black playin the character, but Yonce can’t act.
Avo, ‘Vech is da….deal, ain’t he…!?! Got some show in him. He is what Hockey NEEDS. The Ovechkin-Crosby match-up is being sold as a kind of “warped and imaginative”…Majic-Bird II (…iono…) but on the “real”, if ‘Vech…playing in D.C…wid all of his ‘hood-lite’ mannerisms (in a “good” sense)…and all of that promo loot backing him…if HE can’t sell Hockey to a new audience…well,,again …iono, maybe some thangs ain’t meant to be…
And avo, do you realize that the Caps’ GOALIE…has played in less than 20 NHL so far? He was only called up during the last ten days of the regular season.
I was tryin to front last year, but dude is the truth. I can’t see me gettin a hockey sweater, but I might cop a t-shirt. He’s reeealll nice.
I ain’t even know about the goalie. Really, I ain’t even start payin the Caps no attention til the Flyers fell off. But now? The Caps might got me.
You call go as deep into comic nerddom as you’d like, but it won’t help your point.
My understanding of the character Storm and X-Man mythology is she’s supposed to be demure in character and petite in size, ergo, Halle was a good selection and played the part appropriately. Suffice to say it’s really dubious whether a better pick for Storm could have been made.
Iman? I thought half of your original criticism of Halle was of her acting ability (or lack thereof). Iman can’t act at all whatsoever. To be fair, I should say it’s unknown whether she has any acting talent whatsoever. Even if she had acting chops, like Angela Bassett, she (correctly) would have been an inappropriate choice for Storm on account of her age then. 15-year old boys aren’t in the habit of rushing to movies to see 40-ish year-old women.
No sir. Storm is 5′11″ and a princess-goddess. In no way is she demure or petite, except the Halle version. She was claustrophobic because of an incident in her childhood, but that bout it. Some have suggested that the only X-Man with a stronger will than Storm is Charles Xavier. (I can’t pull the quote, but I remember it fairly well.) The movie Storm caught L after L after L. Meanwhile, Storm Storm gave Calisto an exorcistic beating — technically, Storm was the leader of both the X-Men and the Morlocks, after pwning Calisto.
‘Tis true; Storm became the leader of the X-Men after defeating Callisto, but she took on Callisto quite reluctantly, as she also hesitatingly assumed leadership of the group afterwards. Storm always has been and continues to be the maternal figure for the younger academy members. She’s quite the softy in that respect.
Where did you get Storm is 5′11″?
I’m going to take off my horn-rimmed specs for now.
peep game
http://www.marvel.com/universe/Storm
Not Again!…
Avery Tooley, a black moderate-conservative blogger, questions some Hollywood casting choices: “Over the weekend, I messed around and watched parts of the X-Men trilogy again. Each time, I was struck by how poor a choice Halle Berry was to play Storm….