My Favorite Things: Red

I've decided, after seeing how a certain children's book coordinated with my purse at work the other day, that I want to do a whole series of my favorite things going through the colors (like a crayon box!)

Let's start in RAINBOW order with Red. See the key below the image.

KEY

A. Gryffindor house, Harry Potter. (Ravenclaw takes a close second)

B. Spider-Man and Marvel Comics

C. Netflix!

D. Lobstah (Lobster)

E. Apples

F. Target and my Target Debit card that saves me 5% on everything.

G. Coca Cola Classic. Not diet Coke.

H. 1) Terry Strickland Art and all of her awesome reds. 2) My husband wearing red (or painted on a red background, as is the case, here.)

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Ten Worst Cast Superheroes of BlockBuster Film

As a follow-up to the Ten BEST Cast Superheroes, I thought I'd present a list of the worst. Some of these were really easy to decide, but some of these took more effort. Like with the Best Cast list, I had to decide if the casting was bad or if it was just the script.

Here they are, some of the worst castings in superhero film/television.


10. Toby McGuire as Spider-Man

Sure, the script was part of this shortcoming, but I'm not really sure that, even if the witty, sarcastic side of Spider-Man had been written, Toby could have pulled it off. Toby tends to play someone deep and serious, a wee bit angsty, but the wise-cracking doesn't seem natural. In most cases where it happened in the McGuire film, it seemed bitter.

Toby didn't really look like a teenager, or even a college freshman, at all in the series.

9. Topher Grace as Venom

Topher Grace should have played Peter Parker and a big, muscly blonde guy should have played Eddie Brock. Topher does not look at all like Eddie, who is always a beefy guy with yellow hair and thick, dark brows.

8. Jessica Alba as The Invisible Woman

I like Jessica Alba. She has a great presence, she's funny, she's gorgeous. Still, she was not right for this role. Jessica Alba is Italian/French/English/Mexican and her hispanic heritage really comes through in her appearance. Susan Storm Richards is always a classic looking, blonde-haired, blue-eyed house wife. Specifically a 50's housewife type, though she has strayed in recent years since the Fantastic Four movies.

Jessica Alba could have worked as a number of gorgeous superhero bombshells, but Susan Richards really needed to be naturally blonde. And don't start me on how bizarre those blue contacts look. I have eyes as dark/darker than Alba's and I know that there's no help for brown eyes. They were distracting and alien.

Instead of casting a hispanic woman and trying to make her look white, they could have cast a white woman (Rachel McAdams, cough) and saved Alba for another role.

7. James Marsden as Cyclops

Marsden may have looked good in the role. He may have been plenty hilarious in Enchanted, but as Scott Summers, instead of being a take-charge, semi-douchey hero type, he was an emo kid.

6. Jennifer Garner as Elektra

Elektra Natchios is Greek.

5. Halle Berry as Catwoman

I will give her a bit of credit in saying that there was no saving this script. The writer, after so many edits, told them to take his name off of it. Still, Halle Berry is not a good Catwoman. She doesn't have the cat-like quality that the character needs-- though once again in the name of fairness, that character wasn't even Selena Kyle.

4. Halle Berry as Storm

Storm is a Queen. She was worshiped as a Goddess. She calls down mighty storms and justice upon her enemies. Halle played her as a mouse. Storm had no strength and it was really disappointing to see one of the first strong women in comics played so meekly.

3. Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane

Once again the criticism is taking a bold comic book lady and making her a mouse. Lois Lane is a tough cookie and one of the most competent women in comics. Sure, her early years were spent fighting Lana, trying to trick infant versions of Clark Kent into marrying her. But Lois Lane has always had spunk and Bosworth just doesn't have it.

Add to it that Bosworth has a very distinct feature that Lois does not-- two different coloured eyes. The makeup team should have at least put her in contacts so that we wouldn't be distracted by a striking feature that the iconic character has never had.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze was a scrawny guy in a big suit. Apparently big suit translates to Hollywood Terminator. We have to remember that Mr. Freeze was a scientist driven mad over the loss of his wife. Arnold just didn't feel believable.
Arnold, himself, is so very, incredibly iconic. It's like the viewers have an agreement with any producer of a movie to say "Oh, okay, so in this movie Arnold is Arnold as a Dad and in this movie Arnold is Arnold as a cop." He's always Arnold and therefore should not be forced into the role of another, already iconic character.

That movie had many other problems including rubber nipples on the Bat-suit, but not being able to believe Victor Freeze was a scientist or even anyone but an action star didn't have to be one of them.

1. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson

There were problems with her hair in the first two movies, sure, but the bigger problem was that Kirsten Dunst was not Mary Jane. Apparently she was the only actress they tested who had any chemistry with Toby, but really that's just another reason NOT TO CAST TOBY.

Dunst's Mary Jane was excused as a mix between MJ and Gwen, but really Gwen has more spunk than that. If you were to average out Gwen's high maintenance love for fashion and teacher's pet thing with Mary Jane being a SUPERMODEL and a redhead, then you would, at the very least, get someone with twice as much attitude as Kirsten's Mary Jane.

And you can't really blame the script for her lack of presence in the role. If Dunst had the right strut, no lack of lines could have stopped her from stealing the spotlight.

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