Forget Eisenberg, we want Heisenberg?
Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor has been met with lukewarm reception in Batman Vs. Superman (well actually, lukewarm might be charitable).
Eisenberg’s portrayal of the Superman nemsis came off as a bit over the top, a bit too much like his Social Network performance of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on Prozac, and just downright annoying.
To be honest, this is just another aspect of the Superman mythos I feel Zack Snyder is disconnected with.
I wasn’t happy with the Man of Steel Pa Kent death scene that saw Clark let his father die. Superman would have never done that, and before you argue that he wasn’t Superman, yet — he’s always been Superman! It’s not his powers that make him super, but his core values. Regarding Jonathan’s argument that the world wasn’t ready for Superman, later in the movie Zod forced Superman to come out, so that really didn’t matter (lol), which I suppose was the point, but Pa Kent “sacrificing” himself? No.
I also wasn’t happy with the African scene in Batman Vs. Superman when Lois was held hostage by the terrorist. That had to be the most ridiculous scene: Superman plows the guy through a wall? Really, Zack? That wasn’t cool, dude. You could have used Superman’s heat vision or super speed. Instead, we get Superman the defensive end which was akin to J.J. Watt taking out a fourth grader. Hello.
Snyder also killed not two but FOUR Superman characters (five if you count Clark Kent) in Dawn of Justice with Mercy Graves, who actually made her debut in the Superman animated series as Lex Luthor’s Amazonian bodyguard (Snyder killed her off in the court room explosion). Snyder revealed in an interview the photographer shot in the head working for the CIA was Jimmy Olsen. Question for Zack: Why bother even using these Superman characters just to kill them off? Now down the road if they ever make another Superman movie, they can’t be used. While Mercy Graves might be more minor of a character, Jimmy Olsen is a HUGE part of Superman. Oh, I get it. Jimmy Olsen appears in Supergirl, right? Of course the two other characters killed were Superman himself and Doomsday.
Another big complaint I had about Batman Vs. Superman was we didn’t get a big Superman moment. It was a huge let down for me when Clark was going to save the Mexicans that we didn’t get to see him flying there and making the save. Ditto for the Russian rocket. All we got were after-the-fact scenes just to show us Superman could be super. More than likely the short scenes were a result of having to shoehorn in Wonder Woman and the Justice League, which actually I didn’t mind and was quite happy with to be honest, but some big super moment saving the day (humans) was definitely needed (We also didn’t get a big Batman reveal: everything was just “there.”)
Getting back to Eisenberg’s Luthor, I’m actually on the fence regarding his portrayal, which I guess you could say isn’t a good thing as I’m not sold on it. What I really didn’t like about it was how last we saw Lex: some bumbling drooling crazy idiot. This harkens back to Mercy and Jimmy Olsen: So how are they going to use Lex in another Superman movie? Eisenberg actually made a ridiculous comment that he could see his Lex going good. Huh? Lol. It’s almost like Snyder ruined Lex Luthor, too. What? Somehow he is going to get out of prison? He’s gotta be in for a life term, right? Or did nobody die? And then what? …
That said (rant over), on more than one occassion, I’ve heard from friends where they think WB has an out regarding Eisenberg’s Lex in that they can bring Lex Sr. into follow up movies. Something along the lines of Vince McMahon coming back from an abscence when Stephanie or Shane-O-Mac (Wrestlemania plug!) screws up the business. The problem is that Lex Sr. is dead, and I think Jr. may have killed him.
The info comes from a promo interview done with Fortune magazine for Batman Vs. Superman. The pretend interview is done with Lex Jr. where it’s mentioned Lex Sr. died in 2000 unexpectedly:
Referring to Alexander Luthor Sr. as a “good businessman” is not unlike calling Napoleon Bonaparte a “competent conqueror.” The East German émigré, who passed away unexpectedly in 2000, arrived on our shores with nothing, but managed to carve out an empire of oil and machinery. By all accounts, he accomplished this feat through sheer grit and ferocity. His enemies, of which there are many, would also probably add “viciousness.”
My first impression from “passed away unexpectedly” was that Jr. offed his father to take over for himself. Of course, I could be wrong and Lex Sr. could also be around. WB could simply ignore the article, as it’s not really mentioned in the movie. Another way out could be that Lex Sr. took a sabbatical of some sort, and returned after 16 years.
Still another possibility is that they will simply keep using Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, or similar to the fate of Mercy Graves and Jimmy Olsen — just not use Lex anymore at all.
Hey, we always got Batman. Right, Zack?
