Thelomen Toblerone, on Jul 3 2009, 08:56 AM, said:
Bale shouldnt play anyone. He's just a rubbish actor, he gets upstaged by everyone. He could play a minor part and sit in the background without ruining things, but that's pretty much it.
Batman - upstaged by Heath Ledger. Dilinger (or whatever its called) upstaged by Depp. Terminator Salvation, Worthington. The Prestige - Jackman and Caine. 3:10 to Yuma - Crowe. The list goes on.
You just cant give him a good part and expect him to carry it through. So all the major characters are off limits.
Wow, I can't disagree more. See, you look at him being willing to work with an ensemble and say "he's getting upstaged all the time, so he can't be good."
I say; "Crap, it takes a serious actor to be a lead in the movie and not feel threatened by someone else who's chewing scenes." Ledger's Joker, nothing was going to upstage that, esp. after Ledger's death. Same with Bale in "Public Enemies" and "The Prestige" where he was essentially the straight guy.
As for Terminator, that movie was doomed by the plot changes they made to make Connor's role in it substantive. In the original plot, Connor was virtually a cameo. They wrote it up (admittedly because Bale wanted to play Connor, and not Worthington's role, which they originally asked him to play), but there was no way it was going to make a lot of sense. But there was a lot more wrong with that movie than Bale anyway. Great concept ruined by craptastic scriptwriting and direction.