most of them don't seem to be enjoying themselves tbh: Comic Book Movie Gravitas Bringers, the poll

honorable mention to andre braugher in fantastic four two, because it really did get the ball rolling on his inheriting leslie nielsen, leading to his truly amazing work on brooklyn 99

thing about ben kingsley (***(***SPOILERS FOR IRON MAN 3***)***) is that his gravitas-bringing is part of the joke/twist, like he's exactly who they would cast if they were trying to step up their villains to this OMG THIS IS SERIOUS AS SHIT "dark knight" level, and then kingsley and the character both turn out to be the exact opposite of that. which was great. but it sorta disqualifies him from the gravitas-bringing contest in a way.

mckellen/stewart combo is pretty hard to top imo. though i'm surprised to realize i haven't seen most of these movies! they've really cranked 'em out while i wasn't paying attention.

Connery's appearance in LXG literally drove him out of the movie business. Don't get much more "Have my agent killed and send the widow a ham" than that.

To be fair, he was getting on in years, and there was already a three-year gap between Finding Forrester and LXG. The amazing thing is how many successful films he'd had in his sixties.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Actually Michael Douglas gravitas-bringing is pretty central to Ant-Man, I mean he even gets shot and you think he might actually be dead for a couple minutes - basically the only dramatic weight of the movie right up until the ludicrous "villain gratuitously decides to imperil hero's child" ending

But I guess we'll never know if he could have won this poll

or Sally Field but seriously those movies are terrible

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I thought the hydra reveal was dumber than the imperiling of child -- that was mostly a set piece setup for the whole "fighting among toys" bit

wow low turnout!

http://nerdist.com/bryan-cranston-zordon-power-rangers-nerdist-news/

(not really "comic book," i know. and that's a five-minute video to get you a single blurry still of someone's phone camera photo of a VR headset promotional thing. but i thought the URL was pretty on-point for the thread.)

also, skimming through Least promising Sequel/Remake/Franchise Flick of 2017 it looks like this trend may have slackened just a bit, unless post-Birdman Keaton as The Vulture, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Willem Dafoe as Aquaman's Pal Nuidis Vulko, or Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet (bafflingly not a planet in the movie) count. From last year I can only recall Jeremy Irons as Alfred and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One.

Kurt Russell should never count as a gravitas bringer, and he always seems to be enjoying himself.

Russell as Ego the Living Planet (bafflingly not a planet in the movie)

lol wtf is this nonsense I WILL STAB WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE

But yeah this particular Save The Cat ingredient does seem to have fallen off, even in the origin story / franchise kickoff ones where it's seemingly inescapable

I forget where I read about it, but I guess Cranston was involved with the original iteration of Power Rangers in some non-performing capacity so this isn't quite as much a stretch as some of these other examples.

okay good point about Russell. he's old now but definitely brings fun and joy moreso than gravitas. not sure i've ever disliked him, even in some real shitty movies.

next year, the famously selective Josh Brolin will be playing Thanos in the third Avengers movie. Brolin was looking to explore the humanity of the character, saying there are "parts of him that are unfounded to me, which will be found." i guess he was in the last one for a second but i don't remember that at all.

Thanos has made I think two appearances thus far that amount to a cumulative 3.5 seconds of screen time.

no one tell Brolin that Thanos isn't human

really wish H'wood would move past this phase already

I'm sticking with my conspiracy theory that they're lying about GOTG 2 and Stallone is actually playing the living planet

pretty sure james gunn has promised that ego the living planet will appear in his full planetary glory for at least part of gotg2

and i for one will rip up seats in the cinema if it doesn't happen because i have PRINCIPLES dammit

fans to marvel: "let show my ego!"

Patrick Stewart in Logan: definitely enjoying himself with the lack of eyebrow-work, also not really bringing the gravitas.

Isn't Hugh Jackman the gravitas bringer in Logan?