Jesse Eisenberg is Luthor, Jeremy Irons is Alfred

[johnnygobbs]

Actually, the casting is still perplexing to me given that Snyder, once upon a time, was quoted as saying that he envisioned Lex to be a mixture of Richard Branson and Brad Pitt. I don't see neither in who we got. 

I'm just trying to accept what we've got.    But Brad Pitt as 'Lex Luthor' would have been amazing.  Imagine, a suave, charismatic, handsome Luthor who also happens to be a self-made billionaire and one of the smartest men in the world.  For once we'd have a Luthor who was a real match for Superman.

[The Joker]

I'm just trying to accept what we've got.    But Brad Pitt as 'Lex Luthor' would have been amazing.  Imagine, a suave, charismatic, handsome Luthor who also happens to be a self-made billionaire and one of the smartest men in the world.  For once we'd have a Luthor who was a real match for Superman.

I know, bro. As a Lex fan, he's probably my 2nd favorite villain behind the Joker of course, I just can't help but be disappointed with everything pertaining to him thus far. It's clear that deciding to go with the unconventional route, especially in terms of casting, was a conscious decision that was made with this film, even though there really wasn't nothing wrong or unacceptable with going with the more conventional approach to begin with.....

[johnnygobbs]

I'm just trying to accept what we've got.    But Brad Pitt as 'Lex Luthor' would have been amazing.  Imagine, a suave, charismatic, handsome Luthor who also happens to be a self-made billionaire and one of the smartest men in the world.  For once we'd have a Luthor who was a real match for Superman.

I know, bro. As a Lex fan, he's probably my 2nd favorite villain behind the Joker of course, I just can't help but be disappointed with everything pertaining to him thus far. It's clear that deciding to go with the unconventional route, especially in terms of casting, was a conscious decision that was made with this film, even though there really wasn't nothing wrong or unacceptable with going with the more conventional approach to begin with.....

Well film-wise the conventional choice would have been another goofy, comical, paunchy middle-aged scheming crook/scientist, as per Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey's performances.  They're great of course but personally speaking the only live-action Lex Luthor that comes close to my vision of the character is John Shea's suave and superficially charming businessman in the 1990s "Lois and Clark" TV show.  Jon Hamm did a commercial or short film as Lex I believe and he would certainly have been in the vein of what I'm looking for, although I don't really count that because it was so brief (plus, Hamm is still my ideal post-millennium Bruce Wayne/Batman).

[The Joker]

Film-wise, Lex has yet to get his due. Though I wasn't just singling out past film versions when I referred to the idea of conventional... Fortunately television has been more kind to Lex. Michael Rosenbaum as the younger Lex from Smallville (Pre-Crisis nod), Clancy Brown in TAS, and of course, John Shea's decidedly Post-Crisis influenced take in Lois & Clark. All good stuff. Taking up the slack and succeeding where film-wise versions have not-aged well, or just flat out failed.

[The Laughing Fish]

Here's a new image of Eisenberg's Lex and a little piece of viral marketing in this fake Fortune interview. ***Warning:*** article may contain spoilers.



Source: http://fortune.com/contentfrom/2015/10/05/lex-luthor-jr/ntv_a/3dsBA58oDAfxgFA

[johnnygobbs]

I read the article.  I don't care for it and what it tells us about this Luthor at all.

I was hoping this Luthor would be the self-made kid from Suicide Slum rather than simply a spoiled rich kid ala Tony Stark.    The former version possesses an interesting pathos for a villain by contrasting him with the privileged likes of Bruce Wayne and his billion-dollar inheritance and Clark Kent with his loving nuclear family in Smallville.  But now that we know Luthor will be born into money it's hard to see how he will generate any sympathy and thus complexity as an antagonist.  Moreover, I can't help thinking that Eisenberg is completely the wrong actor for a character that was initially described by Zach Snyder as being a cross between 'Brad Pitt and Richard Branson'...yeah, right.    And I don't see how Eisenberg and his awkward geeky laugh (see the trailer) evokes the 'easy charm' described in the 'Fortune' article.

All in all, the more I read about the DC Universe the more I feel inclined to stick with the MCU, and be thankful that we've at least got the Burton Batman films, the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films and TDK trilogy, as far as DC goes.

Just a final thought, Man of Steel, the DC Cinematic Universe franchise launcher, has got a 56% 'Rotten Score' on the Rotten Tomatoes meter in contrast to the twelve theatrically-released MCU films, every single one of which has a 'fresh' RT score. 

[BatmAngelus]

Wait, so Eisenberg's long-haired/redheaded character is named Alexander Luthor Jr.??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Luthor,_Jr.



It does seem like they took the Smallville route of having a Lex who grew up rich and (presumably) ended up killing his father and taking over the company. Not a huge fan of them doing what the last live action version of Lex Luthor did, but we'll just have to see next year.

[johnnygobbs]

It does seem like they took the Smallville route of having a Lex who grew up rich and (presumably) ended up killing his father and taking over the company. Not a huge fan of them doing what the last live action version of Lex Luthor did, but we'll just have to see next year.

I hope I'm wrong and I've misunderstood the article and its implications, but at present that does seem to be the direction they're going with.    As I've said before, I could only see Jesse Eisenberg's awkward, geeky and far from charismatic-looking Lex Luthor (or Alexander Luthor Jr.  ) working if he was portrayed as the tenacious self-made man from the slums.  I don't buy him as a self-assured silver-spoon billionaire type to rival playboy Bruce Wayne.  If Snyder had actually got an actor who met his early description of the character (i.e. 'a mix between Brad Pitt and Richard Branson), say Brad Pitt playing a version of Richard Branson, this character might have worked, but so far nothing I've seen pertaining to Eisenberg and his stuttering one-note Mark Zuckerberg retread convinces me, and making statements about having no interest in the comic-books and describing Comic Con as being akin to the Holocaust do even less to endear me to the idea that he's playing one of the premier villains in the DC Universe.  Goodness knows how long we'll be stuck with him.

Yet another reason I'm afraid for ignoring the DC Cinematic Universe (until its inevitable reboot some day) and sticking with the MCU. 

[The Joker]

Alexander Luthor Jr., huh?

Can we get Superboy Prime to do some retcon punching now?!?

Ehhh ... Just sounds like a deliberate ploy to set up a contrast between Bruce and Junior here, in the way of, "Hey kids, this is how Bruce Wayne could have turned out! dun dun dunnnn!!!". Which I guess could be said of the Smallville show as well with Lionel Luthor's "Luthorcorp", and Lex being born into privilege like Bruce, but unlike B V S, Bats nor Gotham were major running factors in that show's universe, atleast not to my knowledge, thus viewers were not beaten over the head with any sort of contrast.

I might have found Eisenberg's Lex more acceptable if they actually would have chosen to do, in a future sequel down the road, the "Lex Luthor II" idea from the Post-Crisis comics where Lex secretly faked his own death, had his brain removed from his ailing body (Cain from Robocop 2 style), and was later "reborn" in a brand new cloned body (6th day?) posing as his own son upon returning to Metropolis. In that sense, I could personally reconcile Eisenberg's, apparently, neurotic portrayal of Lex, as a process like that definitely could have affected his mind/personality, but given Eisenberg's Lex Luthor Jr. is going to be our Lex from the very start, with Senior probably perishing during the Supes/Zod battle from MOS, eh. Ok. Whatever.   

[johnnygobbs]

Alexander Luthor Jr., huh?

Can we get Superboy Prime to do some retcon punching now?!?

Ehhh ... Just sounds like a deliberate ploy to set up a contrast between Bruce and Junior here, in the way of, "Hey kids, this is how Bruce Wayne could have turned out! dun dun dunnnn!!!". Which I guess could be said of the Smallville show as well with Lionel Luthor's "Luthorcorp", and Lex being born into privilege like Bruce, but unlike B V S, Bats nor Gotham were major running factors in that show's universe, atleast not to my knowledge, thus viewers were not beaten over the head with any sort of contrast.

I might have found Eisenberg's Lex more acceptable if they actually would have chosen to do, in a future sequel down the road, the "Lex Luthor II" idea from the Post-Crisis comics where Lex secretly faked his own death, had his brain removed from his ailing body (Cain from Robocop 2 style), and was later "reborn" in a brand new cloned body (6th day?) posing as his own son upon returning to Metropolis. In that sense, I could personally reconcile Eisenberg's, apparently, neurotic portrayal of Lex, as a process like that definitely could have affected his mind/personality, but given Eisenberg's Lex Luthor Jr. is going to be our Lex from the very start, with Senior probably perishing during the Supes/Zod battle from MOS, eh. Ok. Whatever.

If you check the full fake article on the 'Fortune' magazine website, it says Sr. died in 2000, so I don't think it had anything to do with the Superman/Zod battle.  In fact, I'd say it was heavily implied that Jr. killed pops himself.

Alexander Joseph Luthor Jr. is a 31-year-old wunderkind who transformed an aging petrochemical and heavy machinery dinosaur into a tech darling of the Fortune 500 in what some call a superhuman feat.

This jeans-wearing genius is equally at ease rappelling the climbing wall in his employee "inspiration station" and coding in "the crucible": the cutting-edge R & D lab where the baby-faced billionaire verbally extemporizes computer code like Miles Davis improvising a trumpet solo.

As we patiently wait our turn at the complimentary LexCorp vegan food truck (this day's fare: pesto-olive pizza with raw almond crust), the son of Alexander Luthor Sr. — Lex Luthor — explains the evolution of LexCorp.

"Dad named the company after himself ten years before I made my unexpected entrance into his life. But investors seemed to respond to the idea of an adoring father building a legacy for his precious son. He used that to his advantage. It was a good shtick and, whatever else he was, he was a good businessman," the younger Luthor explains.

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."

"Well, Dad was a complicated guy," his down-to-Earth son notes as we pass a tasteful display of his world-famous collection of meteorite crystals. "He came from a country where the government, in the guise of protector, had absolute control over the citizens. That drove him. I get it. Heck, I'd hate to see that sort of thing happen over here."

But the achievements of LexCorp's founder pale in comparison to the astonishing accomplishments of the younger Luthor, who was the youngest ever to be named Fortune's Businessperson of the Year and included on the magazine's list of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders.

Taking the reins of the family business after the untimely death of his indomitable father, the prodigal son boldly changed the direction of the firm from oil and heavy machinery to tech. LexCorp has quickly become the second largest emerging technology corporation in the world next to Wayne Enterprises.

Partly, the success of this young company comes from Luthor's willingness to go where Wayne fears to tread. Wayne Enterprises has shied away from military contracts in the last decade.

"It's a necessity," Luthor insists. "We live in the most dangerous point of time in all of human history. Statistically speaking, it's a near certainty that another world-changing crisis is hurtling toward us like a speeding bullet. We have to be ready to defend ourselves. No civilization was ever conquered by having a strong military."

As for the accusations of a few fringe outliers who accuse him of being a "war monger," Luthor just laughs them off. "I don't know very many 'war mongers' who have a foosball table in the conference room."

In the face of Luthor's self-effacing, easy charm, it's tempting to see him as "just one of the guys" and not for what he truly is: a giver. Only when pressed does he admit that LexCorp is in the top three charitable corporations in America, just after Kord Industries and Wayne Enterprises. "It's not a competition," laughs Luthor. "Besides, I can't hold a candle to those guys in the debauched billionaire playboy department!"

But he downplays the corporate generosity side of LexCorp. "Handouts don't change the world. The true gift of LexCorp is our products. We are on the cusp of unveiling a technology that will change the world forever."

When pressed, the youthful mogul will only hint. "It's about safety. This is a product that will protect you, and everyone, from threats you don't even know about yet. I don't want to scare anybody... much. But there are a lot of threats out there, and they're here today."

It's just lucky for us that, whatever the dangers lurking for us today, we have on our side Lex Luthor, a man of tomorrow.

It almost seems like they're treating the "Smallville" version of Lex as canon.