Cast Aside

As long as we’re shitting on James Gunn (fun!), I will say, I always thought he’s a pretty competent director. But the man is not a writer, and where he fails most spectacularly is in casting. With one notable exception (you’ll never convince me Chris Pratt was his choice), he has screwed the pooch on so many Marvel and DC characters.

We’re seeing it right now with the probably-nice-but-highly-miscast Millie Alcock as Supergirl just as we did with David Corenswet as Superman. Actually, that whole movie was horribly cast. But my disdain goes farther back.

I’m just gonna say it: I never liked the choice of Zoe Saldana as Gamora. She just doesn’t have the physicality. She’s what, 5’5” and weighs about a buck and change? This is “the deadliest woman in the whole galaxy?” Sorry, never bought it. Fortunately Saldana is a good enough actress that she brought a lot to the part. But it was never something that sat right with me. Particularly because there was a much better choice sitting right out there the whole time. Go check out that weird World of Warcraft movie and look at actress Paula Patton. Tall, toned, titties. She was even green! Aaagh, It was right there.

But Gunn likes to pick actors who will follow his “vision” and not based on whether they bring anything to the part (which is obviously why he’d never work with Cavill). Again, I like Gunn as a director, but keep him away from writing and for God’s sake keep him away from casting.

Sorry for the rant. For my part I’ve created a quick Nerddy version of Gamora that’s much closer to Jim Starlin’s original Gamora. And yeah, she’s been upgraded in a couple of ways that count.