13 Hyped Movie Roles That Were Total Cop-Outs
11. John Connor (Christian Bale) - Terminator Salvation
The terrible irony of the fourth Terminator movie is that the film's biggest hope ended up being its most colossal disappointment. Nobody was much interested in Terminator Salvation until the hugely unexpected news that Christian Bale had joined the cast to play John Connor.
Suddenly, even the most jaded and cynical Terminator fan figured that Bale, who was fresh off the success of The Dark Knight, was set to revitalise the franchise, because the guy's track record with picking projects was (and continues to be) pretty damn solid.
And yet, Bale's performance turned out both dull and obnoxious, overacting the role of resistance leader Connor into laughable oblivion, shouting every other line like his life depended on it yet rarely bringing much life or vibrancy to a Connor previously shown to be witty and likeable.
It didn't help that the entire movie was so relentlessly bleak and lacking in the dark humour of the better Terminator movies, such that it ended up feeling like every other washed-out, drab post-apocalyptic movie released during the 2000s.
Bale has since reflected on the role and fully admits that the film was a failure, but overall it was just sad that the promise of Bale playing one of sci-fi's most iconic characters turned out a total bust.
Still, it could've been worse. It could've been Terminator Genisys.