10 Big-Name Actors Who Were Wasted In Major Blockbusters

Big names on the posters don't always mean big roles...

Godzilla (2014) Brian Cranston
Warner Bros. Pictures

The biggest names and talent in Hollywood are often a commanding force behind a film's success. When an actor or actress delivers a standout performance in the industry, there's a high reputation that carries through into future profits; the higher they rise, the more capable they become of selling a new film to audiences.

The summer blockbuster is easily the biggest example; you've got to have the top-tier performers if you want to rack up the box-office profits, but not every film follows through on this.

Whether they were killed off far too soon or simply had no effort put into developing their characters, the following ten films got big name actors on-board to get audiences in the seats, then tossed them aside when they had no more use to the story.

These creative choices certainly amplified the disappointment of their respective productions and the following ten films left people feeling a little bit cheated when they saw these names on the poster. Not every film on this list is awful per se, but they were all diminished by the limited roles of their main performers. Let's dig in...

10. Julianne Moore In Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Godzilla (2014) Brian Cranston
20th Century Studios

As a rather disappointing sequel to the stellar original, Kingsman: The Golden Circle packed a ton of silver screen talent into its cast. Jeff Bridges, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum and Pedro Pascal were just a few of the popular names attached and we all got excited, believing this great cast would add to the film, expanding the world and possibly even putting the sequel a cut above the first. Unfortunately a solid portion of them were wasted on shallow roles, none more so than Julianne Moore.

The well-known actress has had some good experience in other comedies such as Crazy Stupid Love and The Kids are alright, making her a good fit for the franchise. What we got instead was a very weak and phoned in performance that did little to deliver the stakes of the narrative. It paled in comparison to Samuel L. Jackson from the first film and her character's one gimmick of being a fan of classical fifties diner's added little development.

Overall a very weak and unthreatening antagonist when compared to the original film, with very low personal stakes and development to boot. When you have an antagonist who mostly sits around not doing much, you've got a weak character.

Contributor

A tough but fair writer and critic broadly covering games, movies and just about every type of entertainment media. Spent a good part of the last seven years blogging and more recently, making amateur videos under "The Cainage Critique". You can follow my work on my website https://robc25.wixsite.com/thecainagecritique and my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftJ6WcozDaECFfjvORDk3w