10 Hated Movie Performances That Were Secretly Genius

Consensus is a fickle thing and that's no less true when it comes to the movies. Films that were once panned are reappraised as masterpieces (see, pretty much every John Carpenter movie released from 1982), and old critical darlings can just as easily fade away in popularity.

Obviously, this extends to the individual components of a film as well. When George Lucas released the second part of his Star Wars prequel trilogy in 2002, Attack of the Clones, actor Hayden Christensen received heavy criticism for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. Two decades on, and not only has Christensen's performance been more fairly contextualised and championed by corners of the Star Wars fandom - namely those who grew up with the prequels and are now adults -  but he has also reprised the role in two separate series on Disney+.

Time is a great healer, but some reputations can prove more difficult to remould. Looking beyond the 2000s, there are many acting performances that were roundly disliked upon their release and are still largely seen to be lowlights of a film or career, codified by genre parody and of course the internet, where discussion can stagnate in an ocean of repetitive memes and trite citations of review aggregators. (Seriously, how many years have we lost to Rotten Tomatoes? The answer is too many.)

This isn't to say that there's an objective scale for critique or that anyone's wrong for agreeing with consensus, but rather that old habits die hard, and in some respects, even with emergent reappraisals overtaking these old criticisms, some performances still feel vastly underappreciated - or at the very least, nowhere near as offensive as was once made out.

One of the biggest casting consternations of the 2010s, Tom Cruise's turn as Jack Reacher has largely been forgotten since 2012 - partially due to Reacher fans getting a more "accurate" rendition with the Amazon Prime series, and also because Cruise had bigger hits in the Mission: Impossible films a few years later.

Still, the 2012 Reacher movie (less so its sequel, which was instructively titled "Never Go Back") is worthy of merit. Apart from marking the first collaboration between Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie - who went on to helm Mission: Impossibles Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning - it stands out today as a vintage throwback to action thrillers from the seventies and eighties. It sadly lacks much of the grit and punch of its spiritual forebears, but the end result is still commendable, with Cruise anchoring a sleek, stylish film that shares many of the qualities that would make the McQuarrie Mission: Impossibles landmark entries in the franchise.

Despite lacking the strength or physical stature of Lee Childs' character, Cruise remains believable as a forceful vigilante. He's cocky, brash, and deviously clever, although it does feel like his energy is rarely matched by his co-stars or the mundane conspiracy he's trying to unravel. There are flashes of brilliance - such as the bathroom fight and nighttime car chase - but ultimately, Cruise and McQuarrie's interpretation is smothered by a PG-13 rating and static gunplay more than it is Cruise's physicality.

Not that any of that stifles Cruise's screen presence, though. If X-Men fans can accept a tall Wolverine, shouldn't we all be just as fine with a shorter Reacher?