10 Movies That Chose The Wrong Lead Character
5. Raleigh Becket - Pacific Rim
No disrespect to Charlie Hunnam, who does all that can be done with Pacific Rim's wafer-thin protagonist Raleigh Becket, but the movie really belongs to the infinitely more memorable and appealing supporting character, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi).
Mako admittedly has a relatively large role in the film, but there's no denying that she plays second fiddle to Raleigh, who by comparison is a rather uninteresting, charisma-free Generic White Guy lead.
Perhaps the single-most memorable sequence from the film is the flashback detailing the loss of Mako's parents in a kaiju attack on Tokyo, resulting in her subsequently being adopted by commander Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba).
Between Mako's tragic backstory, her strong-willed determination, and Rinko Kikuchi's terrific performance, it's really a no-brainer that she should've led this blockbuster.
However, releasing in 2013 as it did - long before Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel finally convinced crusty Hollywood execs that female-led tentpoles were viable - the apparently smart, sensible choice was picking the bland, interchangeable Dude.
Ironically with Raleigh not returning for the sequel, 2018's Pacific Rim: Uprising, it would've been the perfect opportunity for Mako to slide into the lead role, but instead she returned for a mere fleeting cameo in which her character was inexplicably killed off. Terrible.