15 Perfect Superhero Casting Choices Wasted On Terrible Comic Book Movies
3. Mark Strong As Sinestro - Green Lantern
Warner Bros.
Simply put, Green Lantern is an unforgivable film. It squanders an incredible premise, focussed on the wrong Green Lantern in Hal Jordan and spent most of its time grounded on Earth when there was an entire universe out there just waiting to be explored.
Also Parallax... why?!
Frustratingly, the film also isn't without its little moments of genius. The late, great Michael Clarke Duncan was perfect as Kilowog in the few brief minutes we see him, while Geoffrey Rush is pretty much spot-on as Tomar-Re. It is Mark Strong, however, who stands out as the most obvious example of lost potential, with the actor delivering a brilliantly theatrical take on hero-turned-villain Sinestro.
Strong is now set to play Doctor Sivana in the upcoming Shazam!, but DC won't find a better actor to play the Green Lantern Corps' fiercest adversary. Given rumours that they're looking to have another stab at the series, the fact Strong won't be returning is especially disappointing.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
