8 Casting Decisions That Could Ruin 2016's Biggest Movies

2. Jesse Eisenberg - Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

When the news first came that Jesse Eisenberg, who gave one of the most brilliant screen performances in recent years for his turn as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, had been cast in the role of Lex Luthor for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, there was a feeling like, "Of course!" You know, as if Zack Snyder had connected all the dots and worked out that the Lex Luthor of 2016 would be a Zuckerberg type. Spot on. And yet, despite the initial perfectness of this casting decision, the more footage that has been unveiled of Eisenberg playing Luthor, the more miscast he feels. It's almost as though Snyder took his great idea in casting Eisenberg and then proceeded to beat it into submission, because the Luthor in the trailers isn't the Zuckerberg type character we expected at all - he's more like Scrappy-Doo. The way that Eisenberg appears to be playing the character is incredibly on-the-nose, hammy and to the point of parody. And, as it stands, it jars horribly with the straight-laced take that the other actors have gone for (that scene where Luthor introduces Bruce Wayne to Clark Kent... it just makes you want to hide behind your hands and die). If Eisenberg turns out to be as insufferable as he is in the trailer, there's a real chance that Batman v Superman could wind up being a very painful experience indeed.