8 Terrible Comic Book Movie Performances By Great Actors
7. Aaron Eckhart As Harvey Dent/Two-Face - The Dark Knight (2008)
Aaron Eckhart is a sorely underrated actor. Look at him in his handful of scenes in Sean Penns too-rarely-cited The Pledge - in which he coaxes a confession out of a clueless inmate before Matthew McConaughey ever did as Rust Cohle - or his lead performance in Jason Reitmans Thank You For Smoking, and you will see an actor at the top of his game, one with leading-man looks and just enough sleaze to render him not wholly bankable. Elsewhere theres him in Erin Brockovich, or Neil LaButes In the Company of Men, again putting in strong, dependable turns. Its a shame then that his filmography post-05 is so insipid: No Reservations; Love Happens; Battle Los Angeles; The Expatriate; Olympus Has Fallen; I, Frankenstein. Most interesting is actually this, his turn as Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Christopher Nolans much-loved sprawl, The Dark Knight. The role, previously occupied by a not-much-better (or is that worse?) Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, is undoubtedly a tough one, and Eckhart does the opposite of TLJ and opts for a straight, tough performance. And, much as Jones was too over the top, Eckharts performance is too taciturn. Granted, he spends much of the film as District Attorney Harvey Dent rather than as his cartoonish alter-ego, but in a film containing great work from Heath Ledger as The Joker, Eckhart ends up being overshadowed, his role ultimately collateral against the film itself.
