Thursday 25 March 2010

What makes a good movie character?

Yesterday I picked up an assignment from the Associated Content assignment desk. The assignment was to write an article about my favourite characters from a movie series. It was a no brainer for me. I know which characters I love so I figured it would be easy. What was challenging though, was explaining what I loved about them in a way that  was easy for other people to understand. Actually, that is often a challenge when I write about anything I am passionate about. It's hard not to assume that everyone loves the same things and understands what I mean with little explanation!

Let's look at the question in the title. What makes a good movie character? For me, it's a number of things. First of all, a well written character is a must. A character with depth, a reason for their actions. A two dimensional character is just not going to cut it. Even now I still see movies with characters in them that have a distinct lack of motivation and purpose *coughTwilightcough*.  I think the right actor is also essential to a movie character. Tom Cruise could not have played The 40 Year Old Virgin any more than Steve Carrell could have pulled off Cruise's part in Cocktail. It's not entirely about the look, it's about what the actor is good at. Although a good actor can turn his hand to anything, I believe certain actors are better at certain things.

That said, before Michael Emerson became creepy Ben in Lost, he was a comedy actor. But Ben is actually pretty funny, so I guess it still works! :p

What makes you love a movie character, and which are your favourites?

If you want to see which character from movie series' I picked as my favourites, click here!

4 comments:

  1. very good, it does take a good actor for the proper role :)

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  2. I think so too. Some good films could have been very bad with different actors, IMO! :D

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  3. Those are some good picks. I almost accepted this assignment, too. It looked like fun.

    I agree about the importance of the actor. Without a great portrayal, the character can be ruined. I also think the character must be well written and easy to relate to or admire in some way.

    I think my favorites are all superheroes, though, like Batman and Spiderman. I guess James Bond and Spock aren't superheroes, but they come close. :P

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  4. I got a bit carried away with accepting assignments that day! *lol*

    Batman is great,I don't know why I never thought of him!

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