Cloudy With A Chance of Suck

A critic’s job is to critique. That’s simple enough. A weatherman’s job is to forecast weather. It’s slightly more complicated, yet still pretty easy at the same time. So, what do you get when you have a critic who is acting like a weatherman? An interesting observation to say the least.

Normally it’s not accepted in the world of critiques to make predictions about specific actors. Movies are fair game and failed actors, directors, and writers are also allowed to take a few knocks by the pen..er..the keyboard by those who pay attention and monitor movies. I’m going to break with tradition. I’m going to predict a career will fail miserably by this time next year and it will be a tail of woe is me.

I don’t have anything against Sam Worthington as an actor. I think he has great ability. I think he has a rugged look to him. But, do you ever notice there are certain actors who wind up in many high-dollar bad movies? It’s like a chronic disease. It’s normally not the actor’s fault. It usually has something to do with bad direction or other factors outside of an actor’s control.

Why do I think Sam’s career is doomed? Doomed may be a hard word. He might shine in one of them, but he really is setting himself up to fail miserably or become the next action hero of a generation.

Let’s start by telling you who Sam Worthington is. He played Marcus Wright in Terminator:Salvation. He did a respectable job. However, the movie is probably known more for the Christian Bale’s on-set rant than a memorable movie. And this is the first warning sign for Worthington.

His next big film is Avatar, set to be released in December. The previews look great. So did Terminator’s. The director is solid. So was Terminator’s. And the supporting cast has an identical feel for talent and experience as Terminator. Now, maybe it’s a coincidence instead of a trend. If so, then Worthington could be in line to be huge. If it is a trend, comic book and sci-fi fans everywhere are going to place his name next to the Jason Stathams and Marc Singers of the world.

I want Avatar to rock. I want it to be James Cameron’s big return to the silver screen. I just got a feeling there might be something amiss about it. If it does work out well, it will make Worthington’s appearance in Clash of the Titans (2010) be more hopeful. If it sucks, Clash will have to be his saving grace among us geeks. Think about it this way, Terminator was disappointing. If Avatar ends up costing a ton AND sucks on top of it, then it will be up to Clash to save Worthington’s reputation.

It’s totally unfair. Again, it’s not his fault. I think the young lad is chalk full of talent. I hope he recognizes, as other actors sometimes forget, that when you put yourself out to a genre of fans in either comic book or sci-fi, they are venomous when the movie sucks. He could get a huge following if the next two movies are good or he could be booed at every comic book convention he attends to try and regain status. Time will only tell on this one.

As for me, I will make a prediction. I think Avatar will be as good as advertised and Clash will be so-so. It’ll give him one good movie and make him short of being tied to complete failures. Hey, even the weatherman doesn’t predict movies this far in advance!