I used to hate Brandon Routh. I thought that Superman Returns was an appalling comic book movie and blamed a big part of that on the actor after I saw in the cinema back in 2007. However, earlier this year he joined the cast of one of my favourite TV shows: Chuck and despite the fact I was dreading his presence when I first heard he had joined the show, my opinion about him took a complete U-Turn after seeing him in just a few episodes. Why? Well, it turns out that he’s a damned good actor. So, I decided to give Superman Returns another chance and was surprised to find that his performance wasn’t quite as bad as I thought the first time around.
As I’ve said numerous times in the comments section here at CBM, I blame Singer and his ridiculous desire to make a movie that was nothing more than a homage to the classic Superman and Superman II. As I sat there watching the downright boring mess of a movie, I started to appreciate that Routh was in actual fact, a pretty damned good Man of Steel. Take away the fact he was forced to imitate an actor who had played the same character years before and I think it‘s fair to say his performance was a good one. My newfound opinion about his performance in Superman Returns along with his excellent performance on Chuck each week made me realise that Routh needs to play a superhero...just not Superman.
On Chuck, Routh was given the chance to play an entirely different sort of character. As Daniel Shaw he became someone that many fans of the show loved to hate because despite the fact he was playing a heroic CIA agent, he had an air of superiority and arrogance about him (not to mention the fact he stopped Chuck and Sarah getting together which you’ll only care about if you actually watch the show, lol!) that was a million miles away from the likeable Clark Kent/Superman. Despite that, you couldn’t help but like him every now and then especially when he showed that he was a capable leader who could get the job done and save the day. As if that wasn’t enough, his skills as an actor were really highlighted later in the season when his character took an unexpected 180 degree turn. So, what am I getting at? Back when I was putting together an X-Men fan cast, I desperately started trying to think of an actor I could cast as Cyclops other than the few I had already seen. Then it hit me.
All of the above things I’ve talked about point to one thing in my opinion. Brandon Routh would make an excellent Cyclops. With a combination of the heroic aspects of Superman along with the effective yet abrasive leader, Daniel Shaw, you have what I think are all of the right things to bring Scott Summers to the big screen as if he’d just stepped out of the comic books. There was nothing wrong with James Marsden’s performance but the fact he was stuck playing second fiddle to Wolverine and acting like a jealous teenager rather than an effective leader never gave him a chance to show what he could really do. Instead we had an extremely weak version of the comic book character. I know we’re probably not going to see X-Men 4 or any other X-Men movie with adult team members for a while especially with First Class on the way but if we do, we need a fresh start, with a new cast, and Routh is just the guy do give us that.
I’m not a fan of any of the past X-Men movies because they just got the characters so wrong. Never mind the problems about the age of some of them - that I can accept. It was the watered down Scott Summers, as I’ve mentioned above, that bothered me most. As I’m sure many of you know, in the comic books Cyclops is a leader who is also a master strategist and tactician and it’s essential to have an actor who can make that believable. I’m more than happy to except changes from the comic books because a lot of the time, they’re necessary! I mean, it’s not that I want to see a big screen adaptation of Cyclops with no changes but I would like to see something a little more faithful and accurate to the source material. I believe that Brandon Routh is the right choice to do this as I think he’s proved numerous times in the past specifically with two of his most major roles which I’ve repeatedly mentioned above.
In my opinion, Routh looks perfect for this role. He’s 6’2, is well built and has what I guess you could call a "heroic look". (which probably explains why he was cast as Superman after all!) As leader of the X-Men, we need an actor who not only looks the part but is also a believable and imposing force that we can believe leads mutants like Wolverine who often oppose him or are in fact more powerful than he is! After seeing him play a leader in Chuck, I have no doubt that he could more than easily order the X-Men about and show that the character is just as an effective a leader as heroes like Captain America or Iron Man. Oh, and as an obscure a point as this might be, Scott Summers needs to "sound" like a leader as well which I believe Routh does!
His past roles, including the two that I’ve focused on in this article, show that he’s more than capable of handling action sequences. Although Cyclops isn’t a character who uses his fists all that much, I think it’s important to have an actor who’s still familiar with both fight and stunt work in order to get the fluid and agile movements of Cyclops just right. Of course, even more important than all of these things is whether Routh could pull of the emotional aspects of Scott Summers. It is of course pointless to speculate what storylines they might use in future, but there are literally dozens of excellent ones that they could use which have pushed Cyclops to the edge and Routh is a good as actor as any to pull this off.
So there you have it. That’s my take on both how I think Cyclops should be portrayed in future as well as why I think Brandon Routh is the perfect choice to do it. I look forward to hearing what you think about this article so please feel free to share your thoughts below in the usual place!