The Best and Worst of Eva Green

“The Best and Worst of” series chronicles the career highlights and lowlights of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week, I take a look at the filmography of “Dumbo” star Eva Green.

Films starring Eva Green that I've seen:
Kingdom of Heaven
Casino Royale
300: Rise of an Empire
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
White Bird in a Blizzard
The Salvation
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 

Best Performance: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
I say this without even a semblance of irony: If I was in charge of the Oscar nominations, I would've nominated Green for Best Supporting Actress in 2014. Her flawless turn as criminal mastermind Ava Lord embodied the lust, deception and sleaziness that drives this lawless little world Frank Miller created better than anybody else who appeared in either film.  

Worst Performance: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Green's ability to put an absolute stranglehold on the screen every time she's on it has always impressed me. That signature commanding presence she's established over the course of her career made watching Kingdom of Heaven recently such a shock. It could've been the incoherent writing or simply the fact that she still was relatively new to the industry at the time this was made, but Green was completely bland and forgettable in a flat movie that desperately needed an injection of personality.

Best Film: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
The fan club for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is very small, but I'll proudly belong it for the rest of my days. Between its slew of outstanding performances from returning (Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Powers Boothe) and new cast members (Green, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) alike immersive noir atmosphere, badass action scenes and striking black-and-white visual palette, this long-delayed sequel to the 2005 cult classic was a more than worthy successor that captured everything that made the original special while also serving as a terrific standalone project.

Worst Film: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Countless people have said that the director's cut significantly improves upon the theatrical version- which Ridley Scott has publicly disowned on several occasions. Despite all of the praise Scott's unimpeded 3+ hour version has received since it was released on home video in December 2005, I don't really feel compelled to seek it out after sitting through the original product. This sorry attempt at creating another Gladiator-esque epic historical drama fails to establish any sort of storytelling rhythm, features some of the most choppily-edited massive battle scenes I've ever seen and above all, has egregious pacing issues that make the film a taxing chore to sit through.

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Pet Sematary” star Jason Clarke.