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Spoilers for “Superman” follow.
I’m going to say it, Nicholas Hoult is the best Lex Luthor we’ve had on the silver screen thus far — no, it’s not just because he doesn’t wear a wig.
In director James Gunn’s “Superman,” Lex is the Lex Luthor I know from the Superman comics and cartoons. The highest compliment I can pay to Hoult’s Lex is that he reminded me of Clancy Brown’s voiceover performance as Luthor in the DC Animated Universe (from “Superman: The Animated Series” to “Justice League Unlimited.”)
That’s not to throw the other Lex Luthor actors under the bus. Gene Hackman, who played Lex opposite Christopher Reeve’s Superman, was one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived. Hoult has even said he wasn’t trying to top Hackman. But Hackman was playing the Silver Age Lex Luthor, i.e., a criminal mastermind with no pretense of legitimacy. Hackman also leaned on comedy; his Lex was ruthless but often exasperated by buffoonish henchmen (and fairly buffoonish himself).
Hackman is good in the Reeve “Superman” movies, it’s just not Lex Luthor as I recognize him. The same could be said of Kevin Spacey as Lex in “Superman Returns,” who was imitating Hackman’s Luthor the way that Brandon Routh was Reeve’s Superman.
Gunn’s “Superman” is the second attempt to kickstart a DC Universe on film by rebooting the Man of Steel. Based on the reviews, “Superman” might actually succeed where “Man of Steel” did not. The old DC Extended Universe was doomed by a rocky foundation and the even iffier choices of the second movie, “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” One of the iffiest was the casting and direction of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.
Eisenberg’s Lex took Hackman’s flamboyant jokester to new, annoying heights. Hackman’s Lex could be silly, but he was charming and funny, too. Lex in “Batman v. Superman” was an erratic wannabe philosopher. His hyperactive, grating demeanor and too-high voice drained any sense of villainous menace. DCEU Lex was a scientist, as in the comics (and unlike Hackman and Spacey’s versions), but that hardly mattered when he didn’t feel like a genius.
The frequent defense of Eisenberg’s casting is how he’d previously played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” and a 2010s Lex Luthor would be a tech bro oligarch, right? My counter is that Eisenberg’s quiet, piercing-eyed Zuckerberg is a better Lex than his actual Lex performance! Meanwhile, Hoult’s Luthor ditches the comedy of his predecessors. He is a venomous villain and an evil mastermind driven by uncontainable jealousy.