Michael Gambon

For those who don't know, Michael Gambon is the actor who currently portrays Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. I realize that someone had to take over the part after Richard Harris died, but Gambon was a terrible choice. His interpretation of Dumbledore is completely wrong; he plays the character with aggression, impatience and he's boring -- no charm, no warmth, and certainly not "the greatest wizard of our time." Gambon admits that he hasn't read the Harry Potter books. How not surprising.

What's worse, Dumbledore is usually described as tall, thin, with long fingers and a crooked nose. In an incredible feat of poor casting, Gambon has none of these features. They might have well used CGI (as long as they didn't use Andy Serkis, but that's for a future post) and used Jim Dale as his voice.

I realize some people argue that "it's a problem with the director more than the actor"... and I'll agree up to a point. Yes, Prisoner of Azkaban was a bad movie thanks to Alfonso Cuarón, but it could have been saved by an on-target Dumbledore performance. It's gotten to the point where no matter how good the rest of the movie is (and a lot of Order of the Phoenix doesn't look bad), Gambon's Dumbledore will drag it down. Let's face it -- after Harry, Dumbledore is probably the most important character in the story.

For those of us who have read Half-Blood Prince, I guess our only satisfaction will be that Deathly Hallows should be a pretty good movie.