Chris Pratt - Perhaps TOO Appealing?

 By Ephraim Belnap

    Chris Pratt is appealing because he embodies good ol' American boy vibes while having the fine features of a Hollywood star while having the comedic and irreverent vibes of a teenage boy. 

    Good ol' boy - Hollywood face - irreverence. That means he's appealing to basically every high-paying demographic - upstanding members of society, girls, and young men. Hollywood goldmine. Then you throw in his genuine acting chops and great comedic roles and he's basically good for everything. His swathe of massive roles proves it. He's straight-up planted in the fabric of American pop culture.

    But there's a chance he's gotten overexposed. It doesn't matter how good Let It Go is, people got legit sick of it. It doesn't matter how well-executed Marvel movies are, people are at risk of getting sick of them. And it doesn't matter how appealing Chris Pratt is, there's a chance people will get sick of him. The qualities that once made him appealing - his relative everyman status, his mostly wholesome background, his sense of humor, his trend of playing the cocky yet vulnerable hero - are all at risk of pissing people off. 

    Should we be pissed off? Honestly, I don't think so. He's in a lot of things because he's got stuff people like. Most of the complaints about him stem from the production decisions surrounding his projects, e.g. Jurassic World's terrible writing. The most legitimate argument against him is the question of him supporting churches that support homophobia, and y'know what? "The homophobe's in a movie??" was not the default reaction people had to him being cast as Mario. The homophobia is separate - yet related and legitimate - to the problem of his overexposure. 

    Does this mean he's a good pick for Mario? Probably not. I don't know why they decided announcing the cast was the best first step in the promotion campaign for the film that's not coming out for fourteen months and already has a huge built-in fanbase. But hey, studios mess up all the time. I'm half-convinced that the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer was a deliberate play by an in-house worker to get the design changed by public outcry because they couldn't convince the studios on their own. On occasion, public opinion can have good results for a studio. I'm like 50/50 on whether Pratt is gonna get booted because of the reaction to this tbh. We'll see.