Keanu Reeves bad acting?

[dankogrg]

Is it just me or is Keanu Reeves performance in the game pretty meh? He is dispasionate and delivers all the lines with same monotone voice. He really highly contrasts from all the other actors, especially the main character, who brings it al on beliveable and puts completely himself into the role. Did Keanu just phone in his role?

[Bullied by Pigeon]

i see others overacting .. Keanu is ok.. its all matter of individual taste i guess.

[The Sewer Guide]

It's pretty monotone, but I don't think it's bad acting. I'd guess it's more how his character was designed.

[Mr_Blank]

I think V took the show, his and her voice actor did an amazing job. I wouldn’t say keannu was bad though, I really enjoyed his performance.

[Tokenn]

Keanu has some good moment in the game, but lots of it is fairly uninspired. Voice actors rarely record their performances together...they read from scripts and do their best, rather than actually interact. I think it's what happened here.

A lot of the voice acting in this game is really well done [V, M&F, Panam...most of the main NPCs]...some of it [Rogue, Judy, Evelyn] is outstanding. Keanu's contribution suffers by comparison.

[TwinCats]

Did you remember Johnny isn't real person he is engram? Keanu good acting.

[Cyber Diver]

I do think his character was a bit jarring but I think it was the script, some of the wordings were pretty weird. Keanu's acting made it less bad if I'm the judge of it.

[Tokenn]

Originally posted by TwinCats:

Did you remember Johnny isn't real person he is engram? Keanu good acting.

Then his performance shouldn't be so uneven. Look...I like him as Johnny, and when he's good, he's good. But nuanced, engaging voice performance is not a strength of Keanu's acting. It's okay to realize this.

[Crimsomrider]

Personally I think it fits him (Johnny) perfectly, since he is supposed to be that way considering how broken of a man he was.

The monotone voice pretty much emphasizes him being dead inside beautifully, because a person who has been through a lot and has zero Fs to give about anyone and anything anymore won't have a lot of emotion to express.

What's also fascinating is even when Johnny temporarily takes over, Cherami Leigh (actress of Valerie) will also become monotone and speak slower to match his character.

So I'm pretty sure it's intentional as he is not supposed to be lively as V is, so I wouldn't say it's bad acting since it perfectly fits Johnny's character. He's terribly broken, seen and had extremely disturbing stuff done to him, spent the last 50 years in an Arasaka digital prison replaying the entire life of his predecessor only to then wake up in another person's brain within a world that completely forgot about him and moved on.

[dankogrg]

Originally posted by Crimsomrider:

Personally I think it fits him (Johnny) perfectly, since he is supposed to be that way considering how broken of a man he was.

The monotone voice pretty much emphasizes him being dead inside beautifully, because a person who has been through a lot and has zero Fs to give about anyone and anything anymore won't have a lot of emotion to express.

What's also fascinating is even when Johnny temporarily takes over, Cherami Leigh (actress of Valerie) will also become monotone and speak slower to match his character.

So I'm pretty sure it's intentional as he is not supposed to be lively as V is, so I wouldn't say it's bad acting since it perfectly fits Johnny's character. He's terribly broken, seen and had extremely disturbing stuff done to him, spent the last 50 years in an Arasaka digital prison replaying the entire life of his predecessor only to then wake up in another person's brain within a world that completely forgot about him and moved on.

I disagree. It would hold water if he was unfazed in all the scenes but gave emotion in crucial moments, when he talks abut stuff he really cares about (supposedly), like in a monologue on why he fights and his anger towards corpo stripping of the land from innocent civilians etc.

[Herp McDerperson]

in general, it's clear to me that many lines, by all sorts of characters, are delivered incorrectly. I assume that they were not given sufficient context or "motivation" as the trope says.

Examples:

Johnny Silverhand as you are escaping from the satwave power station after overloading it and he's panicking over the risk the situation poses to the chip (and himself) ... "delta the ♥♥♥♥ out", etc. --- clearly not delivered correctly


another one: Lizzie Wizzie when you tell her the truth about what you found at the club regarding her boyfriend... "No, no... it's... No. ♥♥♥♥...!"
it's cringe-worthy

[fauxpas]

Reeves has alot of raw charisma and seens like a decent human being (rare in Hollywood), but his "acting" is ... meh ... and voice acting is its own skill which didn't help his performance.

[Titan Awaken]

Well let's put it this way: I don't think (m)any people watch John Wick for its deep, riveting dialogue either.

[shoopy]

Bad acting is actually bad direction in this case. But yeah.

Nobody really just phones in their role because at the end of the day, somebody has to approve it and say "ok, we'll use this" and it would be that person's fault for not having Keanu redo the lines until they're right. (though would you want to be the person to make Keanu Reeves redo lines?)

[Northwold]

To my mind it's one of his best performances and a really good performance. He doesn't have an especially emotive voice but he somehow managed to make that work for the character and work really well. So, personally, I disagree. And I was expecting him to be terrible before I heard it.

[Okihara Jones]

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

I think V took the show, his and her voice actor did an amazing job. I wouldn’t say keannu was bad though, I really enjoyed his performance.

Respectfully disagree. For me, male AND female V voices are awful: fake tough guy gangster inflections and cadences (especially male V) more fitting for a prohibition-era mafia game.

Keanu's rockerboy totally sells the character, love him.