The Wire‘s Jimmy McNulty is one of the great characters in television history, and while you have to lay a lot of that at the feet of creator David Simon and his team of insanely talented writers, you must leave room in your praise for Dominic West, the man who gives McNulty his soul. Fans of The Wire have long felt that West has a big career in front of him, and he’s slowly getting there, playing the villain in 300, and recently wrapping shooting as Jigsaw in Punisher: War Zone. Now he may be stepping into yet more villainous shoes as Latino Review has him tipped to play Destro in the GI Joe movie.
First of all, good for West for getting high profile work. But looking at his three big movies makes you realize they have something in common, which is that they’re all cartoons. There’s no real humanity in 300, as much as I enjoy the shit out of the film, and anybody who thinks there will be any depth to a second of Punisher: War Zone is tragically mistaken. And now Destro, a character who makes a Punisher villain look like he’s from Shakespeare…?
At least West will get a chance to use something close to his real accent this time; West is British and Destro is supposed to be Scottish (I never understood why Destro always sounded like a black dude on the cartoon). And while West will probably be under some mask or CGI facial gimgaw, he’ll be getting more exposure, which could hopefully lead to more roles that at least are approaching the level of complexity and meaning that Jimmy McNulty has.