Green Lantern (or how I want to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb)

His sight doesn't look too great in that
crappy mask. I'm sure I could escape it.

That headline is a little misleading, as you'll soon see. Recently I've found myself questioning whether I'm a DC person at all.

I mean, I love Batman : TAS, JLU, Young Justice et al, but I've never really gotten into the DC comic scene. Even as a kid, as much as I loved Batman and Superman, my exposure was limited to their various film and television incarnations. In fact, I think I may own precisely one Batman comic, yet thanks to the animated series, movies and video games (not to mention Wizard and general comic conversations) I have quite a good understanding of both his history and his mythology, rogues and relationships included. I have fond memories of watching Richard Donner's Superman as a young boy, particularly enamoured with the scenes of baby Kal-El lifting up the Kent's pickup truck, or young Clark outrunning a train. However I'm outright positive I've never owned a Superman comic, and I couldn't even tell you which few I have read. Once again though, I feel incredibly familiar with just about every aspect of his lore.

Green Lantern on the other hand, well... he's a bit of a mystery to me. You see, when it comes to comics,  you can make mine Marvel. I had a brief daliance with Image for a while there (thanks glossy pages and Michael Turner!) and had initially become a serious comic afficianado through the Dark Horse line of Star Wars books. I can specifically remember Marvel comics I had as a kid though, in particular a 'What If' Fantastic Four comic in which the Silver Surfer didn't betray Galactus. It was full of that wonderful Kirby and Lee madness and strange silver-age science-fiction, and I loved every panel of it.

Which is why I'm so routinely surprised that Green Lantern just doesn't do it for me. Surprised and disappointed. When Green Lantern : First Flight came out, that was my first real introduction to the lore. Once again, I was familiar with aspects of it from JLU, but those team shows never really give you the depth of a characters origins and the premise. I thought First Flight was okay, nothing more. I enjoyed Wonder Woman much more, which is a little shocking, maybe because I think there is just something so overwhelmingly silly about Green Lantern. I love Space Opera, so what the heck is going on here?

Captain America : The First Avenger - Trailer online!

There's a trailer out for Captain America : The First Avenger!

It's been a while since I've written anything, which has been pretty disappointing. Fortunately, it's largely been for great reasons, like starting a contract at Rising Sun Pictures. It's been a lot of work that has left me without the energy to keep up with half of the shows I'm supposed to be watching/reviewing (not to mention a big Chuck diversion that's taken over), and even less energy to sit down and write about it all.

Having said that, there's a trailer out for Captain America : The First Avenger!

Making a few comments on a trailer felt like a good way to ease back into the writing, so first let's check it out and then we'll comment.

X-Men First Class : Stylish first trailer defies expectations

Matthew Vaughn is a very interesting filmmaker. With  the first look at X-Men: First Class now available online, I find myself caught between two reactions. The trailer both defies my expectations for the film and manage to deliver exactly what I should expect from a director like Vaughn.

It was only the other day in my post for the Superman Classic short film, that I commented on a desire to see more comic book movies with a period setting. I can't believe I'd forgotten all about First Class. If there is one thing this trailer does well, it's set up this alternate history Earth where Mutants got caught up in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At the moment, this setup most echoes Watchmen, but like I've previously discussed, it's great that movies like this and Captain America are doing the period setting. X-Men was born in the 60s, and it deserves to start there. It provides a short hand richness to the world that makes it all the more believable than the 'few year from now' setting the first three movies used.

It's also exciting to see them sidestep a teaser and go straight to showing us all a good glimpse of the footage, while still keeping the movie close to their chest. We've got plenty of mutant action, the costumes look much better in motion (and every body bitching about the 'parachute straps' needs to shut up as they're on a jet during this scene. makes sense to incorporate parachute straps to me), we've got a few intriguing hints in regards to the Hellfire Club as well as a snippet of what appears to be Vaughn's largest action scene yet. (Magneto pulling a submarine from the water? wow).

Click though for the embed.

Captain America and Thor : Superbowl Spots

Captain America. Marvel

I doubt I'll usually link to much in the way of upcoming films and projects, but these two Superbowl Spots from Marvel are going to have to be an initial exception. Marvel Studios has a pretty good track record so far (3 for 3, with a few minor quibbles), so I'm expecting these to be knocked out of the park.

I've had a good feeling about Captain America for a while now, with every bit of casting news sounding like gold to me. That even includes Chris Evans (as Steve Rogers, see Poster on left), who has been a solid actor in a few films as well as experienced dealing with the ridiculousness of comic book movies. I also don't think that his role as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four will mess with peoples heads. He's an actor, let him take the job!

Joe Johnston also gets a bit of a bum rap for the work he's done. The Rocketeer is still a favourite of mine for pulp adventures, Jurassic Park III was a more accurate version of the book than JPII and he managed to salvage something gorgeous and occasionally interesting from The Wolfman.

Just like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, there's seems to be a genuine desire to find the best way to translate these comic book ideas and visuals to the silver screen, without sacrificing what made them great in the first place. The Spider-Man films had their moments, and the X-Men films were fairly true to the premise of the books, but they often deviated wildly from established designs and characterisations. Spidey may have looked right, be he never really acted like Spidey, going silent during melees instead of slinging as many witticisms as he does webs. X-Men got the underlying thematic stuff right (as you'd expect from Singer), but failed to find a believable way to translate the colourful visuals. 

With that in mind, take a look at the first footage for Captain America: The First Avenger after the jump.