OK, we’re admittedly a little frightened here. Comic book movies are a a tricky thing. There’s looking the part of the character and there’s, well, looking the part of the character. Just cause you can pull it off, doesn’t mean you always should.
Recent comic book movies have wisely dialed down the traditional look of the comics, in favor of something less cartoony and loud (see the black “X-Men” suits instead of the shiny blue and yellow ones or the muted reds of Superman’s cape in the Bryan Singer film), but here’s a a worrisome opposite idea.
Is this your first look at Eric Stoltz’s reprising his role from “Mask” Peter Saarsgard as the villain Hector Hammond on the set of Martin Campbell’s “Green Lantern” (via Gordon&TheWhale)? We’re inclined to say yes, if only because, as you can see from the photos above, the pictures seem to match closely.
Why the massive elongated and deformed forehead a la Sloth from “The Goonies?” Well, in the comics (and collated on Wikipedia), Hammond’s character discovered the fragments of a strange meteor in the woods (or, in one version, in Africa) and then eventually — after kidnapping scientists and getting rich off their expanded meteor-evolved intellect — exposed himself to the meteorite and radiation caused his brain to grow to enormous size, granting him psionic powers as well as immortality in the process.
Yes, it’s silly cause it’s a comic book, but hey, they can sometimes pull these things off if they try and base them in some kind of reality and/or have really great special effects.
This of course is an un-stylized, un-effects-laden shot (there’s no psionic pink energy floating around his head or whatever the hell it is), but what can we say, we’re still a little concerned. Then again, “Green Lantern” is going to have tons of aliens in it, will be set at least partially off-world on Oa, and a lot of of it will be set in outer space. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come off as “Daredevil” meets “Phantom Menace.”
The potential for non-suspension of disbelief will be high and Campbell really shit the bed with “Edge of Darkness,” but we’re still curious and holding out some hope that the film won’t be front-to-back ridiculous.
“Green Lantern” starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison and Angela Bassett is due in theaters June 17, 2011.