I caught the Premier of the new Arrow series, and the verdict is still up in the air for me. The action scenes were done well and the actor playing Oliver Queen is good, but I wasn't crazy about Green Arrow killing so many people and there were a lot of pretty cliched moments. A mysterious Arrow guy shows up exactly at the same time that Queen miraculously reappears and nobody seems to make the connection especially when all he uses is a smear of paint for a mask. I don't know why they can't explain away a cool looking mask by saying it has special lenses that help with his eyesight - perfect for an archer character. The same goes with Hawkeye in The Avengers... let's give him a proper cowl again!
8 comments:
Yeah, the new series is nothing like "Smallville". It's pretty much European perfume models reading cue cards and punching each other in the dark. The shame of it is that the lead has obviously undergone exceptional physical training to carry out on-camera stunts rarely seen outside of theatrical films, which would be a real asset if there was a whole TV show in which to put them.
Solomon Grundy No Like Arrows in Face! GRRRRRR
I agree with both of your costume notes here. I haven't seen Arrow yet, but the main problem I had with Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton is that I'm used to Hawkeye wearing that purple outfit with the crazy mask. The silhouette provided by the mask is as distinctive as Thor's helmet, which I know you've also addressed in this blog. I think Renner prefers this black outfit (according to the quote on Wikipedia he calls it "a little more reality-based), but just adding the peaked mask and a little purple would make him a bit more recognizable -- and I don't mean by the fans, but by his allies trying to find him at a distance.
The mask issue is a very easy one. It's the same reason that a LOT of super hero movies whose stars wear masks have them removing the masks or getting them torn off during the move. The star sells the movie, not the character. "V for Vendetta" is one of the extremely rare exceptions to this rule. Check out the Captain America movies; Chris Evans has the mask off more often than not (even if the reason is excellent, as in "The Avengers".) Ditto for Iron Man.
I remain,
Sincerely,
Eric L. Sofer
The Bad Clown
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x-o and iron man the mask and beetlejuice zorro and jonha hex dyno mutt krypto blue falcon and falcon
Oliver took down Grundy once, in the old Arrowcave, about a decade ago. I don't think he and Clint would have much trouble taking down this pair (so long as they didn't meet the smart incarnations of Grundy and Hulk -- then they'd be in trouble).
I really enjoyed how Hawkeye and Green Arrow played off each other in the JLA/Avengers crossover. I'm not sure how well arrows would do against two beings pretty much immune to anything short of a nuke. They'd need to rely on conning, skill, and maybe an anti-gamma arrow. (Speaking of which, I notice in the new "Arrow", we don't have boxing glove arrows or handcuff arrows... we have wireless hotspot arrows?) (I also propose a new drinking game: Whenever anyone stares menacingly, drink!) I'm going to give the series a few more episodes; pilots are often awkward, and it takes a while for actors to grow into their roles and for writers to get a feel for the actors and how to best use them.
Well, for me, ARROW is still a series I can leave rather than take. Especially, given the lameness of the two-part crossovers with THE FLASH! I'm sure the official reason is that the latter, as a spin-off only in its second season, needs all the help it can get. But, as far as I'm permanently concerned, it's the parent series that's using the spin-off (which I find _much_ better written and acted than ARROW) as a crutch. With the crossovers being over-frequent...and over-relied upon.
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