Doctor Fate has one of the most classic helmets in comics, and to me it's perfect. Of course, Hollywood decided they had to put their stamp upon it. I don't know who approved the asymmetrical, eyehole-free, dented up design of Fate's helmet for the Black Adam movie, but I think it's a visual misfire in an attempt to make it look cooler. Combine that with The Rock making zero effort to duplicate the iconic hairstyle and pointed ears of the titular character and I see a movie that doesn't seem to care much for fidelity to the source material. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but the trailers have made me less interested in the movie rather than more.
I'm hoping that this is case of the trailer doing a bad job showing off why the movie worth a look, but I share your hesitance. Even the much venerated Sam Raimi Spider-man movies suffered from "solution in search of a problem" a.k.a. "fixing what isn't broken" syndrome by ditching Peters webshooters and ignoring the classic Green Goblin look in favor of making him look like a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers villain.
ReplyDeleteMy real frustration with the movie, is that as much as I love Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in basic action movies like The Rundown, he's the opposite of a chameleon actor like Gary Oldman or Josh Brolin i.e. he's one of those actor's who's persona overpowers whatever role he's playing. Much like Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise or Jason Statham, no matter what part he's playing in a movie, I'm not seeing a nuanced character that I completely believe is legitimately in the situation presented. Instead, I'm seeing "The Rock as a bounty hunter" or "The Rock as an animal trainer" or, in this case "The Rock as a superhero.
Even though I'm usually the guy hitting theaters on opening weekend for this stuff, I'll probably wait til it's on video.
Maybe the eyehole-free version of the helmet is meant to symbolise that its wearer is irrelevant because it's the helmet [i.e. Nabu] who's actually making the decisions?
ReplyDeleteI liked the Amalgam version "Doctor Strangefate", who was, in an unexpected twist, revealed to be Charles Xavier.
ReplyDelete@Gregory: I began calling such tendencies "The George Lucas Syndrome" during the 20th anniversary re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy. As far as I'm permanently concerned, there was no legit reason to alter the original, forward-facing explosion of Death Star I!
ReplyDelete@Simreeve: possibly.
@Ross: why not get even? After BLACK ADAM and WAKANDA FOREVER have each been out a month, do a lobby card sim pitting DJ's version of Teth-Adam against Mayanesque Namor. That way, you could entitle it... "Rocking The Boat"!
i'm more surprised that the symbiote was willing to consider putting the helment on.
ReplyDeleteno eyes, no ears, no mouth? But would that apply with the symbiote? It's not human and its senses don't work like a human's.
Hal Jordan was obviously over-ruled back in STF #3764.
ReplyDelete@Detective Tobor
ReplyDeleteThe Symbiote could cover the surface of the helmet, which would be good for concealment/stealth. At least if it wanted to.
The comment about it being alien and having different sensations, makes me wonder what it'd be like if a symbiote attached to a deaf or blind person.
Nabu. it's always Nabu. He's such a control freak, lol (I mean, Lord of ORDER, it's kind of in the name!). Oooh, I'll bet Nabu and Sinestro would have a big throwdown trying to decide who was in charge!
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