The trailer for The CW’s Green Arrow show “Arrow” (Green is apparently boxoffice-poison for Warners now) looks pretty awful – a textbook example of the Nolan-esque “realistic superhero” aesthetic in the wrong hands. Actually looks bad enough to be a parody of bad superhero adaptations, which is impressive considering “Smallville” stayed on the air for a decade.
One thing managed to catch my eye, though: Does this mask belong to who I think it belongs to?
So. It looks very much like Slade Wilson – aka Deathstroke The Terminator – one of the most iconic antagonists in the DC Comics canon… will be making his live-action debut in a series that looks SO BAD that this trailer contains the stuff they think will make you watch it:
Super. Think they’ll be clever enough to try and get Ron Perlman (Slade/Deathstroke’s voice from the “Teen Titans” series) to do the part – or maybe just the voice?
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
I've always found stuff like Smallville and this to be pretty harmless. Not good shows by any stretch, but not ones whose quality or success would hurt the appeal of the superhero genre as a whole.
10 years of Smallville couldn't do nearly the amount of damage something like Superman IV or Batman and Robin could.
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I don't know. I don't think the show looks bad at all.
I think the best example of applying the “Nolan-esque aesthetic” completely the wrong way is that guy who directed his Mortal Kombat movie pitch to Warner Brothers. Aside from the one well directed fight scene in it, “Mortal Kombat Rebirth” seemed like a parody of that “Nolan-esque aesthetic”. Totally butchering characters just to force so called “realism” to something where fantasy was the entire point of the thing in the first place. Nolan made an effort to respect the Batman comic book source as much as he could while still making it in his world. That Mortal Kombat Rebirth guy only got the “realism” part. It seems he never got the memo regarding the “respect the source” part of that formula.
I thought his Warner Bros backed web series was overall okay but by far the worst episode was the Raiden one which was the very episode where he got to apply his confused Nolan inspired take on the Mortal Kombat universe. Sadly and quite shockingly, from the looks of what I saw online, that was considered one of the best episodes by those that saw the series.
One more thing, not that I want to turn this into a MK discussion but I don't agree with you Bob that a MK movie should not be serious. It SHOULD be serious. It should be a dark fantasy for mature audiences. That doesn't mean though that you viciously apply “Nolan realism” on a level that even Nolan himself never applied on his Batman films.
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This looks OKAY at best. I don't see this being good or even great. SOME parts look interesting but couldn't they have thrown a LITTLE camp into it? He doesn't even wear a mask! It's just a lame hood.
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I honestly find myself not caring about this. I was never a fan of Smallville, and like a lot of others I know I'm seriously hoping that The Dark Knight Rises is the cap off of the “Nolanized” realistic Superhero movement. Films like that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have proven to me that as it turns out Comic book movies more or less work out better when coming from a place of unapologetic reverence for there source.
Maybe the proposed Raven show will look a little bit better But I'm not holding my breath. Right now I think the best thing DC could do is admit defeat and then shamelessly start ripping off Marvel Studios business plan.
As for the new DC Fighter from the MK guys (Sorry I have too) I'm optimistic. I've my put my expectations for a ultra-violent gore fest aside and honestly as long as they have alt costumes that better reflect the DC universe I think this ones could be good.
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I was initially bothered by the fact that the character refers to himself as “Arrow”, that he has no sense of humor or personality, and kills people. Now I'm pretty ok with it, since I can't possibly expect anyone to confuse this guy with the comic book character.
Maybe they're trying to avoid the Robin Hood comparison?
As long as this doesn't affect what's going on over at Young Justice, that show is just great.
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I wish I had as much of a problem with “realistic” superhero shows/films as everyone else does. Oh wait, fuck that! No I don't.
Now I know Bob and co. will dismiss my views as the rants of a blind Nolan fanboy, but here it goes. The “realistic” aesthetic really isn't a problem in the Batfilms…hell 4 years ago they were praised for such a thing! I'm fine with it because with the exception of Bane, every character has visually resembled one form/combination-of-forms of their comic book counterpart. The reasons they look that way may be grounded in “realism”, but they're still the characters we know and love, especially when it comes to character traits and personality.
I bring this up because even as a Smallville fan, I just can't get excited for this new Arrow show. However aesthetics have little to nothing to do with it. It just looks bland and the style of the trailer reminds me of the promos for The Vampire Diaries. However in reading up on the show and seeing how far they are deviating from the source material when it comes to the characters…now THAT is an “apologetic” superhero take.
As for Deathstroke…well first of all when it comes to Smallville, I hated how the character was handled. However he didn't have the trademark Deathstroke look because the intention behind it was that this was a pre-Deathstroke Slade Wilson. Again, it was handled poorly, but like it or not it probably counts
Couldn't care less about if he appears in Arrow or not though.
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I know for certain I didn't praise Nolan four years ago. But I got to admit everyone else did. It was like the whole world had seen a different movie than me. About this trailer two things:
1. It kinda looks like the generic action series I'd watch.
2. It looks in no way like a superhero series. IF you're so ashamed of your own IP that you have to hide it, why use it at all?
3. Naming himself Arrow just reminds me that Storm Hawks is of the air. The bastards!
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Wait what? the hell did i just watch?
I mostly know green arrow from the Justice League cartoon, but i am damn sure his big traits are:
1. Rich playboy who enjoys life and the occasional wisecrack, hes got style and class. Whats all this gritty “i am reborn a weapon” crap?
2. Oh come on WB, atleast use his full name.
3. A mask. It was a pretty flimsy one at that, but atleast he had a mask to explain how no one connected the dots between Olliver Queen and Green Arrow. Now all he has is a hood? How the hell is he supposed to hide his identity?
Looks like they are taking the hammer of derp adaptations to this one. Sigh
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Actually, I have a quick question for any Smallville fans of just followers. How did that show turn out?
I followed it for the first few seasons and dropped once they graduated high school. Which is weird because I'm still following Supernatural and they seem to be on the same level.
Random through: Are all CW shows created by the same person? All the shows have a similar style, setting, direction etc. When I was a kid, the cartoon blocks had variety to them. Some anime here, some Western animation there, squeeze in some live action shows and don't forget the CG. That's true even today.
Anyway, I'd probably care more about this story if I still watched TV on a regular basis.
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I love Perlman, but physically, he's just not right for Deathstroke, awesome as his voice is.
(Also, even though he's got a huge history of appearing in awful works, I wouldn't to see him wasting his time with a show that looks as bad as this one.)
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This is what the CW does. Take fantasy & sc-fi characters and strip them of anything remotely fantastical. “Codenames? Costumes? Bah! No one whats so see a superhero with anything so silly as those. And let's have our supposed 'Beast' in or Beauty & the Beast remake spend 90% of his screen time as a human-looking handsome dude, our viewers don't want to write erotic fan fiction about Ron Perlman in a rubber suit!”
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Fingers crossed for a volleyball with a face.
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If Ron Perlman is smart, he'll stay the hell away from this.
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So, is this just “Green Arrow if he were Batman”? Cause that's what it sounds like.
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@Marcomax:
Smallville was very fun until Lex died (and he died just because they couldn't afford to keep Michael Rosenbaum on the show).
After that, it started to become too.. strange. I hated it when they changed the “Red Blue Blur” (a.k.a Smallville's equivalent of Nolan's ski-mask Batman) into just “The Blur”: Dropping Clark's typical Red & Blue clothes for a Matrix-style black Trenchcoat with a white Superman logo on a black shirt.
“Realistic” doesn't always mean “Darkier & Edgier” in my opinion.
(If that was the case, one could consider the 90's excessive gorn in comic books as “realism”).
It had it's good episodes, though, especially those with the Justice Society. But the end was just depressing and uninspired.
As for this new show “Arrow”. I agree with Bob. It's a case of the Nolan formula wrongly applied.
This formula just doesn't work with Green Arrow.
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All I'm looking at is a precursor for a good superhero tv-show that's about to come in a couple of years. We need this now, regardless of how bad or Nolan-esque it might look. Everybody's got their eyes on superheroes these days but the transition of a sophisticated blockbuster (hello Avengers!) into a series that comes up to the expectations of its fans is too much to ask for right now. Let's give it a try and not rip it apart just like that. We're not there yet, but we'll be if we keep the interest in superheroes up – throughout all media.
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If you look at 2:32 you can see he has on a mask. I hope he does develop a sense of humor.
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