By Ace Hunter

I think we’ve peaked with the superhero tentpole franchises as of late.  What started with Nolan’s “Batman Begins” in 2004 finally reached a pinnacle in 2008 with both “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight.”  

Since then there has been a notable downslide in both quality and content (“Kick Ass” notwithstanding) to the point where the next several years of superhero films are being met with a collective groan more than rabid anticipation.

“Iron Man 2” certainly didn’t help matters with its split personality storytelling.  Half “Iron Man,” half “Avengers,” the film never really came together cohesively to match the hipness and fun of the first one.  

This winner simply look to be an extension of “Iron Man 2” in the long road to Whedon’s “Avengers” film in 2012.  The footage looks all too pedestrian, failing to capture the size and epic quality from Jack Kirby’s classic Marvel character.  Even the costumes look ridiculous, especially on Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

Now we arrive at Martin Campbell’s “Green Lantern,” which debuted its first trailer yesterday.  The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, who’s given a Green Lantern ring to use to defend Earth from the evils of the universe, which in this case is a rather disfigured Peter Sarsgaard:

If the first adjective that pops into your mind after watching this is ‘goofy’, you wouldn’t be too far off from the general consensus.  Reynolds is a fine actor, but here he appears to downshift into wise ass mode again while reacting to a bunch of CGI created images.  That alone could sink this overproduced endeavor.

The films looks to invoke the tone of the first “Iron Man” film without ever being truly engaging.  It throws a lot of flash at you with very little substance to back it up.  Even the suit looks unconvincing.

Oh well, maybe “Ghost Rider 2” will be good.  Anyone?  Anyone?

“Deeds, not words…”