There’s been some backlash lately against the images and artwork released for upcoming superhero movie costumes – but is it justified? I don’t think so, and here’s why. With the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con brooding, there has been a string of brings out of photos and images of concept art associated to some upcoming and highly anticipated movies. There will always be some percentage of fans who do not like the centering chosen for a movie version of the costume of their favorite
comical book superhero, but lately there’s been some higher than norm backlash. Recently released set and promotional pictures for Thor have rendered seemingly higher percentages of negative than positive comments. Among the answer have been those that say the outfits look “cheesy,” much hate for the leather pants, mocking of Anthony Hopkins “golden eyepatch,” suits looking for much like plastic, etc. Then we had the picture of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern that appeared
on the address of Entertainment Weekly… On that one we had plenty of knee-jerk responses (admittedly, at first, even from yours truly). My first thought was that he awaited like he came from the “Bodies” exhibit that’s traveling the state. There were also references to Gray’s Anatomy and (not sure where this one came by) that he looks like a giant green penis (folks have some, uh, vivid visions I guess). Here’s the thing – you can’t judge how a costume will come a crossed in a film based on promotional still images. Promotional movies are lit and shot for presentation that is very assorted from that for film. Promo pics are usually brightly lit, clean, and crisp. Sometimes they’re shot in a photograph studio and not on set, and even for those shot on set, the lighting and visual issues aren’t as they will be in the final movie, nor do we have the benefit of any context for the images we’re looking at. Now that’s not to say that there have not been instances of costumes that look direful in the final production, but to jump the gun and state that a movie will be terrible since costumes do not look great in a promo pic is a bit silly. When the construct art for both Thor and Captain America surfaced, there were direct complaints about both (albeit far fewer for Cap’s movie costume). Some people idea that Cap’s costume looked too “bright” for the battlefield. Yesterday some construct art banners were released for both films, which you are able to see here: Here’s a close up of that Captain America costume (granted this isn’t a picture from the movie, but it’s a much more movie-like representation of it incoming action): So does that still look like it’s not a fit for the battlefield? Again, here’s a compare of the “squeaky clean” concept art and a aspect at it more as it will appear in the film: Here’s a closer look at Loki and Thor active it out from the modern banner concept art: Does a good (or bad) pre-movie look at a costume = a good (or bad) movie? I do not think you can make a definitive correlation – but I would for certain wait until at least seeing your favorite movie superhero’s costume being borne by the player playing him in action (at least in a trailer) before doing any judgments.
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