After catching the Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer released around Christmas, I didn’t know if I wanted to see the movie, but I did think it was one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a long time. In my opinion, the commercials that have started to air for this movie just recently have been bland, so I thought I’d point people to the far more compelling version. I’m guessing that your average fan of action movies is stoked after a teaser like that. I have to say I was very impressed by how much story and intrigue it created, all with only ten words.So, if I dawn my optimist hat for a moment, here are some reasons that FF:RotSS might be a highly entertaining movie:

• Spider-Man 2 was widely received by critics as superior to the first Spidey. I also thought X-Men 2 improved upon it’s earlier installment. (We won’t consider X-Men 3; that one’s Brett Ratner’s fault.) And hey, with The Hulk rumored to have a just-kidding do-over coming, we can assume that will be better, too. Marvel has managed to buck the expectation that a sequel is 80% as good as the movie that preceded it. So while the first Fantastic Four was somewhat mediocre, this one could well be worth our while.
• Comic books, particularly Marvel ones, pull off a character dynamic we seldom see in movies: good guy versus good guy. Marvel’s heroes regularly slug it out over misunderstandings, or disagreements in how to tackle the bad guy. Given that most Hollywood flicks follow a pattern of a good guy and friends tackling some conflict more or less as a team, this hero vs. hero interplay may feel fresh. It remains to be seen to what extent the Silver Surfer will be a protagonist or an antagonist in this movie. But I don’t think I’ll give much away when I say that, if you’re a follower of comics, (and skip the rest of this sentence if you want to be absolutely clueless) the presence of the Silver Surfer usually means a much bigger, much badder dude is soon to be on his way.
• The Silver Surfer is being played by contortionist and mime Doug Jones. You might not recognize his name, but you’ve probably seen one of his characters. Among many roles, he was both the Faun and the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth. Plus, he was the leader of the Gentlemen in the “Hush” episode of Buffy, one of the best episodes of television. Ever. You can’t ask for a better resume than that. Especially if, y’know… you’re a mime.

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