It seemed like this day would never come. There had been reports that a live action Max Steel movie was coming from Paramount, and Taylor Lautner was even attached to star as Max McGrath. But just as fans wondered if a studio could get this particular action figure property right, Lautner bolted for another toy-based feature film: Stretch Armstrong. I know, we got a good laugh out of that one, too, but Lautner has been eager to show his comedic talents, as he has since he became a member of the Happy Madison gang. Sadly, a Stretch Armstrong film seems dead, as that property is heading to series at Netflix, and since we hadn’t heard anything about Max Steel since 2014, we figured this one was kaput, too.
How wrong we were. Mattel Entertainment has finally unveiled the international trailer for Max Steel, which stars Ben Winchell as the titular hero, Josh Brener as the voice of Steel, Maria Bello as Molly McGrath, and Andy Garcia as Dr. Miles Edwards. The plot:
The adventures of teenager Max McGrath and alien companion Steel, who must harness and combine their tremendous new powers to evolve into the turbo-charged superhero Max Steel. [IMDB]
As for the trailer, I honestly thought it was for a video game when I first watched it. The voice of Steel doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the trailer, but that’s hardly the biggest problem. My first instinct was to wonder if Mattel had learned any lessons from Hasbro and the G.I. Joe films, but those movies still made a lot of money. So, maybe the lesson learned was to scale back on quality to increase the box office returns.
Max Steel hits theaters on October 21.
