It’s been a long time since we saw Mel Gibson in a movie, and many people are anticipating his return to the big screen with a beaver puppet on his hand. And that makes us disappointed to learn that there’s this other Gibson vehicle arriving in theaters first: Edge of Darkness, the trailer for which arrived online last night. Couldn’t this be pushed back indefinitely (and we get Malick’s delayed The Tree of Life in its place)? Or, at least until after the Jodie Foster-directed The Beaver opens?

Such disappointment would be felt with any other Gibson movie after all the Beaver hype, but the feeling is exacerbated by the fact Edge of Darkness looks like just another vigilante thriller in the wake of Taken, Law Abiding Citizen and the Foster-starrer The Brave One. The cast is great, even if Danny Huston seems like 100 other characters he’s played before (not that I ever dislike his rehashed performances). And of course a script co-written by William Monahan and direction from Martin Campbell in his first feature gig since Casino Royale should mean the film won’t be terrible. Still, does anyone want to see this at all?

Check out what the other film blogs are saying about the trailer after the jump:

• Kyle Buchanan at Movieline agrees The Beaver should be Gibson’s comeback film over this:
  

  I’ll put it this way: If The Beaver is something that nobody’s seen before (because apparently none of you saw Lars and the Real Girl), Edge of Darkness is something everybody’s seen before. (Literally in some cases, since it’s based on a British miniseries.) Gibson stars as a father whose daughter is shot…but they picked the wrong cop to piss off! So, Taken without the sex slavery whatnot, but plus Gone Baby Gone accents.

• William Goss at Cinematical addresses the similar release date:
  

  I wasn’t sure then why a film with such firepower on paper was being relegated to next January, but it seems to be in stride with the turning tide of this past January’s strong performance. Just as The Cabin in the Woods 3-D had been pushed back to the same weekend that My Bloody Valentine 3-D had, I believe that Darkness is being positioned on the same weekend that Taken had for a reason. (Even the poster is not far from that of the righteous-father flick.)

• Oli Lyttelton at The Playlist thinks the film deserves a better release date:
  

  the movie’s definitely taking hints on its marketing from last year’s January old-man-kicks-the-living-shit-out-of-people-messing-with-his-family sleeper hit “Taken” (suggestions are welcome if anyone has a better name for the genre…), but this looks like it could be fun - a William Monahan script, Martin Campbell, coming off “Casino Royale,” his best ever film, at the helm, and Mel Gibson, who hasn’t been on screen for half a decade, and in this kind of role for much longer, apparently returning to form (and with a surprisingly convincing Boston accent). Still you’d think with Campbell and this cast, this thing could find a better date than January 29 aka dumping ground season.

• Lane Brown at Vulture makes another Taken reference but thinks there’s an element that could make up for lack of beavers:
  

  This all seems like pretty boilerplate dad-detective movie stuff, but you’re probably wondering: Will Mel Gibson’s Boston accent be hilarious and stand out like a beaver puppet on a crowded sidewalk? Blessedly, the answer is yes.

• Rodney at The Movie Blog isn’t turned off by the familiarity:
  

  Sounds a little bit too much like Taken, but I loved that movie so I would give this a shot. And this seems to have a little Consipiracy Theory in it too.

  Besides everyone loves a crazy Mel.

• Gina Telaroli at Take Part is sick of this genre in general:
  

  I just don’t get why people seem to really dig these movies where the main characters loved ones (usually women) get killed in the beginning and the rest of the film is is the main character hunting down those who hurt his loved one.  I find the entire thing to be kind of gross and a poor use of our cinematic time. I know that there is a tradition of these films but I don’t know why there seems to be a trend of them today?

  I guess I am just sick of gratuitous violence in general.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com isn’t concerned with the familiarity as much as he’s unhappy with the spoilerific trailer:
  

  The trailer below starts off looking like a Taken riff and then gets progressively more interesting. I think you can tell the whole story from this trailer, which sucks, but kudos to the folks who edited this in such a way that it feels like a mini-narrative all its own.

• John Lichman at Current Movies Blog focuses on the common simplicity of the premise:
  

  The latest Mel Gibson thriller manages to remind us that, no matter if you’re embroiled in a government conspiracy or if your daughter may be sneaking of nuclear secrets, you can do anything as long as you’re an ex-cop who doesn’t play by the rules.

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend notes the significant difference between Taken and this film:
  

  Gibson’s daughter is already dead, leaving him plenty of time to threaten people where Liam Neeson would probably have just punched them in the head. His daughter has been murdered as part of some sort of strange government conspiracy which seems to be headed by Wolverine’s Stryker. No surprise there, we already knew that guy was up to no good.

• Alex Billington at FirstShowing is excited about the film:
  

  I love a good mystery and this just looks awesome, especially with Gibson kicking ass and Winstone being all mysterious. I really love Martin Campbell, that guy can do no wrong, and his action intensity is just second-to-none. Anyway, if you’re looking for a damn good thriller to finally be very excited about, just start here!

• Mark at I Watch Stuff compares the film to another of Gibson’s:
  

  Things you’ll be disappointed Mel Gibson does not say at all, even though he obviously should:

  - “Give me back my daughter!!!”

  I guess we’ll have to wait for Ransom II: Re-Ransom.

• Wookie Johnson at ScreenJunkies also references that kidnap thriller:
  

  The success of Taken has prompted Hollywood to churn out more father-turned-Terminator flicks. In the funny accent tour-de-force Edge of Darkness, Mel Gibson stars as a Boston detective searching for answers in the murder of his daughter. [...] We haven’t seen Mel this riled up since he wanted his son back in Ransom.

• Helen O’Hara at Empire addresses the fact that Campbell is redoing his own work here:
  

  It’s all based on the 1985 BBC TV series of the same name, but before you throw up your hands in disgust and dismiss it as just another remake, it’s worth noting that this is directed by Martin Campbell, who also made the much acclaimed series. That makes it less like Gus Van Sant’s Psycho and more like Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of his own film, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

• Drew McWeeny at HitFix uses this opportunity to praise Campbell:
  

  I mean that as a compliment.  There are a lot of guys who are professional, competent, but unremarkable.  Campbell has proven throughout his career that he can turn in genuinely stylish work even when burdened with weak material, and when you give him a good script and a solid cast, he has a tendency to really let it rip.  There’s a reason he’s the guy that the Broccolis turned to not once, but twice, when they needed to reboot James Bond.

• Matt Zoller-Seitz at The House Next Door comments on a specific line from the trailer:
  

  David Thomson should delete his entire section on Mel Gibson from “A Biographical Dictionary of Film” and replace it with the last line of this trailer.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba asks the million dollar question:
  

  the trailer looks pretty decent. Like Taken, only in Boston (and I’m a sucker for Boston-based flicks), and the lead is searching not for his daughter, but for his daughter’s killer. The question is: Is it compelling enough to overlook Gibson’s Antisemitism? Are we willing to take a stand against Gibson’s work only so long as he’s making bad films? Or will we avoid a credible thriller out of protest?

Check out the trailer via Yahoo! below: