Moneyball Trailer: Check out Brad Pitt as Oakland A's GM Billy Beane

First Moneyball Movie Trailer a Mixed Bag for Fans of the Book

The baseball fan in me absolutely loved Moneyball, Michael Lewis' bestseller about the Oakland A's and their penny-pinching rise to power. Yet while I was reading it, at no point did my inner cinephile start screaming, "Hey! This would make a great movie!"

Well, they made one anyway. Moneyball the motion picture—directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt as A's general manager Billy Beane—is due to be released this September. And on Thursday, the first trailer arrived.

Having watched the trailer four or five times now, all I can say is that it's a little...interesting...

Let's start with the good stuff. Despite the fact I'm not so sure his portrayal of Billy Beane is entirely faithful to the man himself, this already looks like one of Brad Pitt's better performances. It also looks like we're in for some great dialogue and some outstanding cinematography. This is not surprising, of course, as the movie was penned by Aaron Sorkin (and several others) and shot by Wally Pfister, the same guy who shot The Dark Knight and Inception.

However, I think they went a little too Hollywood with some aspects of the movie. For example, I have no idea why they took Paul DePodesta and turned him into Jonah Hill. I love Hill as much as the next guy, but his "Peter Brand" character is not DePodesta. Same goes for Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is definitely not Art Howe.

And then there's the tone of the film. It seems like they tried to blend your typical underdog sports movie with The Social Network (also penned by Sorkin). This is bold, but it's not very subtle, and that could be the film's undoing. Either we're going to see a one of a kind sports movie, or we're going to see baseball-themed suckfest masquerading as Oscar bait.

So yeah, I guess you could say I'm not sold. I'll end up seeing it anyway, but I have my doubts.

If you disagree, feel free to sound off in the comments section.