As I may have said at least six or seven times in the past, I absolutely love my hometown of Portland. Not only is it a great place to be a film lover, but it’s a great place to be a film maker as well. We’ve got several theaters that are willing and able to play independent films, we’ve got no shortage of talented unknown actors, and we’ve got all the settings that a director could ever ask for.

See, Portland is divided into several districts, and each of them has their own unique flavor. We’ve got streets filled with art shops and we’ve got industrial districts. There are the graffitied slums of Old Town and the stylish sights of the Pearl District. We’ve got city sprawl right next to some gorgeous parks. We’ve got Chinatown, we’ve got ports, and we’ve got bridges. We’ve got urban areas, suburban areas, rose gardens, sports arenas, tram cars, and that’s just within the city limits. Go a bit further and you’ll find waterfalls, forests, rivers, beaches, deserts, hills, mountains, and even an active volcano. Every setting you could possibly imagine is within a two-hour drive of Portland.

Such a pity, then, that relatively few filmmakers have been coming here. Until very recently, the most famous of all the films shot in Portland was a humiliating Madonna POS called Body of Evidence. Yes, Gus Van Sant is a native, but the only films of his that actually feature the city are the ones that no one’s heard of. Did anyone see Restless? I rest my case.

But things have been turning around for the past few years. First, Stephanie Meyer decided to set her stories in the Pacific Northwest, and the film adaptations were nice enough to follow her lead. Then there was Coraline, an awesome movie that was made at Will Vinton’s old studios in town. There’s also “Leverage,” a TV show which has been shooting in Portland for the past few seasons, even though it’s set in Boston.

Then came “Portlandia,” and for the first time, we had a film or a TV show that we could proudly accept as part of our identity. I have absolutely no idea how popular this show is outside the city, but Portlanders quote and reference it on a constant basis. Things got even better with “Grimm,” which recently debuted on NBC and became the city’s first TV show on a major network. Four episodes have screened so far, and they’ve all done a fine job of showcasing my fair hometown. Even better is that the show is actually enjoyable — albeit more than a little hokey — so I’m very pleased all around that it was recently given a full-season order.

Next on the docket is Gone, an Amanda Seyfried thriller that was set and shot in my fair city. Let’s see what we’ve got here.

Okay, see the building at 0:32? That’s actually the Custom House, a historic building that’s been unoccupied for quite a while now. It’s been a real pain in the local government’s ass until it was finally purchased and renovated for non-profit use last year. And now I see that it’s serving as police headquarters. They even photoshopped in the word “Police” over the building’s title on the arch. Well, at least this creative liberty is understandable. It’s not like shooting at the Pioneer Courthouse would have been practical, since it’s next to one of the busiest hubs in the city, and the Portland Justice Center lacks that certain gravitas.

My favorite setting in the trailer can be seen multiple times at 1:02, 1:29, 1:31, and 1:37. Those shots were all taken under the east side of the Morrison Bridge, where my drumline practices on a regular basis. I remember the scouting vans going through there at the start of this year. I’m frankly amazed that they still decided to shoot there; If the big, noisy drumline playing at ear-shattering levels twice a week didn’t scare them off, I thought for sure that the crazy, drunken homeless people would.

There are some gorgeous shots of the city at 0:45, 1:06, 1:50, and 2:14. It makes me absolutely giddy to see this film shooting the Portland skyline as if it was NYC or Boston or Vegas or what have you. Really (in case you haven’t guessed by now), that feeling is all this trailer gives me to latch onto.

Yes, Amanda Seyfried is in the cast, and she’s a very talented young actress, but I’ve got absolutely nothing else to go on. The director and writer have both done a few other films, none of which are remotely interesting (except maybe for writer Allison Burnett’s latest project, Underworld Awakening. Ick.).

This movie has to be a Seyfried vehicle, because there’s no one else in the cast who appears to be worth a damn. Okay, maybe Sebastian Stan is noteworthy, since he did such a great job as Bucky Barnes in Captain America, but still. Jennifer Carpenter is in the film, but her only notable prior role is on “Dexter,” a show that I’ve heard good things about yet haven’t seen. Wes Bentley is in there, after wowing audiences with such masterpieces as Ghost Rider and Jonah Hex. Last but not least, it appears that the film’s main police officer will be played by Daniel Sunjata, who’s set to humiliate himself as a laughable imitation of the Ranger character in next year’s One for the Money.

Oh, and lest I forget: This is a crime thriller. If ever there was a genre that might benefit from Oregon’s famously rainy and unpredictable weather, this would be it. Yet this trailer doesn’t show a single drop. What gives?

So far, all signs point to this movie being just another film that’s shot in Portland and quickly forgotten. I’m also getting a strong “ripping off Taken” vibe, which certainly doesn’t help. Throw in a lousy release date at the start of next year, and this has all the makings of a flop. Time will tell when Gone comes to theaters next February 24th. I can only pray that it does the Rose City proud.