Roundtable: New Green Lantern Movie Trailer
During the 2011 WonderCon convention an all new Green Lantern trailer debuted.
New Green Lantern Trailer
The trailer was a slight departure from the first one featuring a heavy dose of Oa, the Green Lantern Corps, more action, and a louder, more profound soundtrack. The new footage is spreading around the internet like a scandalous celebrity photo and has been well received by just about everywhere, so we thought we’d add our two cents with a roundtable. If you haven’t already you can watch the new trailer below, check out our thoughts, then share your own.
Wow. I knew this was going to be a very different movie than what we’ve seen before in the superhero genre. It had to rely on much heavier cosmic and sci-fi elements, much like Thor has to rely heavily on mythology. It could so easily look silly or downright stupid, but that’s not what we get here. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome looking!
I’m not at all concerned with Ryan Reynolds. He’s an actor and a professional, so he’ll do the best job he can and if he failed, he failed, but I wasn’t worried about the casting. What worried me more was how Oa and the other members of the Corps would look. Bottom line…the members of the Corps look awesome and Oa looks really cool too. The only thing I have to say to Warner Bros. is this: “I’ll hand you my wallet…take whatever you think is appropriate. All you have to do is give me a movie ticket to view your cool movie.”
John Barringer Head Editor & writer
Wow, what a difference from the first trailer. Loved seeing a lot of Oa and all the different members of the Green Lantern Corps, not to mention how beautiful the score sounds. And despite the heavy CG everything looked really good; this gets me significantly more excited for the movie. Hopefully Sinestro is as involved in the movie as he was in this trailer. However, the romantic comedy-Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively that worried me a little in the first trailer were absent from this one but are more than likely still a big part of the actual movie. My only concern is that this trailer was edited to calm some of the concerns and negative responses from the first trailer while the movie itself is still the same.
Phillip Carson Writer, reviewer & editor
Initially, I wasn’t too impressed with the Green Lantern movie. I wasn’t feeling Ryan Reynolds as Hal, and the whole tone of the first trailer just felt off. It was like they were trying to copy Iron Man’s formula, mix humor with a well-known actor to bolster a lesser-known comic hero. But this new trailer dials up the Epic Factor to 11. Seeing all your favorite GL Corps. members rallying for battle (I’m still picking people out of the crowd scenes) to Sinestro’s speech turned me around.
Sinestro is probably the one thing I’m most excited about. He doesn’t just look like a normal guy with red make-up. He actually looks like an alien, with the over-sized head and lean, scrawny body. Straight out of the comics. It’s that attention to detail, honoring the comics but pushing the concepts into new areas, that really excites me. Some stuff still looks odd, like how the GLC meeting place looks more Lord of the Rings than Star Wars, but I’m definitely more open to seeing the film. Bring on GL!
Victor Kutsenok Writer & reviewer
I personally loved it. The lantern look amazing and the CGI of their powers are great. I’m still not buying Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. He always looks like he has a smile on his face. It’s like he knows a joke and isn’t telling it to anybody but its cracking him up on the inside. HIt seems like Mark Strong may have blown this one out of the park. As a huge Green Lantern fan, when I heard the lines “I don’t need to tell you you’re duty. I don’t need to tell you who we are.” followed by “WE ARE THE CORPS! WE ARE THE CORPS! WE ARE THE CORPS!” Hal Jordan, to me, has always been a serious character, along the lines of Batman. Ryan would make a great Joker, but I’m not sure of him as Hal. That still didn’t stop me from thinking that this movie will be AWESOME.
Mason Moyer Writer & reviewer
It seems like Mark Strong may have blown this one out of the park. As a huge Green Lantern fan, when I heard the lines “I don’t need to tell you you’re duty. I don’t need to tell you who we are.” followed by “WE ARE THE CORPS! WE ARE THE CORPS! WE ARE THE CORPS!” it sent massive chills down my spine, and I honestly was close to tears.
Tom Parry Writer & reviewer
Its no secret how I feel about the current state of the Green Lantern comics, and how far Hal has fallen from my favorite character, but no amount of bad writing in the comic book universe could keep me away me from this film. This is a movie I’ve wanted to see since before I even really got into comic books, and thus every bit of inofrmation has managed to get me excited (well, maybe not the announcement of Geoff Johns’ involvement, and the subsequent renaming of Legion to Parallax, but still)… this is no exception.
That said, however, this has an added benifit of giving me chills. Yes, chills. Now I’ll admit that I get chills in movies a lot (I get engrossed in films easily), but I can’t think of another time that I have ever felt them during a trailer. Sinestro’s rally of the Corps was awe-inspiring, the newly rendered suits look astonishing (much better than the almost frightful shot at the end of first trailer), and the Corps members themselves. Wow. Just wow. Nevermind the cut down origin presented, which feels plucked right from the comics, themselves. Its really hard for me to take a step back and criticize this harshly as there was just too much cool in it for me. I do think that the many anti-Geoff era fans will call foul on this movie (if only for the inclusion of the Parallax entity, which I maintain as a stupid replacement for Lgion), and may even boycott it… but those who understand the art of a film adaptation should all be more than thrilled to see this footage, and will undoubtedly be lining up to see the film’s midnight showing.
I know I will be.
To see a higher resolution of the trailer visit YouTube here or the main Green Lantern site here.
You can read our roundtable discussion for the first trailer here.
2 Comments
Geoff: I too think a movie should be judged by all of its parts rather then just who is playing Hal, but you gotta admit….getting dream casting for a beloved role definitely makes those long exposition scenes where the character is simply explaining the plot to other characters a lot less painful when you actually enjoy watching the actor/actress.
John: Agreed with everything you said, esp. the playing down some elements while playing up other elements, regardless of whichever takes a greater chunk of the movie’s screen time.
Phillip: I didn’t think of it before, but they are DEFINITELY copying Iron Man’s formula….which is why they started the original trailer with a womanizing hero who would rather joke around than talk seriously with business-driven female.
Victor & Mason: I always knew you guys were the same person, i just haven’t been able to prove it until now.
Tom: Chills is a good way to describe it………i just hope they can actually pack great stuff around it, or it’ll just end up sucking like Sucker punch
So what’s the final consensus? I think if you’re a true Green Lantern fan from the comic books, this movie still came off okay. If you had no idea who Hal Jordan was before going in, and could suspend belief, you were thrilled (CG Suit nonwithstanding). I, for one, dug it big time.