Tuesday, November 16, 2010

In Brightest Day...

Beware my wallpaper! No evil escape my site!
The new trailer for 2011's Green Lantern has been released. Directed by Martin Campbell and starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong and Peter Saarsgard, the film is about one of the most beloved comic book superheroes of all time, and comic book geeks/nerds everywhere have been holding their collective breaths for this one.

Oh, here's a link to the trailer http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/greenlantern/

It's way too early to make any judgements, but I will say what I thought of the trailer. As a DC Comics fan, I had to fight the instinct to love it 100%. What we've seen so far looks okay. Origin stories may seem logical and simple to tell, but they really are the hardest things to put on screen. You may get Batman Begins, or you could get Ghost Rider. There are so many factors at play.

Many fans were skeptical at first about the news that Ryan Reynolds would play Hal Jordan. After all, this was the leading go-to man for makers of modern-day romantic comedies. And this was also Deadpool, from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And we all know how that one turned out.

It's been said many times that the DC Comics superhero that Reynolds should be playing is Wally West aka The Flash. West was known for being as fast with the laughs as he was on his feet, and there is some resemblance between the comic book Wally and Reynolds. However, maybe, just maybe, Reynolds could make Hal work.

Four words about the trailer: so far, so good. Cautious optimism. The CGI work seems average at best, let's hope it's incomplete at this point. The more organic look of the battery, the suit and the planet Oa itself may divide some as well. Seeing it in motion however, it seems to pass muster. Abin Sur, Kilowog, Sinestro and Hector Hammond all actually look pretty good.

However, Lively is anything but. The one line she delivers in the trailer is painfully stiff. I'm not sure if that was the actress' interpretation of an authority figure as Carol Ferris is, but it didn't work for me. Lively is going to have to work harder than this to shed the Gossip Girl image, that's for sure.

However, when you consider the past DC Comics films that were based on characters other than Batman or Superman, it perhaps puts things into perspective. Catwoman. Jonah Hex. The Spirit. God forbid, Steel. This trailer alone is probably much much better than all those films combined as it is.

So, cautious optimism.

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