The trailer for the film adaptation of the Green Lantern was recently released, we’ve now had some time to digest the footage and have a think about how things are shaping up so far. I’m excited about the film coming out, being a long time Green Lantern reader I’ve followed Hal Jordan on many of his stories from the destruction of Coast City in the death of Superman story line, on his path as Parallax to his seemingly ultimate fate in the Justice League cross over ‘The Final Night’. Following that I read the Kyle Raynor Green Lantern series and more recently have been enjoying the re-launch of Hal Jordan beginning in ‘Rebirth’ and then continuing in the current ongoing series.
The history of Green Lantern contains many compelling stories including thematic tales of courage, willpower, loss, betrayal, and camaraderie. Like all comic book adaptations there is a huge amount of source material from which to draw upon. During comic-con earlier this year Ryan Reynolds made the comment that this film is largely utilising material in the secret origin story arc from the current series. This arc essentially revisited the origin story of Hal Jordan, while slightly tweaking or expanding upon it to bring it up date in the context of current events in the DC Universe.
My initial reaction to the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan was mixed, I’d always thought he’d make a great Barry Allen for a Flash movie with possibly Bradley Cooper playing Hal Jordan in Green Lantern. It would have been great if they could then build towards a crossover film similar to the ‘Brave and the Bold’ stories in the Flash/Green Lantern cross over comics.
I’ve definitely warmed to the idea of Reynolds as Hal, overall I think he’s a great actor and a good choice. Blake Lively as Carol Ferris I still have concerns about, she provided a good performance in ‘The Town’ this year, though with little screen time it didn’t give her a lot of opportunity to show her talents.
Moving on to the new trailer, the opening few seconds shows us a fairly familiar performance from Reynolds with the comedic dialogue, and Lively’s delivery of some early dialogue feels a little stilted. Quickly moving along the glimpses of Hal finding the crash site evokes emotion and the character Abin Sur looks fantastic.
It appears that the film isn’t looking to limit the scope of the background to the Green Lantern corps in any way, they could have limited the story to taking place solely on earth and neglected the intergalactic nature of the story however in the trailer we see Hal flying through space, we see the plant Oa, the power battery, as well as many other Green Lantern’s including Sinestro and for a split second Kilowog.
The powers granted to Hal by the ring certainly seem in line with the source material as well, we see the green fist for a moment as well as the green shield around Hal while in space, and the suit itself which is entirely computer generated covers Hal’s body in a split-second. This brings me to another concern about how the suit might look over the course of the film. The trailer reveals some shots where the suit looks perfect, however in other shots it’s not so good particularly in the last few moments of the trailer. I’m hopeful that not all of the effects shots in the trailer are completed and that the final film will see things looking consistently good all the way through.
The score for the trailer took a few viewings to start to resonate a bit more but now it feels quite effective at capturing the grand nature of the character and the emotive challenges he’ll face. For movie viewers that aren’t familiar with the character, he is probably a little obscure so the film has a view challenges in terms of drawing in people who aren’t aware of the character, though some might say Iron Man was in a similar position in terms of the general movie going audience and you might say that turned out pretty well.
Overall I was initially a little cautious about being too enthusiastic about the trailer but after a few more viewings I’m completely onboard for this film, and the reveals in the trailer go a long way to setting up how great an adaption of the origin story this film has the ability to become.
What about other Green Lantern fans out there? Did the trailer heighten or dampen your enthusiasm for the film? Anyone watched the trailer that knows nothing about the character? Let us know your impressions below.
