THE LATEST GREEN LANTERN TRAILER IS PURE MYTHOLOGY

I really liked the story about the kid. I showed the second trailer to my little brother (he's 7) and he just exploded. "WE HAVE TO SEE THAT!"

I'm a little bit of a GL fan, but more than anything I just love how huge this movie looks right now. As always, I hope it measures up.

Ya gotta admire WB for putting so much of the comic mythology onscreen in such an epic manner. Though, I still can't shake the Kingdom Of Heaven vibe this Reynolds starrer is giving off.

Has somebody found a decent non-crappy-Yahoo-video version of this? I had to stop it in the middle ...

Mask looks better. This may be the most true (for better or for worse) a comic book adaptation has been to its roots. Green Lantern is inherently cinematic, but ten years ago Parallax would have been a big black cloud without a face, and certainly wouldn't have had a name.

I'm excited.

Cool!  The first part of that trailer plays more like a prologue (a'la Fellowship of the Ring) than a piece of marketing.  But I like it!  You're right, Liz... this SHOULD'VE been the first teaser/trailer.  

Also... Art Decade, did you mean to say that it was giving off a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull vibe?  Or did you actually mean Kingdom of Heaven?  If so, EXPLAIN!  Because I have no idea how to connect GL to Kingdom of Heaven (other than Reynolds being overshadowed as the lead the way many thought Bloom was in KoH...)

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Please, don't remind me how much Galactus sucked.

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Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Though, I still can't shake the Kingdom Of Heaven vibe this Reynolds starrer is giving off.

???

Nifty trailer. Nice cliff notes version for the uneducated.

If this does well, expect to see THE LAST STARFIGHTER remake news.

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Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

Cool!  The first part of that trailer plays more like a prologue (a'la Fellowship of the Ring) than a piece of marketing.  But I like it!  You're right, Liz... this SHOULD'VE been the first teaser/trailer.  

 

Also... Art Decade, did you mean to say that it was giving off a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull vibe?  Or did you actually mean Kingdom of Heaven?  If so, EXPLAIN!  Because I have no idea how to connect GL to Kingdom of Heaven (other than Reynolds being overshadowed as the lead the way many thought Bloom was in KoH...)

I meant KoH. GL looks like an EPIC production but like KoH, it appears to be centered around a lead actor with little natural grit or gravitas. Reynolds was great in Buried so we'll see but I can't shake the feeling that we're gonna be served a fancy four course meal with a saltine as the main entree. 

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Originally Posted by Art Decade 

I meant KoH. GL looks like an EPIC production but like KoH, it appears to be centered around a lead actor with little natural grit or gravitas. Reynolds was great in Buried so we'll see but I can't shake the feeling that we're gonna be served a fancy four course meal with a saltine as the main entree. 

 

I think RR's got charisma to spare, and that puts him head & shoulders about Bloom. The Epicness won't swallow him up. I have faith. But I've always like Reynolds.

Oooh, I was kinda close!

Some of the effects still look kinda wonky, but this stuff is hitting me hard big time.  I am excited.

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Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 

I think RR's got charisma to spare, and that puts him head & shoulders about Bloom. The Epicness won't swallow him up. I have faith. But I've always like Reynolds.

Charisma is one thing, gravitas is another.

I'm with you on the faith bit. I wouldn't be surprised if RR brings it, I just haven't seen it in the trailers.

I'm sure the reason this wasn't the first trailer is because those shots weren't ready.

Art Decade, Well, for one...Orlando Bloom didn't have a...Power Ring!  Also, Since Green Lantern's are affected by the color yellow, doesn't Blake Lively's Blond Hair become a weakness that affects Hal's Green Lantern...Light?  Green Lantern Looks...Awe-Inspiring and Awesome!  The only negative for GL, is that there are...3 other Superhero films this summer.  

Boner.

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Originally Posted by duke fleed 

Art Decade, Well, for one...Orlando Bloom didn't have a...Power Ring!

Ha! Good point.

I can tell some people haven't seen KOH Director's Cut up in here.   We can only hope it can compare to that movie.

While the DC makes KoH a significantly better movie, it doesn't make Orlando Bloom a significantly better actor, which is the only point of comparison that's being made.

One thing that stands out to me from this teaser:  Parallax is apparently not the 'living embodiment of fear' that it is in the comics, but rather some other entity

And there's a shot of what looks like the Sinestro Corps Central Power Battery.  I wouldn't think that they'd go so far as to try to introduce Qward in this movie, too.  But then, there are so many things that I never would have expected them to do their first time out with a Green Lantern movie that they're doing...

Son of a bitch. I think I nerdcame.

I know nothing about Green Lantern but I am desperate to see this flick, so consider it sold to a non-fan. 

Thank fuck the rapture didn't happen, I think I'd have been most pissed off about not seeing this without fire and brimstone and shit going on int eh background (although that would make for quite the immersive experience).

Faith in this movie = Jusitfiied!

This trailer shows why the wisecracks are necessary.  When you play this stuff too straight, it's way ridiculous.  The green energy of will?  The yellow power of fear?  Hey, I guess at least now we know the true origin of the term 'yella'.  What's the color of embarrassment?

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Originally Posted by Bailey 

This trailer shows why the wisecracks are necessary.  When you play this stuff too straight, it's way ridiculous.  The green energy of will?  The yellow power of fear?  Hey, I guess at least now we know the true origin of the term 'yella'.  What's the color of embarrassment?

I was thinking the same thing. There's that saying that comedy is either serious stuff treated as silly, or silly stuff treated as serious, and this seems hilarious in that second way, although unintentionally.

Iron Man did it right, as did Thor, remembering that ridiculous concepts are much stronger when they laugh at themselves a little. If Green Lantern is as earnest as this trailer it's gonna hurt.

I think that's why Reynolds was hired. The first act will be all quips and sarcasm and then the fireworks will come after.

I must say I'm jealous of all the DC fans out there, this looks incredibly faithful. I'm incredibly jealous...green with envy even.

I for one am a bit surprised at how the advertisements are leaning on the cosmic thing so much, since, having read the script...

Though I do understand the script has gone through many permutations.

It's funny how little the crappy, crappy visuals are affecting my desire to see this. I just love that they went balls-out here into crazy cosmic territory. I think filmmakers are forgetting how excited kids get about this kind of crazy comic-booky stuff, and have been aiming too much on the "realistic" side (I can't help thinking the attempts to make Thor look like an Earthbound rom-com might have hurt the box office a little).

As cool as some of the stuff surrounding this movie has been, there's still a bit of a stink on it from those early trailers, and, well, the crappy visuals. It'll be interesting to see if people can get past that.

That's a point worth considering. The earnestness with which the new teaser treats the mythology won't seem as ridiculous to kids.

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Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Charisma is one thing, gravitas is another.

Sure, but I'll keep the faith all the same. I think RR's got the chops to pull it off. He had a bit of that chutzpa in SMOKIN ACES and THE NINES (yet to see BURIED) that could be steered to "gravitas" levels.

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Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

I know nothing about Green Lantern but I am desperate to see this flick, so consider it sold to a non-fan. 

 

Thank fuck the rapture didn't happen, I think I'd have been most pissed off about not seeing this without fire and brimstone and shit going on int eh background (although that would make for quite the immersive experience).

Maybe Parallax IS the Rapture. SYNERGY!

And if yellow is fear, shouldn't green be... envy?

Is red the power of courage? Or anger? Or monthly female wrath? Or adultery (or is that the scarlet power)?
 

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Originally Posted by Bucho 

Iron Man did it right, as did Thor, remembering that ridiculous concepts are much stronger when they laugh at themselves a little. If Green Lantern is as earnest as this trailer it's gonna hurt.

I couldn't disagree more for Green Lantern.  Of all the comic book super heroes, Silver Age Green Lantern is the most heavily influenced by the Golden Age sci-fi pulp serials (particularly E.E. Smith's Lensman cycle, of which GL is basically a direct lift).  It NEEDS to be earnest, and straight faced, and strong jawed.  That's why so many people were fancasting Jon Hamm as Jordan in the early going.

Which is not to say that it should be as grimdark as Geoff Johns has been writing it.  It still has to be infused by optimism and wonder and the idea of Good triumphing over Evil..

It's a fine line, and some stuff that we've seen seems to be walking it pretty well (the look on Reynolds's face as they fly through Oa), but some of it seems to be teetering a bit too far into grim'n'gritty.

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Originally Posted by Fafhrd 

I couldn't disagree more for Green Lantern.  Of all the comic book super heroes, Silver Age Green Lantern is the most heavily influenced by the Golden Age sci-fi pulp serials (particularly E.E. Smith's Lensman cycle, of which GL is basically a direct lift).  It NEEDS to be earnest, and straight faced, and strong jawed.

 

Don't you think that although in the time those old serials were made they were intended to be straighter than straight that actually, through a modern lens, the lack of naturalism gives them a built in campness? That's a big part of the charm of that pulp stuff to me - the exaggerated stagey performance and the overblown masculinity - and it goes for both books and cinema.

Or to put it another way, playing it straight in 1938 or '47 isn't the same as playing it straight in 2011. That's why I think if Reynolds plays it 2011 straight, like he seems to be, it won't be true to the spirit of The Green Lantern. And if the jokes are 2011 too, like the too-cute "there's water in the tap" line, it also feels wrong to me. Playing it 1940s straight, whether it's Reynolds or John Hamm, would be naturally comical in a great way, and that's what I feel like would work the best.

In comic form isn't Thor wildly over-serious and bombastic, with all the olde timey speech woven through it? That's the fun of it, but that stuff would just be pure silly blown up exponentially in scale onto the cinematic stage. Branagh and co were smart to recognise this and worked it to bring the spirit of that character to life in the new medium in the current day. They also had it easier because they had a character with built in anachronism they could spin the comic touches off of.

The Green Lantern guys (and all superhero filmmakers really) have the same challenge but without that head start - taking an inherently ridiculous premise that works within the limits of the page and making it cinema without the massive leap in scale overemphasising that silliness. That's where the art in making these types of movies lies, and the nuances involved in that challenge are a big part of why we see such slim pickins when we go looking for genuinely great superhero films.

And to be fair and clear, I'm always trying to hold tight to my lowered expectations for movies like this so that if they're good they blow my socks off even more. As a fan it's absolutely the best way to go into these films expecting them to shit the bed. And to be at least a little positive, I dig the way he says the oath a lot. The trailers at least finish strongly because of that.