The new (and first) trailer for DC's Green Lantern movie has been released. I have mixed reactions to it. First off, I really love most of the space stuff and mythology included in the trailer. Kilowog, Sinestro and the other various Corps members look incredible. Abin Sur, wow. I can't wait for those scenes on Oa.
I am not a huge fan of Blake Lively's first spoken dialogue. I heard another blog refer to it as robotic... and yes, it so is. I have never seen Gossip Girl, but I loved Blake in The Town and after seeing that movie I had high hopes for her in this. But that "This test today, it's important," wow, just bad. And actually, now that I think about it, it may be worse than I feared. It may be that the writing is just bad. Who speaks like that? Maybe Yoda, but not any real people. "This coffee I'm drinking, it's hot." Just odd. But there is a scene later in the trailer where she is reassuring Hal and says "You have the ability to overcome fear," and it comes off as much more natural and well done. So let's hope that first bit of dialogue was just an unfortunate misstep.
Ryan Reynolds looks great. But to me, much more like Kyle Rayner than Hal Jordan. That scene in the alley way brought back memories of Ganthet giving Kyle the ring for the first time and made me wonder if they were trying to work in some of Kyle's origin into the movie. I am 99% sure they are not, it is just a coincidence. Reynolds voice work and facial expressions are just spot on, he can play the serious, driven hero just as well as he can pull off the lighthearted quippy banter. I am sure he will be terrific in the role. And what a coup for Warner Bros. and DC. The trailer hits with the opening of the second to last Harry Potter movie and also the same week Reynolds is named People's sexist man alive.
The other thing that kind of scares me, is Hal's costume. At times it seems... for lack of a better word... off. The mask does not work. Not sure what they need to do to fix it, but clearly something. It looks like he has green paint on his face. They need to add some weight or substance to it. Add some effect to make it clear it is generated by the ring and is in fact a construct. The scene at the end with him changing into the costume, it is also odd. It seems like they digitally made the costume and his body like millimeters too small. I can't point to anything specific, his body just looks slightly unnatural. But in other scenes, like where he is saving the child, it looks fine... good even.
Finally, the flying. I am not a big fan of the jittery flying that is on display in one of the last shots of the trailer. There is no air in space, he is not experiencing turbulence. I am hoping this is just a way to establish is newness with the ring and over time he will become more experienced and therefore steady as he flies, but I am not a fan so far. Other shots, like Salaak lifting off and turning around are just spectacular. BTW, one other thought I had about the shaky flying was that maybe it was done to add a visual clue that he was flying or even flying fast since the character does not have a cape. But really, there are other ways of giving visual clues that a character is flying fast in space, just look at all the space/sci-fi movies that are out there. Rarely do you see space ships tossing and turning, other effects are used to give the illusion of speed, and they work much better.
So that is it. My initial thoughts on the new trailer. Like it, and as I put on Facebook, color me a green shade of optimistic ;-) If you have not seen it, here is it. Enjoy! (Oh, and to really enjoy it, make it full screen and upscale it to 720p :-) )
