Monday 4 April 2011

New 'Green Lantern' Footage Takes Us to a Galaxy Far, Far Away


Over the last few days in San Francisco in the US there's been a big film convention happening called WonderCon. This is where many of this year's big budget films have been showcasing exclusive footage to audiences and industry members in order to generate some buzz in the run up to their respective release dates. Some of the films to have previewed some footage at this convention include Star Trek (2009) director J.J. Abram's Super 8 and Iron Man 1 & 2 director Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Alien's. Unfortunately for us, most the footage from these, and other films at the convention hasn't been released to the general public with the exception of a new extended trailer for the upcoming Green Lantern film.



For your viewing pleasure I present to you the Green Lantern WonderCon footage:



And here is the official synopsis via Apple Trailers:

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan. Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax...he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.

Film studios generally do not release footage from film conventions to the public but in this situation Warner Bros. decide to take the plunge and put this footage out for the whole world to see. What may have forced their hand would've been that due to the special effects heavy nature of the film, only one trailer along with a few character posters here and there have been released so far. For a big budget US summer blockbuster that's being released in less than 2 and a half months time this is certainly very unusual. Add to that the fact that the first trailer, although it was pretty good, looked unbelievably cheesy in certain parts and wasn't received too well by audiences in the US and Warner Bros. might have been starting to worry that they might be sitting with a potential box office bomb on their hands. Fortunately for them this footage looks way better than the first trailer and has pushed Green Lantern a few notches up my must see list of films for this winter. From this footage you can now certainly feel the epic scale of the film, thanks in no small part to the score by James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight) and although the CGI isn't nearly complete yet, you can already tell that it's going to look awesome on the big screen, especially in 3D. For comparison's sake, check out the first trailer:




Less epic than the first one huh? Yeah I thought so too.

One potential problem that this film might encounter is that it looks a bit too sci-fi-ish (is that even a word?) for your average movie watching Joe & Jane Soap, hence the so far so lame attempts at humour which are an obvious strategy to get more bums on seats to see this film. But with the current Sexiest Man Alive, Ryan Reynolds, as the lead actor that shouldn't be a problem. Hell, maybe they should use that title from now on in every Green Lantern poster.

Green Lantern will be out in cinemas on June 24 2011 and will available in 3D in select venues. 

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