I Guess I Just Don’t Get It

It’s widely accepted that the first Green Lantern trailer was disappointing. There’s a definite “Iron Man” feel to it, with Hal Jordan’s portrayal seeming less like the comics and more like… well, every other Ryan Reynolds character. I didn’t like it, though for some reason, many of my friends did. Well, this weekend at WonderCon, Warner Bros. showed off some new footage. First of all, the tone and story of the movie come across much better than in the first trailer. With so much of the movie being CGI, WB didn’t have much to work with for the first trailer, and had to use a lot of the Earth scenes. However, the thought that this trailer “makes everything better” is kind of pointless. All those stupid scenes from the first trailer are still in the movie, and we don’t know which “version” will have the majority of the screen time. For all we know, this is the entirety of the Oa footage, and the rest of the film is Ryan Reynolds making dick jokes. Visually, I just don’t like it. There’s entirely too much CGI; the whole movie just looks artificial. Obviously, a franchise like Green Lantern will require a large amount of special effects, but it still has to look at least remotely believable. The primary full-CGI characters like Kilowog and Tomar-Re look pretty good on their own, but as soon as you see them interacting with Ryan Reynold’s floating head, the effect is lost. Hal Jordan looks like crap. Abin Sur looks like crap. Sinestro looks like crap. All the “background” Lanterns look very crap-ish. Hector Hammond actually looks pretty good, since that’s actual makeup instead of CGI. And what the hell is this? A character whose powers are defined only by his imagination and his willpower, who can make literally anything a reality, from dinosaurs to Gurren-freaking-Lagann: How does he make use of his powers? He creates a BFG. Well, how else are you supposed to sell crappy toys to kids. At this point, the movie character is an amalgamation of all four Earth-based Lanterns; Hal Jordan’s origin, Kyle Rayner’s ugly costume, Guy Gardner’s attitude and John Stewart’s complete lack of creativity. Yet despite all these issues, everybody is raving about how awesome the movie is going to be. Even those who were most against it after the first trailer are already lining up to be the first to see the movie when it comes out. Honestly, I’m even less interested in this move now than I was before. I guess I just don’t get it....