'Green Lantern' Get an Extended Four Minute Trailer

Marketing for the "Green Lantern" film due out this summer has been a bit of a stop and go process. The first images of the costume were revealed late last summer to mixed reactions. The First trailer appeared online in November and the reception wasn't much better. The footage being shown wasn't doing much to convince the fans that the character or his universe were being respected and it wasn't showing more mainstream viewers that this was anything different from any other super hero origin story. Well Warner Brothers have finally put something together worth getting excited about with online release of footage that premiered at WonderCon.

Finally this trailer gives a sense of the very thing that will set this film apart: scale. The thing about the Green Lantern is that more than any other A-list super hero, his stories are on a galactic scale. As part of what is essentially an interplanetary police force Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern deals with story-lines that go from one alien world to the next and taking on enemies that can destroy entire planets. All of the super hero films released so far have been earthbound, and actually rarely venture outside of one city. So this epic sense of scale should be the main draw for "Green Lantern," and with effects work finally wrapping up Warner Brothers is now able to show that sense of scale off.

The previously released trailer had put off many fans due to it's heavy focus on the more comedic aspects of Ryan Reynold's portrayal of Hal Jordan. While Jordan has always been cocky and that lends itself to certain comedy this all felt rather forced and out of place, the kinds of jokes that would make more sense for a light hearted character like the Flash (who Reynolds was interested in playing before being signed for this film.) While there's still a tiny bit of humor in the new trailer it feels much more organic to what's going on, so it sells much better. Reynolds himself isn't actually the main focus of the new footage, with Warner Brothers probably figuring we saw enough of him in the first trailer. Instead the focus is the Green Lantern Corps, it's size, scope and insanely wide variety of members. It's refreshing to see that the filmmakers didn't shy away from the fact that the Corps is made up entirely of aliens except for Jordan. And it's not just aliens as in humans with different skin tone (though there are one or two like that) but there are full on weird looking creatures and that again helps bring the sense of scope to the new footage.

There's a surprising amount of focus in the new footage put on Abin Sur, the alien who bestows Jordan with the Green Lantern ring (played by Kelsey Grammer in heavy make-up.) Much emphasis is put on how powerful he was, thanks to a mix of footage overlaid with a speech made by Mark Strong as Sinestro. There's footage of Abin Sur being knocked around very roughly by what is assumed to be the parasitic entity Parallax. There isn't a clear view of Parallax in the footage but the small pieces shown are consistent with the concept art that was leaked a few months back. Viewers are also treated to some new footage of Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) who seems to serve as Jordan's initial guide when he first arrives on the planet Oa where the Corps is based. Of course it's still expected that the larger and more intimidating Kilowog will still handle Jordan's training, but the footage didn't really get into that part of it.

As great as it is to finally see the otherworldly qualities of the film come to light there are a few things that are a little concerning. Towards the tail end of the footage there's an emphasis on establishing the villain Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard. Given the use of a more galactic scale villain like Parallax the use of Hammond as an antagonist is disappointingly small scale. Even though the origin of Hammond's mental powers has been tweaked so that it comes from exposure to Parallax rather than radiation from a meteor it still might come across as forced. The worry is that the film will start on Earth to introduce Hal and have him acquire the power ring, then move to Oa for his training but then after such grand off-world adventure he'll simply end up returning to Earth to fight a guy with a huge head. Hopefully Hammond will really only serve as a microcosm or a stepping stone towards a larger confrontation with Parallax, otherwise the climax might undo all of the epic scale established in the training of Hal.

While there are still some lingering concerns about "Green Lantern" the new footage is definitely a massive improvement over what has come before it. Warner Brothers marketing as admitted that part of the problem previously was that the grander scale footage simply wasn't ready when the first trailer was shown in November. Unable to show the interstellar scope of the film the first trailer felt earthbound and goofy, something that Warner Brothers seems to have learned their lesson from. With a good portion of the special effects now completed the film is undergoing a conversion to 3D for it's release on June 17th.