Considering how negative much of the early buzz was towards the campaign Warner Bros. put together for “Green Lantern,” they’re finishing things up strong, and it seems like they’ve won over many of the most vocal early critics.
I’m a big fan of the full-length theatrical trailer for the film that was released recently, and what it did so well was start to explain the mythology of the Green Lantern universe, and now, with this new trailer that will be playing exclusively in 3D this weekend in front of “Pirates Of The Caribbean,” they have stepped it up even more. This is actually sort of jaw-dropping for me, the sort of thing I never would have imagined seeing a studio cut. This is pure 100% from the tap DC, mainlined at a scale of $100s of millions of dollars of studio state-of-the-art, and there’s nothing halfway about it. This is the DC nerd dream, as big a bet as the studio’s ever made on this material, and based on this, they’re going all-in.
The idea of cutting a special trailer that only plays in 3D is a new one, and this weekend there’s both this and “Transformers” out there. It’s a good idea, and especially if you’re willing to push it. This trailer is all about motion, and if the movie is as fluid as this, it’ll be a very different Martin Campbell that we’re seeing. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around each of the different elements in play here — the writing team behind it, including the contributions of Geoff Johns as DC’s Man With The Plan, Campbell with his franchise-starter reputation thanks to Bond, Ryan Reynolds, Greg Berlanti, Donald De Line — it’s such a hard to define collision of personalities and perspectives that maybe that’s what it took to finally arrive at whatever it is we’re seeing in these trailers.
I’m a believer. My boys are out of their minds to see it. More importantly, when I show these trailers to the women in my house, like my comics-hating wife and her sister, they are intrigued and both tell me that they were drawn in by the story. This is all-new to them, and they’re on the hook. All the movie has to do now is be good, and they’re fans. They’re in. They want to see how this all makes sense.
Well-played on this one, Warner.
“Green Lantern” opens in 3D and IMAX and everywhere on June 17, 2011.