The Green Lantern footage released at Wonder Con proved divisive on the SciFiNow team – someone praised it for being true to the comics and bucking the trend of simple origin story, while another deemed the look of it kind of silly and over-the-top, declaring that they have no plans to see it. With the general public, I anticipate that the response will be much the same. The subset of DC fans will engage with the idea that most of the Green Lantern Corps appear, but I’m sure there are many more people who will ask, ‘why does that chicken sound like Geoffrey Rush?’
It’s a risk because the story brings so much of the broader Lantern mythology into play, and, given how large-scale and far-out the property is compared to the more earthbound Batman or Spider-Man, it is in danger of putting audiences off with too much spacefaring and aliens in green uniforms. Green Lantern doesn’t look like the kind of film that reaches blockbuster status today.
Hopefully, people will look at the next trailer with an open mind – looking daft (and in an unrelated matter, being shit) hasn’t stopped Transformers from becoming one of the biggest box office hits of the past decade, so perhaps Green Lantern, with its bravely intergalactic storyline, will end up being as alluring to audiences as the on-screen heroes we already know and love. The struggle will be getting people to buy into the universe and its many colourful characters; I look forward to seeing if Warner can accomplish that.
