Movies

'Green Lantern' And 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II' Footage Screened At CinemaCon

By Peter Sciretta

The two highlights of Warner Bros' big presentation at CinemaCon was seeing 10-minutes of footage from Green Lantern and an extended movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. Read my thoughts on both of these, after the jump.

Green Lantern: Everything I saw and heard about Green Lantern had been positive. That was, until the movie trailer was released. Fans around the nation had a deathly negative reaction to the computer generated suit and mask and the majority of the visual effects shots. It seemed obvious to me that Warner Bros rushed a trailer out when the visual effects weren't close to ready. We've since heard rumors of massive problems inserting a realistic-looking computer generated mask on Hal Jordan's head, and that the computer effects crew would be working until the very last minute to finish the film. Over the last few months, our excitement for the movie dissipated.

Today we screened four scenes from the film, a total of 10-minutes of footage. Here is what was screened:

  • Abin-Sur is attacked by the Parallax while piloting his spaceship. He escapes in a pod, and crash lands on Earth. Hal Jordan saves him and Abin-Sur gives Jordan his ring.
  • Hal Jordan recites the Green Lantern oath to the power battery and is transported to Oa.
  • On Oah, Green Lantern talks to Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush)
  • Sinestro addressed a gathering of thousands of members from Green Lantern Corps down in the core of Oa.

    • I'm pretty sure judging from the scenes selected that this is the same footage that will be screened this weekend at WonderCon in San Francisco. Here are my observations:

  • While still unfinished, the visual effects look a lot better than the released trailer. From the other alien creatures on Oah to the Green Lantern suit, everything looked much improved.
  • The Green Lantern suit looks like a living entity — the detail is amazing. I finally understand why they went with a completely computer generated performance captured suit.
  • I can't believe how much detail went into the sequence on Oah with all of the Green Lantern corps members. I won't ruin which aliens I spotted in this sequence but I'm sure fans will be pleased.
  • The Abin-Sur sequence was pretty damn cool. I especially dug the tech of his spaceship.
  • It should be noted that Warner Bros is only showing us the sequences they know will get the best reactions. We didn't see much of Blake Lively as Carol Ferris or Green Lantern with his mask on (both of which we're worried might be troubled areas of the film) but what we did see has restored my interest in this film adaptation.

    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II: We were shown a 4 minute extended trailer in 2D featuring unfinished clips from the final installment. We saw glimpses of the Battle of Hogwarts, the Gringotts bank heist, and Harry's confrontation with Voldermort in the forest. Other footage is too spoiler-heavy to discuss or mention. Some of the Hogwarts footage gave me chills. Even the Gringotts sequence looked a lot cooler and more exciting than I imagined it would be. It definitely seems like they packed a lot of action in this last installment.

    I recorded a Video Blog with Steve from Collider and Alex from FirstShowing. Watch it now below:

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