Review: Green Lantern

Rating: 5/10

Directed By: Martin Campbell
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins
Written By: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, Michael Goldenberg
Edited By: Stuart Baird
Music By: James Newton Howard
Produced and Distributed By: DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures

Budget: $200 million
Runtime: 114 minutes
Rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action"

A summer filled with so many films has to have a few disappointments, and Green Lantern may be that disappointment. It isn't bad, though critics say otherwise, but it isn't good either. The reasoning is simple enough: it's no different a superhero story than what audiences have been paying for since 2001, but every year this formula works less and less. Hence, our first look at a DC superhero not Batman or Superman is entertaining but not engrossing enough to hold up against what Marvel has to offer. --WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MID-LEVEL SPOILERS--

Movie Marketing II: Trailers

Continuing our conversation of how movies are marketing, we turn now to what people have the most contact with: movie trailers. A trailer is the truest form of visual adaptation. Where a product has a poster or albums have singles, motion pictures have theatrical trailers. Trailers, from original teasers to final TV spots, serve as tools of information for the majority of movie goers who do not research films themselves, giving trailers the power to make or break how audiences perceive a movie when they make that decision to buy the ticket. As a case study for this power, I'm going to examine the progression of trailers for the upcoming release Green Lantern.