Ryan Reynolds' Final CGI Green Lantern Costume Revealed, Plus International Posters and Kilowog Gets a Voice
Posted 04.13.11 by BrentJS
If you have ever frequented a fan-centric movie site, you'll find that the comic book movie fans ("fanboys" in the parlance) are extremely vocal when it comes to adaptations of their favorite characters. Some might call them "whiney," while others might just call them "critical," but they are definitely an opinionated bunch. Whenever there is a new actor announcement, poster, still image, video clip or trailer for a comic book movie, you can count on a percentage of the fans to decry it as a travesty and an insult to the legacy of the character, blah, blah, blah. Such is the case with DC Entertainment's latest superhero movie, Green Lantern, which has generated excitement among non-comic book aficionados—partially because of the casting of Ryan Reynolds as the lead character, Hal Jordan, but also because the movie will be at least partially set in space, with heavy sci-fi elements, including numerous alien lifeforms—but has been a lightning rod of controversy among the aforementioned fanboys.
One of the things about Green Lantern that the fanboys jumped on right away was the casting of Ryan Reynolds in the lead role. Despite the fact that he is a dead ringer for the way the character has been drawn for decades, the fear was that Reynolds' comedic side would dominate his performance of the character, who is cock-sure, but serious in the DC comic books on which the movie is based. This fear seemed to be founded when the first trailer debuted and it contained several comedic moments. At the recent WonderCon comic book and popular arts convention, Reynolds stated that "it's not a comedy", but that it had to have "some moments of levity" because of the strange circumstances Jordan finds himself in. He went on to say that the first trailer contained several comedic moments because the majority of the visual effects were not ready to be shown and that they only had "15 minutes of useable footage" to "harvest the trailer out of."
Another point of contention to the fanboys has been the all-CGI costume that Reynolds "wears" when Hal Jordan turns into the Green Lantern (GL). The first image of the costume was ripped to shreds in fan forums and chat rooms—mainly because the all-green, electro-organic look of it differed so much from the black-white-and-green version Hal wears in the comics—and subsequent images didn't help to smooth things over with the fans because they were released before the CGI work was completed. As with the trailer, the response from Warner Bros. (WB) has been to say that the CGI work on Hal's costume and his ring's powers weren't at the end stage yet. Well, apparently they've reached that end stage now because WB recently released three new promotional images from the movie that show full-body shots of GL in stunning detail. Of particular note is the fact that Hal's ring-generated costume does not construct boots for him; instead, he appears to have an energy membrane over his feet as his toes are easily visible. As awesome as the final costume looks, GL's toes are sure to spark another round of fanboy ranting and raving.
In addition to the spiffy new "final CGI" promotional images of Reynolds in costume, two new international movie posters for Green Lantern's release in the Middle East have turned up online. While they don't offer much that's new to those who have been keeping up with Green Lantern movie news, they do look pretty cool because of the Persian script.
Finally, the rumor that Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile) might join Green Lantern as the voice of Kilowog, the alien Green Lantern who serves as a teacher and drill instructor for new Corps recruits, appears to have been true. According to THR, no offer had been made to Duncan at the time that the rumors first started, but that an official offer has now been made by WB and Duncan is in negotiations.
Green Lantern was written by Michael Green, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, and directed by Martin Campbell. Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Mark Strong, Temuera Morrison and Angela Bassett co-star.
Next Showing: Green Lantern opens June 17