Martin Campbell's Green Lantern gets a shoddy, choppy, awkward trailer.

Go here for a high-quality HD version. That was shockingly bad. I don't just mean that the tone was juvenile, the acting overly broad, and the action relatively earth-bound. I mean that this is one of the worst-edited trailers I've seen from a major release in years. The only bits of genuine visual 'wow' is at 1:25, as we see a glimpse of Oa with a token cameo by (I assume) Sinestro. The whole thing feels disjointed and choppy, without any real flow or narrative logic. Hell, for people not familiar with the mythology, the clip is pretty darn confusing to boot. It would be one thing if this were a brief teaser that highlighted the visual 'money shots'. But this is a full 2.5 minute trailer that's mostly set on Earth, and there's not even a token attempt to explain the universe or any of the characters. The effects seem okay, and even the much-derided CGI costume looks okay to me. The action seems a bit larger than Thor, for whatever that's worth. What's most striking about this initial tease is how generic it is. Yet another cocky arrogant young man is tempered by supernatural powers and the awesome responsibility that it brings, but he's secretly afraid of failing. Again, I believe in Martin Campbell. He made two of the very best James Bond films of all-time (Goldeneye and Casino Royale) as well as one of the finest superhero adventures ever (The Mask of Zorro). I'm just not sure how much I believe in Green Lantern. This one touches down on June 16th, 2011 (ironically the spot usually reserved for Batman pictures in 1992, 1995, 1997, and 2005).

Scott Mendelson