Alright, I'll be the first to admit it, if I see a trailer and it is edited well, I'm, more often times than not, in. And, conversely, no matter how well-reviewed a film is, if the trailer is garbage I avoid it like the plague. This may be a terrible habit that speaks to my lack of substance as a fan of film, and certainly it has failed me many times, as a criteria for watching or neglecting films, but sometimes it works, and when it does, I feel perversely rewarded, like I knew something everyone else didn't.
So, this is where the upcoming film adaptation of Green Lantern comes into play. A couple months back, I saw the initial trailer released for the film, and personally, along with many others I later found, absolutely hated it. To me, it portrayed the film, one that tells one of the more serious comic book origins, as goofy and more of a, dare I say it, that hated word that suckles at the teat of respectable comedies and action films alike, romp. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NWGl_A3b60&playnext=1&list=PL1173CA5ECD71F144
But then, last night, before viewing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 I saw this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prCwMWnZZ24
...and, personally, was blown away. I don't know if it was the music, the fantastic narration by Geoffrey Rush, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, or just the generally more serious, non-goof-ass, tone of it, but it floored me, and now, I can not wait until June seventeenth.
And that, my friends is the power of editing. It may have saved this film from utter disaster, or simply earned it one more ticket bought. Either way, I can't help but sit back and wonder how easily the tone of a film can be changed through editing, even if it is a two-and-a-half-minute montage of scenes. Wow.
