An abridged cut of the “Green Lantern” footage that went over BIG yesterday at Wondercon has hit the web:

Alright, I’m A LOT closer to “sold” now.

No, it doesn’t “solve” all of the issues people were having with this – Reynolds still seems a little A.) young and B.) “flip” to be playing Hal Jordan, and the while the suit keeps looking better the mask still looks out of place and cheesy (notice Tomar-Re, aka “ChickenFish-Man,” handwaving an excuse for him to not wear it most of the time.) But for the most part… yeah, this is looking MUCH more promising now, at least visually.

If nothing else, GL fans have to dig seeing that massive gathering of wacky aliens in their matching uniforms (shots like all the business on Oa here I sort of what I was hoping to get in the “Trek” reboot, actually…); and I stand by my affection for how retro-scifi the stuff with the inflated-brain mad scientist and the giant monster (Parallax?) tearing up Coast City looks.

The early trailers were underwhelming because (supposedly) more than HALF of the film is “animated” to one degree or another, and all they initially had to work with were mostly Earthbound scenes; giving the impression of nothing so much as “Younger Iron Man Goes To Space.” THIS, on the other hand, shows off the bigger-picture: That it’s a huge, cosmic, outer-space scifi epic – “Star Wars,” but with a superhero angle.

So… why haven’t you heard all that much about it, if at all? Well…

…Here’s the basic plot outline: It’s a mash-up of ancient Greek mythology – primarily Theseus (the guy who killed The Minotaur) and The Titanomachy, i.e. the pre-humanity war between the Olympian Gods and their predecessors, The Titans. In this variation, in addition to slaying man-bulls, Theseus is tasked by Zeus etc. to lead your basic D&D campaign team (Frieda Pinto as a priestess, Stephen Dorf as a slave) to find a Magic MacGuffin before the Titan leader Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) can use it to set his imprisoned brothers free.

In other words: It sounds A LOT like the remake of “Clash of The Titans” – which everyone saw but nobody was really over-the-moon about. So, it was probably for the best that they’ve held back on the media-blitz until right about now: A set of posters hit Fandango tonight, and tommorrow it’s having a big “debut” panel at Wondercon; so a trailer will likely soon be in the offing. Until then, here’s the trailer to “The Fall” – which you should really check out.

…but, in all seriousness, go see “Insidious.” Not perfect, but REALLY impressive for something shot for only $800,000. Plus, it’s heart is in the right place and it’s proof that gore-free PG-13 horror doesn’t have to be budgetary crutch – if nothing else, it’s a PERFECT “scary-movie” that you could probably take kids to (I’d say 10 and up, your mileage may vary.)

FWIW, it’s basically a Haunted House movie where the “house” part is kind-of incidental – Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are a couple whose son’s coma has turned him into some kind of ghost-attracting antenna; so they can’t just pick up and leave to solve the problem.

Storywise, if you’ve seen a ghosts-in-the-house movie, particularly “Poltergeist,” you know where this is going, but the fun (for me anyway) is in the execution. James Wan and Leigh Wannell remind us WHY the original “Saw” was so effective in early “spooky noises” sections, but when it’s time to make with the ghosts they also let slip a surprising sentimentality for ultra-oldschool “kiddie” spook-house imagery – the 3rd act looks like an attempt to adapt a local High School’s annual charity “Haunted House” into a movie. That’s probably going to be the “checking out” point for a lot of people, but I dug it.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Intermission: “Captain America” trailer breakdown.

Twitter has EXPLODED with Los Angeles area film geeks gushing over “Attack the Block,” the British ghetto-kids versus aliens actioner that blew up at SXSW. Here’s the trailer, in case you missed it before:

The movie-nerd buzz for this is now SO enthusiastic that you can actually FEEL Michael Bay’s America gearing up to completely ignore it if and when it’s released ;(

Leonard Nimoy will be voicing one of the robots in “Transformers: Dark of The Moon.” In addition to having previously voiced Galvatron in the original animated movie and being a living, breathing fanboy-reference in and of himself; Nimoy is Michael Bay’s cousin and previously worked with writers Orci and Kurtzman on the “Star Trek” reboot. So… about four or five levels of reference/in-joke/shout-out casting right here.

In any case, he’s voicing “Sentinel Prime,” the bearded “old man” Autobot you saw in the TF3 teaser trailer. Supposedly he’s Optimus’ “father” (how does that work?) in this version, and his vehicle form is a firetruck. I didn’t know they made pimped-out, douche-appeal “custom” firetrucks; though I’m sure Bay and company will find a way. I’m hoping that Optimus – in a hugely-unlikely coincidence – stumbles on him living in a cave, where he explains that he’s actually from an alternate universe and that his being here is what’s responsible for ALL of the hugely-unlikely coincidences, gigantic plot-holes and generally shitty writing up to this point…

(This gets a little loooooong, so hit the jump if you want to read it)
…So! The new guy in charge of Warner Bros. said that he wants a “Justice League” movie, surprising nobody, and that the studio firmly intends to keep making “Batman” movies even after the current Christopher Nolan-helmed version of the franchise ends next year – ALSO not a huge surprise.

Everyone knew that Team nolan was zealously opposed to broader DC-Universe weirdness seeping into their hyper-realistic vision of Batman (it’s widely believed that Nolan’s extreme displeasure at having “another” Batman conflicting with “his” helped scuttle George Miller’s in-production “JLA: Mortal” movie back 2007); but everyone also knew that Warners/DC was going to be champing at the bit to pull the trigger on “Justice League” as Marvel Studios “Avengers” got closer to reality; and with “Green Lantern” and a new “Superman” both on the way people were connecting the logical dots…

…and then Zack Snyder, director of the soon-to-lens “Superman” movie, “clarified” that despite the timing, HIS “Man of Steel” was still being set up as it’s own seperate thing a’la Nolan’s Batman – if Superman appears in “League,” he’ll be a different guy. Confused? Let me throw some light educated-conjecture on it for you…

Here’s the #1, all-important, explains-it-all Rosetta Stone for understanding EVERY SINGLE DAMN THING you will hear or read the studio, filmmakers and P.R. people say about “Superman” from now until the day it comes out: WARNER BROS. IS ONLY MAKING *THIS* MOVIE BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO.

That’s not to say that they don’t want to make Superman movies EVER – though it’s been obvious for more than a little while that the folks in charge of the WB greenlight don’t really have a burning desire to be in the superhero business – but the reason they’re making this one right now, with a script that was still being finished at the time it was announced (and is allegedly still being “worked on) and with a presuambly expensive fanboy-proof-shield in the form of Christopher Nolan’s “producer” credit is because they are staring down the barrel of a gun: If they don’t make a “Superman” movie NOW, they risk losing a shit-ton of money in the near future. (This is also probably why Snyder, well-regarded among the Warner suits for his skill at bringing genre films under budget and on an efficient schedule, got the offer.)

Short Version: For the last few DECADES, Warners/DC has been in a legendarily-contentious ongoing legal battle with lawyers representing the estates of Seigel and Schuster, the original creators of Superman, over the rights to both the character himself and also various portions of the mythos (re: Lois Lane, Daily Planet, Krypton, etc.) Though Warners has recently set up a legal stalling-tactic, right now they’re playing defense: Back in 2009, it was determined that WB had to get a Superman movie into production by this year (2011) or they’d owe subsantial fees to the creators’ estates – hence their urgent desire to get this thing going. And even then, in 2013 they stand to lose between half and ALL rights to the character, and will have to renegotiate the whole bloody thing.

In other words, they’re rushing to make “Superman” because they have no choice, and they’re not going to tie it in to anything else because it’s still “up in the air” as to how much (if any) of him they’ll still be able to use afterwards. Notice you aren’t hearing about any of the actors signing on for the new movie singing any contracts for sequels, for example…

Meanwhile, have you noticed that NO ONE on either the fan or filmmaker side is even raising the issue of the “Green Lantern” movie? Granted, that’s mostly an indicator of how far the lackluster trailer and promotion has blown it off the pop-culture radar… but y’know what’s interesting? “Lantern” was supposed to be WB’s first toe-dip into continuity-land back before they (briefly, it would seem) backed-off from that course: A cameo by a major non-GL DC character got cut from the script just prior to shooting.