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So apparently everyone says it sucks, which is hugely dissapointing because I love the mythology. I'm seeing it today and I'm going in with low expectations, but I hope it isn't awful.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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Green Lantern has a few problems the studio should have thought of. They made a superhero movie with a hero that not a lot of people outside of the comic world have even heard about. They released it sandwiched between some even bigger movies. X-Men and Super 8 before, and Cars 2 / Transformers 3 after. X-men, Cars, and Transformers are already proven money makers families will go see, and Super 8 is a Abrahms/Speilberg film.
So that is the first problem. The second is the weak script. From what I have read the villain isn't really present until the end of the film, and was more of an afterthought. I realize that this is the first GL movie so they have to establish an origin story, but they could have done a better job.
It seems the film really only has two things going for it: the special effects and Ryan Reynold's abs. Neither of those really impress me anymore, so I'll probably just rent it from Red Box for $1 or go see it in the dollar cinemas.
Iron Man did a wonderful job of making a movie with a lesser known super hero. It made a ton of money, it was enjoyable, and it actually had a plot. Well, I guess it also had Robert Downey Jr. so that had something to do with it.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
I thin-sliced the movie. Blatantly. I didn't really think "this movie is going to suck" but whenever I watched the previews, the actor's tone and his facial expressions and the general visuals, I just .. felt like this was a movie I should not go see.
I guess I should look at the reviews, huh.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
From what I've been reading, it sounds like Renolds is actually the best part of the movie. The plot is the killer. Kinda sucks because the lore in GL is fantastic.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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The villian is present throughout the film, just in little bits seeing as its power is so immense that you cant explain newbie Hal Jordan surviving more than one altercation with it. Im not an expert on the GLC lore but I was impressed with what they did pack in, and in an average audience member comprehensible manner to boot. My favorite was a tiny little hint to one the largest realizations from Blackest Night, its just one line but it teases at the GL canon truth of the universe. Hal's lantern kinda annoyed me, but it looks more scifi for the other people so whatever. And they kept talking about how no one in the corp had ever interacted with a human before but they were all really opinionated on humans a bit antagonistic about it, and as you have seen in the previews Hal produces a saber and Sinestro (who had only just then met his first human) remarks about how human that is.
The overall plot could have been much better, but they had to make room for the Hal Jordan side of the movie, i.e. boring played out drama that weve seen already but with a fancy suit sometimes. They didnt leave room to exploit Oa or any other cool non-Earth settings to thier fullest extent, that would have really help keep my interest. I really feel like they wrote certain lines for Ryan Reynolds and his typecast Van Wilder character rather than make Reynolds more like Hal Jordan. Some of the characters relationships felt very manufactured and flat, especially one that is important to a character represented who has a much larger place in the GL universe.
I liked it, and I am a discering comic book nerd. Oh yeah, the scientist is not the big bad in case you thought that would make for a lame villian.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Oh good grief. JackBlack at his blobbiest&slobbiest would have made a better HalJordan/GreenLantern than RyanRenolds at his most buff. And everything about the production went downhill from there.
posted
Well I just saw it. It wasn't the worst comic book movie ever made, but I feel like the movie should have began right after the scene at the end of the credits. Once you see it, you'll know what I mean.
This movie was too slow, filled with WAY too much personal angst and girl problems. I mean, who cares?
Also, there wasn't nearly enough space, or other green lanterns. Very dissapointing. I can't believe they spent 300 million dollars on it.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
I saw it. Reynolds was fine (in every sense of the word), the plot was nonsensical and the dialogue was mostly weak.
I was mostly surprised by the extensive, loving, cheesecake shots of Ryan Reynolds. I feel uncomfortably familiar with his topography now.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I was gonna dissect it, but the Topless Robot blog did a much better job. (Warning: language)
quote:Abin Sur: Hal Jordan. The ring has chosen you because you are fearless. (1 minute earlier) Hal Jordan: I'm afraid of being in this crazy green energy ball! (10 minutes earlier) Hal Jordan: I'm afraid of dying in a test plane like my dad! (15 minutes after getting the ring) Hal Jordan: I'm afraid of intimacy! (25 minutes later) Hal Jordan: I'm afraid of being a Green Lantern! (20 minutes later) Hal Jordan: I'm afraid I suck! Blake Lively: You do suck. Hard.
My call: It was somewhere around the level of the 1st Fantastic Four movie for me. Very light on the plot, heavy on the exposition, way too heavy on the CGI. had no problem with Reynolds as GL but would have liked to have either seen them make this darker and more realistic or more light-hearted and family-friendly. Not a bad way to spend two hours, but no reason to ever see it again.
UNLESS... a few places online today have mentioned that some much-needed sequences -- more development between the main characters, longer training session, etc -- were cut by the studio. Come out with a director's cut that's at least half as good as the last GL cartoon and I'll think about it.
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posted
<delurk> Chris, your comparison to the first FF movie is right where I'd put it. I may have enjoyed GL a bit more than you because I have little to no knowledge of the character outside of a few scraps I remember from an old cartoon. </delurk>
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I can agree with the FF comparison. Hopefully the sequel (if there ever is one) will fix all the issues. It seemed like this one suffered from Origin Story Syndrome, where a lot of the film is just spent setting up the hero, which in all honestly I find incredibly boring.
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I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this movie but it just didn't work for me. I found all the mythology very interesting but the info-dump wasn't very well-handled. I imagine its hard to shove all those years of comics and origin story into two hours, but it may have helped if they'd cut the obligatory, yet useless, best friend and love interest.
And considering the massive amounts of CGI, it might helped if they had just decided to make the first movie entirely about the alien/space aspect of being a Green Lantern. It felt disorienting to jump back from an alien planet to an urban earth setting and then back to aliens again. The alien storyline made the earth drama look bland while the earth setting made the alien drama look silly.
I will say that the movie makes me want to read the comics. Anyone have a suggestion for a good place to start?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Im no GL expert but I really enjoyed the Blackest Night and Brightest Day series, in that order by the way. If you dont recognize anyone you can just wikipedia them and then resume enjoying a well crafted story using all of the DC universe. Its even being left completely alone in the DC reboot, so you can be more comfortable in reading something that isnt being immediatly rewritten. Also there is alot of interesting books out lately about the red/orange/indigo/blue/etc. corps, it certainly makes for an immersive gallery of characters.
Just for fun, and for anyone who doesnt know much about the whole Green Lantern mythos.
Alan Scott: first GL comic, hes magic and has a lantern that is green. They dont really care that he still exists even after they revamped the GL brand way back when, and he is generally ignored. Even by comics standards his costume is pretty bad as well.
Hal Jordan: is not, I repeat is not Van Wilder. Everything else is more or less correct in the movie, just remove everything Ryan Reynolds about him.
Guy Gardner: Do you remember Flash Thompson from the Spiderman cartoon? big, dumb and full of bravado jock. Yeah, Gardner is like Thompson with a power ring.
John Stewart: Former Marine, sniper, not one for small talk, architect and funny news show host. Generally the best IMO.
Kyle Rayner: The most plausible choice to recieve a power ring that can construct anything your mind can imagine, a cartoonist. Hes the goofy one of the bunch and his constructs are usually more entertaining than most. Interestingly enough he is not vulnerable to the yellow light of fear (as all other GL's are) because as an out of work artist he faced his worst fear of rejection time and time again while looking for jobs.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
We've got the Blackest Night/Brightest Day trades at my bookstore so I'll check those out. Will it be a problem if I'm not familiar with the DC Universe? I've always been more of a Marvel girl.
And there was a Green Lantern named John Stewart who worked as a news show host? Really?! Haha.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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If you aren't familiar with the DC Universe, I cannot recommend a single DC "event" to you. Full stop.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Which are the good Green Lantern non-events?
I'm reading Rebirth right now and the cast of random characters is really screwing with my brain. So many hideous costumes and bad mustaches! I am loving the Batman-hate though.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: If you aren't familiar with the DC Universe, I cannot recommend a single DC "event" to you. Full stop.
as it was described to me recently: comics are presently inundated with inbred, stifling continuity porn that condemns most of them to a small group of insiders, and as far as most fans are concerned, it's about trying to guess, between DC and Marvel, which one is abusing itself to death faster.
anyway
saw about the first third of this movie, was spending too much time on my phone and had pretty much lost interest by then, went out and played frisbee instead. not really bad, would have probably dealt with it if I had paid for it, just ... not ... good. nothing to recommend as far as I saw.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shanna: We've got the Blackest Night/Brightest Day trades at my bookstore so I'll check those out. Will it be a problem if I'm not familiar with the DC Universe? I've always been more of a Marvel girl.
And there was a Green Lantern named John Stewart who worked as a news show host? Really?! Haha.
Like I said, if you have no clue who someone is wikipedia can inform you quickly and well. For instance I had never heard of Firestorm, a hero who is the combination of two seperate people with one as the body and the other in control of the rather godly ability to alter the genetic structure of anything and everything at whim. Now Im fascinated by the Firestorm mythos.
Jon Stewart is the host of The Daily Show, this is a stage name he chose and Im not sure why. John Stewart was the first non-white GL and was first presented in 1972. I just find that funny.
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