The movie very clearly states that Hal's ring will alert him to danger. Hal's ring glows and pulses during the sequence right before he confronts Hammond. Its alerting him to the danger.
What the heck was wrong with the set designs?
No, it did not do so
very clearly, that's why many people missed it, because the explanation and execution was muddy, not memorable, and not compelling. Either that or a number of unrelated people have just decided to be jerks about this particular plot point.
As for the set design, I found Oa, ugly, unimpressive and uninteresting. They built up to it in this big reveal, but it was a big whoomp-whoomp moment for me. Perhaps others were blown away by the crags and lopsided mountain range. Not me though.
I dont understand that at all, as I feel like many of the outdoor sequences on Oa are comparable to what happens in Asgard in terms of locale, but
okay.
Some were. Like when Hal was first there with Tomar-Re, but the GL meeting spot, the big reveal of the planet, even the Guardians' spire were pretty weak compared to the epic reveal of Asgard, Odin's throne room, and such. Not only was it not impressive, AND not faithful to the comics, it did not help tell the story. You have this massively advanced force with cutting edge medical tech and brightly colored platforms to chat on, that meets in crags and is ruled by some guys at the top of Minas-Tirith. It just wasn't good, consistent, or compelling.
As far as the climax not building on the film very well
the reason Parallax is going to Earth is pretty clear
Parallax destroys planets, and is drawn there by Hammond. The villains aren't compelling or well developed. But to say their reasoning isn't there, or that the movie doesn't build to something, I can't agree with that.
Parallax was going to Oa for revenge... his drawn by Hammond how and for what? The movie never explains or addresses this. That's kind of what I'm talking about with the building. The movie advances to the ending, but it doesn't build on what came before to get there, it just, like Parallax, suddenly turns and expects us to follow it. I call that not building, I guess you call that not compelling, and that's fine.
As for Hammond, his entire arc relies on seduction to the power of fear, and his use of it to gain power. And then he faces down a will-based superhero and cant muster the willpower to make the ring work, and is ultimately destroyed by fear. If anything, Hammonds defeat at Hals hands is one of the more satisfying elements of the film, both as an adaption of the comics and as a film, because its one of the few times it steps outside cliche and a more generic approach.
I would agree with this, but I think that was a mistake. To build up your secondary villain, at the cost of both your main hero and your primary villain is a bad idea, no matter how satisfying the defeat of the secondary villain is. It doesn't matter (to me) how good the icing is if the cake is nasty.
I would agree with that, to a point. Hes not a hugely likeable character through much of the film, though there are obvious points in the movie where he's shown to be a redeemable character and a good guy. Hes not really supposed to be hugely likeable, though, until he stops feeling sorry for himself and overcomes his fear. I guess the filmmakers shouldn't have tried to go with a lofty concept like "bettering yourself" for a superhero movie.
A good movie makes the main character likeable, no matter how detestable is, it's suppose to show him redeemable and give the audience a chance to like him (and an unspoken promise to redeem him). GL tried to do this with the nephew scene and it didn't connect, it wasn't compelling. I don't even know why, maybe because it wasn't his kid, or he was in the midst of being a jerk with his family, or because the father stuff was told and not shown, but at the end of the day: meh for movie Hal in the beginning = meh for movie Hal in the end.
That's not neccessarily true. There's every bit as much battle and struggle as most superhero films have. Part of the "ownage" is because hes a rookie ringwielder. Hes learning to use the ring, to muster the willpower, and to overcome fear. There were very deliberate choices made by filmmakers to show him failing, so that they should show him growing as a hero, and as a character.
So he basically gets owned at every step hes truly tested because hes not ready yet, which is kind of the whole point.
Its not really any different than Batman originally getting his ass handed to him by The Scarecrow because hes not quite ready to face him in BEGINS, or any number of superhero film encounters where the hero doesn't triumph right away.
What about the fight sequence between he and Hammond in the lab? Theres a very clear battle/struggle of emotions/powers going on there. There's a shifting of momentum between he and Hammond.
What about the sequence between Green Lantern and Parallax at the end of the film? Theres a pretty clear struggle between he and Parallax, a very clear thematic and visual contest of fear VS will. Its one of the focal points of the climax.
Does that get muddled a little because theyre shooting colored light at each other? Yes, but it is still very much there.
Hmmm... Hal vs Hammond in the lab was a struggle, with back and forth, and perhaps its comparable to Batman in some ways - he took down Scarecrows men, and then got jumped by Scarecrow - it feels different with Bats because you understand intrinsically that physicality demands effort. With Hal it's like... does he just not want to win bad enough? What is the struggle? With something like willpower, that's abstract and hard to define, so it makes his instant defeats look silly and his instant wins feel arbitrary, especially if there's not compelling character arc underneath.
Yes, but where? Where are these bad effects? The closest thing to subpar effects is the opening pre-title sequence.
I know some people rant about the effects, but the creature work was more or less flawless, the environments were fantastic. I cant consider a somewhat heightened, cartoony look in relation to the suit and Hal's powers to be a bad one when thats what they went for, but that seems to be what people pick on when discussing the quality of the effects.
It'd be one thing to discuss the approach, or the tone, or the visual choices themselves. But the quality of the effects themselves was pretty darn good.
I wouldnt begin to say most.
Hal flying in space was the more noticeable one for me, and I usually don't notice bad CGI, but even I saw that, and that's the one I heard ranted about most. Then Hal in his apartment fails to feel quite real as well. The pre-credits, and all the Parallax ones were just so-so, not really "bad." I agree Kilowogg, Tomar-Re and Sinestro were quite impressive, and generally, any cgi-on-cgi effect was just fine. Apparently, though, I'm wrong that most people bagged on the CGI, that was before the movie came out and amongst fans and such, so I'll take that one. Apparently the general consensus is that the CGI was the only good thing about the film. Go figure.
