Green Lantern (2011)

[Avenging Angel]

I looked almost everywhere for a thread that talked about the movie and there wasn't even a separate forum for it so I made one. I just have some things to say about the movie...

Why was it so hated? I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I didn't despise as hard as some people did. It was panned by critics, who cares? They're not always on their game, but the level of hate for this movie is just funny.

So what was it? The few faux pas is I can't help but be reminded that the same writers who write for The CW (Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti) both had a hand in the script. I was trying to figure out what was really wrong with it. I suppose it's little things but mainly the writing in parts. Ryan wasn't miscast as Hal/GL neither was Blake as Carol. Peter possibly was, but he wasn't a terrible villain as a whole. Tom Robbins is a great actor. So were the voices of Geoffrey Rush as Tomar-Re and Clancy Brown as Parallax. I liked Jay O. Sanders as Carl Ferris.

So why is this film so hated by DC fanboys? Would like to know. I couldn't find a lot of huge things wrong with it. People are acting like it was the Glitter of DC films and it embarrassed the franchise and character. So what is it?

 

[The ?ion]

1) The CG costume looks terrible and takes the viewer out of the story
2) Hal Jordan's character arc is rushed, giving him no proper time to develop into a hero.
3) Too little time spent on Oa
4) Cringe-worthy dialog
5) Poorly implemented humor
6) The film's antagonists are underdeveloped and show poor motivation
7) Misuse/waste of Amanda Waller
8) No chemistry properly developed between Hal and Carol
9) Misuse of Parallax/Krona
10) Hal spent most of the film in doubt, which is contrary to the trait that led to him being selected as a Green Lantern
11) Multiple top tier Green Lanterns get slaughtered by Parallax, but a completely novice Hal dominates Parallax with a construct of an F-15 Tomcat.

The film is simply a poorly told story. Though parts of the film are redeemable, if not brilliant, the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts, and with Green Lantern, the whole is not greater than the few moments of wonder to be found in the film.

 

[The Guard]

It was hated because everything in pop culture must be either amazing or awful.

It wasn't amazing, so it was deemed awful.

 

[Lord]

It was hated because everything in pop culture must be either amazing or awful.

It wasn't amazing, so it was deemed awful.

That's what happened with John Carter. With Green Lantern it wasn't the case, the film simply was bad. Was it the worst comic book adaptation ever? Nope, Catwoman and Fat4astic were beyond worse, still doesn't make Green Lantern good.

 

[Avenging Angel]

"The ring chose you Hal" "That lightning bolt chose you Barry"

This is where Greg started his tiresome formula. It does come down to the writing. That I can support. Still not the worst one.

 

[BH/HHH]

It's biggest crime is that it's generic, I think comments saying its a mess are way off the mark. To me a messy film is something that doesn't flow properly or doesn't make sense. Love it or hate it the films does flow and it does make sense.

I think the films biggest problem was the director though, Martin Campbell was a bad choice for this type of film. It needed someone with a vision who truly knew how to deliver a film like this.

Last thing I will say is WBs stuck their noses in to much, they toyed with a good script and turned it into what we got, removing so much great stuff.

Here's hoping Green Lantern Corps gives the character a treatment that people can get on board with.

 

[Flint Marko]

It was hated because everything in pop culture must be either amazing or awful.

It wasn't amazing, so it was deemed awful.

Not at all true.

 

[chamber-music]

I think the film was unmemorable and dull at times. A number of writers worked on various drafts of the script and it showed in the final product.

 

[The Guard]

"The ring chose you Hal" "That lightning bolt chose you Barry"

This is where Greg started his tiresome formula. It does come down to the writing. That I can support. Still not the worst one.

Both these elements are from the comics.

The ring choosing Hal is key to the mythology.

The idea of the lightning/speed force choosing Barry Allen has been around a while as well.

 

[Rocky89]

I thought it was an alright movie.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

I looked almost everywhere for a thread that talked about the movie and there wasn't even a separate forum for it so I made one. I just have some things to say about the movie...

Why was it so hated? I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I didn't despise as hard as some people did. It was panned by critics, who cares? They're not always on their game, but the level of hate for this movie is just funny.

So what was it? The few faux pas is I can't help but be reminded that the same writers who write for The CW (Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti) both had a hand in the script. I was trying to figure out what was really wrong with it. I suppose it's little things but mainly the writing in parts. Ryan wasn't miscast as Hal/GL neither was Blake as Carol. Peter possibly was, but he wasn't a terrible villain as a whole. Tom Robbins is a great actor. So were the voices of Geoffrey Rush as Tomar-Re and Clancy Brown as Parallax. I liked Jay O. Sanders as Carl Ferris.

So why is this film so hated by DC fanboys? Would like to know. I couldn't find a lot of huge things wrong with it. People are acting like it was the Glitter of DC films and it embarrassed the franchise and character. So what is it?

What did you like about it?

I don't mean what did you not hate. I mean what did you like? Which scenes did you think were cool?

 

[harryoscop]

It was pretty good imo.

 

[Rorschach2012]

as a fan of Green Lantern, i was incredibly disappointed by this movie... so much potential, and it's truly terrible

 

[Rowsdower!]

That's what happened with John Carter. With Green Lantern it wasn't the case, the film simply was bad. Was it the worst comic book adaptation ever? Nope, Catwoman and Fat4astic were beyond worse, still doesn't make Green Lantern good.

I actually thought John Carter was worse than GL. I at least enjoyed GL upon my first viewing and thought a lot of the criticisms were overblown (the most obvious being the CGI suit... It looked bad in some scenes but it also looked really good in others). But I almost couldn't get through John Carter. I thought it was so campy and poorly put together. Kitsch was woefully miscast as the lead; he had no charisma, charm, etc. Trying to buy him as a Civil War veteran was especially laughable; he seemed more like a stoned surfer who somehow found himself in the late 1800s. I'm a fan of the Carter novels and to me, that movie butchered the source material.

 

[Lord]

I felt the complete oposite way. Green Lantern was ugly looking in comparison to John Carter and the plot was terribly crafted, hated it since the first watch. WIth John Carter i actualy wondered what the hate was about. I think film critic hulk did a good analysis on why it didn't work:

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/04/08/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs-the-john-carter-script

Kitsch not being believable as a Civil War veteran sounds like just nit picking. Should we complain that people in Asgard speak english? Possibly, but that doesn't make the THor films bad, they're just nit picks.

Green Lantern is incompetent through and through, from an unlikeable main character who lacks an actual arc, to ugly looking special effects.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Thr priblem with Green Lantern is that it feels devastatingly formulaic. The whole movie goes through the motions spurred by focus group marketing. It's therefore dull, artificial and joyless.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I felt the complete oposite way. Green Lantern was ugly looking in comparison to John Carter and the plot was terribly crafted, hated it since the first watch. WIth John Carter i actualy wondered what the hate was about. I think film critic hulk did a good analysis on why it didn't work:

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/04/08/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs-the-john-carter-script

Kitsch not being believable as a Civil War veteran sounds like just nit picking. Should we complain that people in Asgard speak english? Possibly, but that doesn't make the THor films bad, they're just nit picks.

Green Lantern is incompetent through and through, from an unlikeable main character who lacks an actual arc, to ugly looking special effects.

How is finding an actor unconvincing in his role nitpicking? Is it nitpicking to say that Hayden Christiansen sucked in the Star Wars prequels? In my opinion, Kitsch wasn't believable as a man who had seen a war and lost his family. And then, when the action shifts to Mars, he's just kind of there. He gets in on the action and all that, but at no point was I rooting for him or invested in him. He drifted through the whole movie with his mouth agape, grunting bad lines like, "That don't look like a fair fight." I feel like JC might have worked (or worked better) if the lead had been remotely convincing, but as it was, it made the movie fall flat on its face and the average special effects and supporting performances weren't enough to save it.

 

[Rain in Gotham]

Ryan was ok but the whole film in general was a disaster.

 

[Rowsdower!]

You really have to give Reynolds credit, though. You'd think that after appearing in so many bad comic book adaptations (GL, XMO:Wolverine, RIPD, Blade Trinity) and being loosely attached to a Flash adaptation that got canned, he would have just wanted to steer clear of CBMs altogether. But he pushed to get Deadpool made, and it paid off big time. Good for him.

Now I just wish he'd stop appearing in crappy movies where someone dies and has his consciousness transferred to someone else. Once was enough, but TWICE? Come on, Ryan. Learn your lesson already.

 

[Decepticonus]

It was hated because everything in pop culture must be either amazing or awful.

It wasn't amazing, so it was deemed awful.

Agreed. As much as I do not like IM2 or IM3 for example, they're not awful. They're watchable still.

Never saw GL, never had any interest. For one I am not a GL fan, especially of the Hal Jordan GL, he's my least favorite GL. And casting Ryan Reynolds? Um ok. Now, I actually LOVE Ryan Reynolds, have nothing bad to say about him. But personally I always found Hal to be so boring,unlikeable and devoid of personality, which Reynolds is not. It'd be like saying let's cast Daniel Day-Lewis as a public monument in the park scene of our film.

 

[rogbngp]

I actually love it for what I think is a brilliant stealth comedic performance by Peter Sarsgaard:

[YT]srpEHGZ2cko[/YT]

 

[DrCosmic]

^Watchable is a strong word. But to me, between him and Sinestro, the movie was survivable.

To answer the OP, for me, the thing that stuck out really badly were:

1) How unlikeable Hal was. I never believed there was a hero deep down inside like for other *****es like Tony Stark or, hell, Deadpool. Every single thing he did was cruel, selfish, unintelligent, or some combination thereof.

2) It was an ugly film to me. The costume was unappealing, the CGI designs were unappealing and sometimes, especially that one flying scene, the CGI just look really fake. The constructs he used were silly in a bad way. Oa should have been a place of grandeur, but instead it looked like a dead rock as opposed the headquarters for people whose power is to make cool shiny things.

3) It took all the worst parts of Johns' GL mythos and left out all the best parts.

4) There are a million ways to make a cool Green Lantern movie. By not focusing on any one of those things, but doing a little bit of everything badly (Bad jet fight, bad daddy issue flashback, bad rallying the Corps arc, bad kicked out of the corps arc, bad Earth cast relationships, bad-ish Sinestro rivalry, bad Hector Hammond takeover, bad Parallax "fear incarnate" arc...) which makes it feel like a mess since it's a lot of poorly executed ideas strung together. The movie would have been better with any, and I mean any element cut out and that time used to better develop some other element.

5) There were several moments in the film that seemed to telegraph that they wanted this to be their 'Iron Man' to kick off their shared universe, from Waller's inclusion and so on. But because it was done in mimicry and not in dedication, it felt flat and hollow and me-too-ish and it just felt awkward.

6) The dialogue was a waste of time. Nothing stood out from it, and if a movie has dialogue that's entirely forgettable and unimpressive, I'd rather they just not have it. Wall-E did fine.

So you have a situation where the characters, story, mythology, effects, dialogue, action and direction are all lackluster as the movie tries to keep 10 different plots in the air and can't land any of them. That's what I would call "a hot mess."

The blame goes all around the circle. A director without a strong vision for the CGI, selected by a board more interested in number crunching ("Let's bring in the James Bond guy, he can give Hal that appeal!") than vision, a gaggle of writers, re-writers, writer-managers, and a casting director who was far more informed by 'media buzz' than character. The studio sunk a lot of money into this ship, but they didn't get a good captain for it, and that's what DC still hasn't quite figured out, and why they won't be successful despite having, in my humble opinion, better stories to tell.

 

[wampa1]

Everyone has daddy issues:

Hal Jordan and his dad
Hector Hammond and his dad
Carol Ferris and her dad
Parallax and the Guardians ('parents' of the GL corps)

 

[Tacit Ronin]

1) How unlikeable Hal was. I never believed there was a hero deep down inside like for other *****es like Tony Stark or, hell, Deadpool. Every single thing he did was cruel, selfish, unintelligent, or some combination thereof.

The only other hero as unlikable was Garfield's Peter Parker.

 

[Avenging Angel]

Both these elements are from the comics.

The ring choosing Hal is key to the mythology.

The idea of the lightning/speed force choosing Barry Allen has been around a while as well.

It just sounded too similar to what Greg is used to writing, which is the same story origins just recycled through another iconic character. It just was that line that stuck out. I know that's what happened in the comics but it was said so much in the movie, like it was in The Flash.