The Official Green Lantern Review Thread - Part 5

[Deaths Head II]

That part left me saying "WTF" too .... after about 10mins of reflection I think I came to the conclusion the ring alerted him, but it's not like it's plain as day.

I don't really buy the idea that the ring alerted him, considering it would be going off every second if there is any type of trouble. If it specifically alerts him to alien trouble or something that would be different. Or if the ring talks to him and tells him what the exact danger is. And either way, the mechanics of the ring working that way should REALLY be clarified in the film itself.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Hold on, Batman murdered Bob Kane !?!?

LOL! It's a little known fact

 

[Rock Sexton]

I don't really buy the idea that the ring alerted him, considering it would be going off every second if there is any type of trouble. If it specifically alerts him to alien trouble or something that would be different. Or if the ring talks to him and tells him what the exact danger is. And either way, the mechanics of the ring working that way should REALLY be clarified in the film itself.

Trust me ... the whole transition was beyond ridiculous.

 

[Mace Dolex]

I don't really buy the idea that the ring alerted him, considering it would be going off every second if there is any type of trouble. If it specifically alerts him to alien trouble or something that would be different. Or if the ring talks to him and tells him what the exact danger is. And either way, the mechanics of the ring working that way should REALLY be clarified in the film itself.

You're right, it's never clear in the film if the ring alerts him of danger or if it's running low on juice.

 

[SuperDaniel]

I thought the threat the ring alerted was the yellow power...It was always beeping when Hammond did something bad.

 

[dnno1]

I saw it again because the first time my theater had a lousy sound system and a poor 3-D conversion that I saw it just in standard 2-D this time.

In my initial review I mentioned how too quick the movie seemed to be but watching it a second time it flowed just perfectly, but I can see how misleading the trailers and posters made it out like a big Star Wars epic, totally missed the boat on that one.

The fight with Parallax was still unimpressive, it was watching GL fighting a clumped up mass of human hair.

One thing I still didn't understand whether because of the editing but just how did GL know to go to the lab and try to save Amanda Waller and Tim Robbins (sorry don't know the characters name)?

I don't really buy the idea that the ring alerted him, considering it would be going off every second if there is any type of trouble. If it specifically alerts him to alien trouble or something that would be different. Or if the ring talks to him and tells him what the exact danger is. And either way, the mechanics of the ring working that way should REALLY be clarified in the film itself.

In the film

Spoiler

Tomar Re told Hal that the ring would alert him when there would be imminent danger. In the scene before he entered the hangar, you could see Hal noticing his ring flashing, alerting him of the danger

I got that from watching the film the first time.

 

[Majik1387]

I got it, but it was a bit too rushed to come across clearly.

 

[Poni_Boy]

I thought the threat the ring alerted was the yellow power...It was always beeping when Hammond did something bad.

How does that make sense? If there's no fear entity around, the ring's "Spidey Sense" doesn't do anything?

I just don't understand why they changed that. It was supposed to be sentient. The ring beeps when "evil" is within half a mile? What about the hundreds of other planets in the sector?

 

[dnno1]

I got it, but it was a bit too rushed to come across clearly.

My 7-year-old kid could follow that. I don't know how much slower you can make just telling a guy that his ring warns him of danger and having it light up as an example let you know. That was no different than a James Bond film when Q explains the weapons he uses in the film. Did you find that rushed?

 

[Deaths Head II]

So does it warn him of any danger or what? Or just danger that's necessary for the plot to continue?

 

[protocida]

It's Parallax-related danger. Of course it'd get top priority.

 

[Deaths Head II]

I'm just wondering if it does that at any other time. Are we supposed to believe the main plot was the only danger going on in the entire planet/sector? Because the ring never beeped unless it was a threat involved with the plot.

EDIT: Also the ring never bothered to warn Hal when Parallax actually, you know, entered the sector. I know Hal was busy at the time but I think Parallax is a bigger threat then Hector.

 

[DaveMoral]

The whole sector thing is problematic no matter what incarnation of GL you're looking at. Sector 2814 is the 2814th sector out of 3600 sectors... in the UNIVERSE! It'd be stretching it with the galaxy, but we are talking the whole universe. And there's generally only one GL per sector. That means, on the whole, the universe is a pretty peaceful place AND that the Corps clearly has a threat level that they respond to. A jerk holding some people hostage in a bank is not going to be bumped down from the Guardians or Salaak to dispatch the sector's Lantern to deal with. That's local authorities. They just need to better articulate what the levels of threats would be that GLs respond to.

 

[Poni_Boy]

I'm just wondering if it does that at any other time. Are we supposed to believe the main plot was the only danger going on in the entire planet/sector? Because the ring never beeped unless it was a threat involved with the plot.

EDIT: Also the ring never bothered to warn Hal when Parallax actually, you know, entered the sector. I know Hal was busy at the time but I think Parallax is a bigger threat then Hector.

Why would it beep when Parallax entered the sector/atmosphere/general vicinity? It wasn't in the script

 

[Mace Dolex]

In the film

Spoiler

Tomar Re told Hal that the ring would alert him when there would be imminent danger. In the scene before he entered the hangar, you could see Hal noticing his ring flashing, alerting him of the danger

I got that from watching the film the first time.

Ah I know of the scene you're describing but it took a long time from when Hal's ring starts beeping to when he's in the lab.

 

[Rock Sexton]

Ah I know of the scene you're describing but it took a long time from when Hal's ring starts beeping to when he's in the lab.

Yup. It was strange. First he's staring at his blinking ring. It cuts to the lab where crap goes down with Hammond, his father, and that Nick Fury wanna be. Then all the sudden he's shown crashing threw the walls.

Again somebody up at WB fails to understand that you have to show these heroes coming AND going. You cannot edit that out to save time, especially when it involves flight.

 

[Herolee10]

Three things that I've always wondered since seeing the film were:

1. How was Abin Sur so easily defeated by the Parallax if he was the one responsible for defeating it in the first place?

2. Why did Sinestro put on the yellow ring after Hal having proved that the ring of will worked?

3. I didn't see any qualities presented in Hal at the beginning that would make him suitable GL material in the way that they were describing him to be at the end (voice over by Tomarae)

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Three things that I've always wondered since seeing the film were:

1. How was Abin Sur so easily defeated by the Parallax if he was the one responsible for defeating it in the first place?

2. Why did Sinestro put on the yellow ring after Hal having proved that the ring of will worked?

3. I didn't see any qualities presented in Hal at the beginning that would make him suitable GL material in the way that they were describing him to be at the end (voice over by Tomarae)

Fumbled execution.

 

[moviedoors]

The whole sector thing is problematic no matter what incarnation of GL you're looking at. Sector 2814 is the 2814th sector out of 3600 sectors... in the UNIVERSE! It'd be stretching it with the galaxy, but we are talking the whole universe. And there's generally only one GL per sector. That means, on the whole, the universe is a pretty peaceful place AND that the Corps clearly has a threat level that they respond to. A jerk holding some people hostage in a bank is not going to be bumped down from the Guardians or Salaak to dispatch the sector's Lantern to deal with. That's local authorities. They just need to better articulate what the levels of threats would be that GLs respond to.

Yeah, that whole 3600 thing bothers me too. Even if you confined the Corp to just the Milky Way, each Green Lantern would be responsible for about 55,555,555 star systems. Expand that to the whole universe, and each Lantern is responsible for about 7 x 10^18, or, 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 star systems. That's an unimaginably huge number, and it's also a conservative estimate.

 

[DaveMoral]

Yeah, that whole 3600 thing bothers me too. Even if you confined the Corp to just the Milky Way, each Green Lantern would be responsible for about 55,555,555 star systems. Expand that to the whole universe, and each Lantern is responsible for about 7 x 10^18, or, 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 star systems. That's an unimaginably huge number, and it's also a conservative estimate.

Yeah, it's monumentally insane. I love the character, the concept, and yes I had a ton of fun with the movie... but this is a major element of having to really stretch your suspension of disbelief. And the only sector I know of that has 4 concurrent Lanterns is 2814... all of them Earthmen.

 

[SentinelMind]

The movie was eh....5/10. It was rushed, too much Ryan and Blake...the other characters weren't given proper development. Peter's performance as Hammond was pretty good but he was given nothing to do until the end. He was just there to have a "human" villain on screen. The movie didn't give impression of joining Green Lantern Corp was something to admire. It needed a better script.

 

[KalMart]

Yeah, that whole 3600 thing bothers me too. Even if you confined the Corp to just the Milky Way, each Green Lantern would be responsible for about 55,555,555 star systems. Expand that to the whole universe, and each Lantern is responsible for about 7 x 10^18, or, 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 star systems. That's an unimaginably huge number, and it's also a conservative estimate.

How many of those star systems have planets with life on them, though? Rough estimates in real science are pretty low.

 

[DaveMoral]

How many of those star systems have planets with life on them, though? Rough estimates in real science are pretty low.

There you have a point. Not counting New Gods and what not, in the DCU the universe is actually probably pretty devoid of life. I mean, the Guardians, allegedly the first beings in the universe, created a Corps responsible for 3600 sectors meaning they generally only have 3600 GLs at any one time(not counting alternates or Honor Guards, and I'm not sure the Honor Guards are in addition to those assigned certain sectors). There's not going to be very much in the way of sentient beings in that universe. Especially when there seems to be a pattern of GLs coming from the same planets in their respective sectors as well. Once Abin passed his ring to Hal, Earth had membership to the Corps locked down with not just the four main GLs of 2814 but a couple others like Jade were members as well at some point. Same is the case with 1417, Sinestro was from Korugar and when he got ousted it went to Soranik Natu of Korugar(who just happens to be Sinestro's estranged daughter). There are probably other such examples.

 

[dnno1]

How many of those star systems have planets with life on them, though? Rough estimates in real science are pretty low.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/alien-encounter-by-2031_n_886111.html

 

[moviedoors]

How many of those star systems have planets with life on them, though? Rough estimates in real science are pretty low.

"Pretty low" when you're talking in universal terms is still a gigantic number. A massive number. A number that's too big for a human mind to truly comprehend.

Scale it back to the Corp patrols just the Milky Way, and I'll suspend my disbelief. But 3600 for the entire freakin' universe? I'm sorry, I can't do it.