The Official Green Lantern Review Thread - Part 5

[HighFivingMF]

I'd have to disagree. Heavily. Ghost Rider's plot was in even more shambles then Green Lantern's. They didn't even try to follow a coherent logic in that film.

The devil gives guy powers. The devil then says "k dude, I'm taking those powers back." The human guy then says "nope." And the Devil....let me emphasize that....THE FREAKING DEVIL. THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS. THE GUY WHO GAVE THE MORTAL HUMAN HIS POWERS. The Devil just says "aww shucks. Guess I can't take your powers back now."

GL was definitley a step above GR in my book.

"Everyone always expects so much of me!"

 

[Spider-Fan]

Yeah, I honestly felt like they may have even filmed enough footage to include deleted scenes that would greatly improve the quality of the movie. I felt that there had to be more character building scenes establishing the relationship between Hal and Hecter. Honestly, I would not have picked up that they were childhood friends from the movie. I would have thought them casual acquaintances at the most. Same with Hal and Carol and the other guardians.

I really wish they had just cut Parallax as a villain (save him for a movie or two down the road) picked a less "galaxy threatening bad guy of awesome power and BADNESS!" and done a more character based story. The theme of overcoming fear is a very interesting angle. The thing I would have liked to see is Hal admitting that he's genuinely afraid to die. We've never really seen a hero admit that before in a superhero movie. Show that fear, and show what experiences help Hal put aside that fear and put his life in danger. And explore other fears and what goes into making fear such a powerful weapon.

Alas...the things that could have been. Basically the same feeling I had after watching Wolverine. I think GL was better, but Wolverine was frustrating in just the sheer acting talent that cast had. Schrieber as Sabretooth...lord he would have been AMAZING with a decent script.

I think a mention that Parallax was who killed Abin Sur, and just use Hammond the whole movie to mirror Hal would have been the way to go. The angle of both being failures and screw-ups in life was a great parallel, it just wasn't done effectively. Parallax really didn't HAVE to be in this movie. Cut out that beginning in space, go strait to Hal and the plane...flashback to his dad as it happens...Abin Sur lands, we find out later Parallax killed him (hence Hammond's powers) and hint at Parallax in GL2 (and have him tempt Sinestro to evil in GL2). Much better way to do it. Less crowded, and would have allowed Hammond and Hal's plot to grow more naturally.

 

[Infinity9999x]

"Everyone always expects so much of me!"

Haha, and the Devil's supposed to be good at that loophole stuff.

I think a mention that Parallax was who killed Abin Sur, and just use Hammond the whole movie to mirror Hal would have been the way to go. The angle of both being failures and screw-ups in life was a great parallel, it just wasn't done effectively. Parallax really didn't HAVE to be in this movie. Cut out that beginning in space, go strait to Hal and the plane...flashback to his dad as it happens...Abin Sur lands, we find out later Parallax killed him (hence Hammond's powers) and hint at Parallax in GL2 (and have him tempt Sinestro to evil in GL2). Much better way to do it. Less crowded, and would have allowed Hammond and Hal's plot to grow more naturally.

Agreed. That would have worked so much better. They really needed to develop the Carol/Hector/Hal relationship. It was barely touched on. And Hal's relationship with the other lanterns. I could see that they wanted to establish a "tough love" relationship between Sinestro and Hal, but there just wasn't enough screen time between the two of them for it to seem effective.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Haha, and the Devil's supposed to be good at that loophole stuff.



Agreed. That would have worked so much better. They really needed to develop the Carol/Hector/Hal relationship. It was barely touched on. And Hal's relationship with the other lanterns. I could see that they wanted to establish a "tough love" relationship between Sinestro and Hal, but there just wasn't enough screen time between the two of them for it to seem effective.

Agreed. I think cutting out Parallax as a whole would have opened up money in the budget as well as allowed the plot to just grow more naturally. As it stands, Parallax really didn't offer much and he just was a distraction from what the film should have been about. You could have had Hal face his fears against Hammond, and still had that overcoming of fear been why he beats him. It didn't need to be Parallax.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

So green lantern is now the new "worst superhero movie ever ever" thing?


I agree with infinity. It's no great superhero movie - but it's not pos either.

 

[echostation]

what i never got was that the film has such massively positive script reviews by so many major websites like Latino Review... with such an apparently golden script in their hands how could they **** this one up??

 

[spider_rob]

what i never got was that the film has such massively positive script reviews by so many major websites like Latino Review... with such an apparently golden script in their hands how could they **** this one up??

by chaNGING the script drastically... but the first draft wasn't that original or great in the first place.

 

[Rock Sexton]

I wouldn't put GL above Ghost Rider. They are both crap films, but Ghost Rider has Nic Cage, Sam Elliot and Peter Fonda.

For me it's almost like trying to determine what smells worse .... dog crap or human crap.

 

[DaveMoral]

The funny thing about citing Nic Cage as a reason Ghost Rider is a superior film... Nic Cage is a deal breaker for me for almost any movie. If he's in it, I want nothing to do with it. The only exception of late was Kick-Ass. One of the few films I think he's ever been awesome in.

Also, has anyone seen the trailer for The Change-Up with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman? RR has Hal Jordan's haircut in that movie. Someone tell me why the hell he couldn't have that for GL.

 

[Paradox1]

Nicolas Cage was awesome once with movies like Con Air, the rock, Face off, gone in 60 seconds and Snake Eyes. It's just lately it's like he doesn't know a winner anymore. His star power once was greater than Johnny Depp.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I'd have to disagree. Heavily. Ghost Rider's plot was in even more shambles then Green Lantern's. They didn't even try to follow a coherent logic in that film.

The devil gives guy powers. The devil then says "k dude, I'm taking those powers back." The human guy then says "nope." And the Devil....let me emphasize that....THE FREAKING DEVIL. THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS. THE GUY WHO GAVE THE MORTAL HUMAN HIS POWERS. The Devil just says "aww shucks. Guess I can't take your powers back now."

GL was definitley a step above GR in my book.

Actually this was explained in the movie, the devil can only influence people on our plane, he cant physically harm them, hence why he had to get GR to hunt down Blackheart, as the Devil couldnt harm him either. As the devil says to Blackheart, "I may not have power over you in this world, but my Rider does" after Blackheart says "We both know you cant harm me here."

 

[BlueLantern]

Both films were unbelievably bad. Green Lantern was worse since in the run up to the film the marketing pointed towards an epic space adventure.

It turned out to be the equivalent of the Holiday Special on a plot level.

 

[The Morningstar]

For me it's almost like trying to determine what smells worse .... dog crap or human crap.

Heh, pretty much. But Cage, Elliot and Fonda tip the scales in GRs favour for me. Green Lantern has pretty much nothing that redeems it in my eyes. And the insidious marketing campaign from WB where they flat out lied to all of us in desperation makes me hate GL even more.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I saw this last week and acutallly kind of enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't much like Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan but as far as the plot it was better than I was expecting. Let's put it this way...I went in with some VERY low expectations. There were a lot of really cool and neat things in there but it was nothing that really knocked my socks off. It's kind of disappointing in a way too because this movie could have really been something really special. It seems that there was some sort of rush somewhere along the lines. Be it the script or the casting or just overall. The movie could have done with some more Sinestro, that's all I gotta say.

 

[KalMart]

Both films were unbelievably bad. Green Lantern was worse since in the run up to the film the marketing pointed towards an epic space adventure.

It turned out to be the equivalent of the Holiday Special on a plot level.

So do you think they should have marketed it more honestly as a choppy, unimpressive fiasco with a Holiday Special plot?

 

[The Morningstar]

Nicolas Cage was awesome once with movies like Con Air, the rock, Face off, gone in 60 seconds and Snake Eyes. It's just lately it's like he doesn't know a winner anymore. His star power once was greater than Johnny Depp.

Someone hasn't seen Bad Lieutenant, Matchstick Men or Adaptation. With Nic Cage, even in his terrible films he provides more entertainment value than 99% of actors out there.

 

[KalMart]

His best role is still Raising Arizona...with Valley Girl being a close second.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yea Raising Arizona... legendary.

 

[KalMart]

Interestingly, it's the one he says he enjoyed the least, because it was the Coens who were adamant and controlling about his cadence and mannerisms, and he felt he wasn't able to 'contribute' as much. I'm actually pretty thankful about that.

 

[BlueLantern]

So do you think they should have marketed it more honestly as a choppy, unimpressive fiasco with a Holiday Special plot?

Hardly. Just not made a choppy, unimpressive fiasco with a Holiday Special plot.

I think the irony is that if they'd marketed it as a Ryan Reynolds style action-adventure it might have hit a few more audiences than it actually did.

 

[CelticPredator]

I would be in the catagory that Ghost Rider is way worse then Green Lantern.

 

[BlueLantern]

Green Lantern disappointed me more since I expected more. The film actually broke my heart because there's sections that are good and sometimes really enjoyable but badly arranged and then let down by certain bits that were just completely unrelated to the rest of the film.

I didn't expect much with Ghost Rider since it's Nic Cage in a film by Mark Steven Johnson.

 

[CelticPredator]

I expected nothing from Rider....and what I got was worse then I would've ever thought.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I expected nothing from Rider....and what I got was worse then I would've ever thought.

Agreed.

 

[KalMart]

Hardly. Just not made a choppy, unimpressive fiasco with a Holiday Special plot.

I think the irony is that if they'd marketed it as a Ryan Reynolds style action-adventure it might have hit a few more audiences than it actually did.

You mean like the first trailer that came out? That was the one that got the negative reaction in the first place...even though it was probably the most accurate.