What Green Lantern Got Wrong

[The Morningstar]

Parralax, world destroyer, a being that inspires fear in the Guardians, so much so they are willing to go to extreme lengths to destroy it.

Gets hurt by a couple of sidewinder missiles and an exploding tanker.

I mean, what worlds did this thing destroy? We are expected to believe that the worlds it destroyed had no defense what so ever? Seemed to me a military bombardment would have killed it.

And oh yea, where was the military when Parralax attacked? There wasn't really any reaction to this giant, sentiant, hostile cloud of death from mankind apart from some news reports and a bomb siren in the city.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

the cinematography was weak

It seems even great DP's deliver mediocre images. Except if you are Roger Deakins and Christopher Doyle.

 

[Poni_Boy]

Second issue: The lack of the yellow impurity. This would have fit perfectly in with the film, and only a few lines of dialogue would have had to be added to the final cut. Why did 11 Lanterns fail (some even dying)? Why was Sinestro so eager to harness the fear element? How could Hal, as a rookie, easily defeat the greatest threat to the universe?

They could have summed that up easily: Parallax harnesses the yellow energy of fear, their power is ineffectual to yellow. Hal realizes (without Carol's help fortheloveofgod) that -- just like the comics -- you don't have to be without fear but simply acknowledge your fear and look past it -- to overcome the impurity. That's what made him capable where others, who were more talented, trained and equipped to win, failed. It worked in the funny pages, would have worked just fine here.

 

[Itty]

For a film that dealt with the emotional continuum the film felt flat, unemotional, detacted.

My biggest problem was Parallax was a poor choice for the antagonist. The writers should have known better. The first Hulk and FF Silver Surfer failed for the same reason. The bubble in Ang Lee's Hulk and Fantastic Four Galactus should have been warnings signs not to use an elemental type foe.

Use a villian that interacts/challenges the hero the entire film. Hal should have been the focal point is the hero. The GL Corps fighting Parallax took screen time away from Hal's character development. It didn't allow the audience to bond to Hal fully.

There were no skirmishes between Hal and Parallax that ups the ante and increases the tension over the course of the film. The Dark Knight Returns did this effectively. We only see Hector and Hal interact at a cocktail party before the climatic battle. No interaction between Hal and Parallax.

The Green Lanterns deaths by Parallax were too sterile. Personally, I was effected by how Azazel killed CIA agents in X-men First Class. His killing method invokes a primal fear we all have.

Lastly, the opening monolog reminded my of seeing The Lord of the Rings in the 80's (the rotorscoped version) with my brother. It thinks it was too much info for the general public to digest all at once. I would have preferred they explain the Guardians to Hal when he first arrives at Oa complete with short scenes of GL's being heroic on their home world. Explain Parallax later in another flashback when Sinestro confronts the Guardians.

The monolog should have been another warning that Parallax was a poor choice for the antagonist. If they had to explain the foe, then it doesn't invoke an emotional reaction that would have made this film a success.

That's all for now...

 

[routhman]

It seems even great DP's deliver mediocre images. Except if you are Roger Deakins and Christopher Doyle.

Uh, it wasn't like some of the movie looked bad. A LOT of the film looked bad. It was more than a slip up here and there.

I'd say Wally Pfister is pretty great too.

 

[Poni_Boy]

Third issue: Parallax. Have Krona possessed by Parallax and loose that vendetta against Oa and Abin Sur. Parllax is chaos incarnate, he doesn't have an agenda outside of feeding off the fear around him. The best villains are the ones without crystal clear motives.

Don't have him destroying civilizations by eating everyone on the planets, that's an overused plot devise. Why not keep it simple: civilizations destroy themselves in his presence. The closer he comes to an inhabited planet the more they give into their fear and turn on each other. Has the same outcome and makes the final battle more tense because Hal can't just lure him away from Earth; people would still be destroying each other since he's nearby.

 

[Itty]

I read back some earlier postings. I forgot to mention the relationships aspect.

The biggest example: As soon as PieFace says that Hal should get the girl, it was "see ya in the sequel (if there is one...)"

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Uh, it wasn't like some of the movie looked bad. A LOT of the film looked bad. It was more than a slip up here and there.

I'd say Wally Pfister is pretty great too.

the set design did him no favor.

 

[Poni_Boy]

Fourth issue: Carol Ferris. Blake Lively did fine with what she had to work with, but the flaw is that Hal isn't isn't supposed to "get the girl."

That's what makes his relationship with Carol more interesting in the comics' later years than when they were an item. She's now being groomed to take over Ferris Air, she's his boss. It's business before pleasure. I would have gladly taken a final Hal/Carol scene that emulated the comics (a flirtatious "Don't be gone too long Mr. Jordan" "I'll do my best Ms. Ferris") than that forced kiss that could be seen coming 3 miles away.

Also, they didn't even HAVE a history in this film to start with aside from a brief mention that they grew up together and had a one night stand. Besides that she's been pining for his for years while he screws around. Boring

 

[Poni_Boy]

Fifth issue: Martin Jordan. Not only did we not see Martin die in a heroic "fearless" way, we didn't even get a full scene; just snippets of footage separated in a flashback. Young Hal getting the jacket from his dad, his dad takes off and the plane crashes right after taking off. Hal runs to him, he stands up in the cockpit and stares at Hal instead of, I don't know, trying to get away from a crashed aircraft. Then it blows up.

Why was it changed? If I recall, Martin Jordan's plane was being tested and, while in midair, it failed. Instead of letting it crash on the airfield and possibly hurting civilians, he stayed with it till it crashed. this is Martin's "fearlessness" and one of the reasons Hal push himself constantly.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yep, the flashback scene was like something out of a parody movie. Terrible.

And you're right, taking away the fact that Martin crashed the plane away from civilians has gotta be one of the dumbest moves in the movie.

 

[Optimus_Prime_]

Really everything was right, but not very fleshed out. Someone mentioned Carol and Hal earlier, and this is a great example. What they did was very nice, give them this very rocky relationship where she loves him but wishes he would wise up. It was very derivative to see a superhero who wasn't doing something to impress a girl (Batman Begins, Spider-Man). I even thought it was a little satirical to have the VILLAIN be the nerd trying to win a girl's affections. The problem is despite all these great ideas, they weren't fleshed out. In fact, I admit I'm being somewhat liberal reading that deeply into them because they weren't that deep BUT that's the problem. Good ideas wrapped in poor execution. There was no 'effective use of silence', and most of the character moments were forced and not given proper time to arise organically. That was where the movie went wrong. I think they started to get somewhere in the bar scene between Blake and Ryan, but it ended too abruptly. I think if they wouldn't have tried to cram it in it would've worked better. Another great example is Martin Jordan's scene was perfect, but it wasn't placed or paced effectively. That should've been the opening scene from the movie. Then maybe show some of Hal and Carol (and Hal's family) immediate reaction to it, that way when we pick up present day there are some depth to the lines being said. What helped me enjoy the movie at all was that I had read so many of the comics I understood what was underneath, but the movie needed to establish that itself.

 

[routhman]

the set design did him no favor.

Agreed.

 

[Cain]

Editing and writing.

 

[Sundancer]

No not everything. Oa was cool. The suit was cool. Sinestro, Tomar Re and Kilowog were cool. It's a shame those parts only took up about 20 minutes.

I'll mention one bad thing though...

The flashback scene. It was laughable. Was supposed to be really powerful, really emotional, but it just wasn't. And it didn't make a lick of sense. Hal has obviously been a pilot for a long time, he's probably had that picture in his cockpit a long time. But NOW he decides to freak out about it? How convenient.

Terrible writing.

I figured it was the first time his plane conked out on him which triggered the memory. He was crashing.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Parralax, world destroyer, a being that inspires fear in the Guardians, so much so they are willing to go to extreme lengths to destroy it.

Gets hurt by a couple of sidewinder missiles and an exploding tanker.

I mean, what worlds did this thing destroy? We are expected to believe that the worlds it destroyed had no defense what so ever? Seemed to me a military bombardment would have killed it.

And oh yea, where was the military when Parralax attacked? There wasn't really any reaction to this giant, sentiant, hostile cloud of death from mankind apart from some news reports and a bomb siren in the city.

I'll give you the inconsistencies of what hurt Parallax and what not, but wondering where the military was is a bit nitpicking.

 

[Poni_Boy]

I'll give you the inconsistencies of what hurt Parallax and what not, but wondering where the military was is a bit nitpicking.

Very true, it isn't very likely the military would even be able to respond to anything that soon.

What irked me most about Parallax's "civilization destruction" is that the GLC didn't do anything to try to stop him. All that we were told/saw was:

- 4 Lanterns from 4 sectors were killed

- Sinestro took a band of the best of the best to stop it. They were wiped out veeeery easily.

That's it. No one else did anything? The guardians didn't care? That's not the GLC I'm used to reading in the books, they're fighters.

 

[arman200]

Fifth issue: Martin Jordan. Not only did we not see Martin die in a heroic "fearless" way, we didn't even get a full scene; just snippets of footage separated in a flashback. Young Hal getting the jacket from his dad, his dad takes off and the plane crashes right after taking off. Hal runs to him, he stands up in the cockpit and stares at Hal instead of, I don't know, trying to get away from a crashed aircraft. Then it blows up.

Why was it changed? If I recall, Martin Jordan's plane was being tested and, while in midair, it failed. Instead of letting it crash on the airfield and possibly hurting civilians, he stayed with it till it crashed. this is Martin's "fearlessness" and one of the reasons Hal push himself constantly.

I didn't get the change either. They constantly make mention of Martin being a hero in the movie, but if that's the case, what did he do?

 

[Poni_Boy]

I didn't get the change either. They constantly make mention of Martin being a hero in the movie, but if that's the case, what did he do?

He died in a big, fake looking CG explosion

 

[Sundancer]

They also shouldn't have had Hector Hammond look like Ron Jeremy.

 

[arman200]

He died in a big, fake looking CG explosion

Oooooooooh, well that makes sense then.

 

[Greendomo]

One huge thing that Green Lantern got wrong was the tone. It was all over the place. It bounced between dark and scary, light and glib, etc. They should have either kept it family friendly, or gone more serious in tone.

The sad thing is that my kids and a bunch of my friends kids were all super excited to see the movie, based on the trailer, the marketing, the toys, etc. But Parallax and Hammond were waaaaaaay too scary, and feel like they belong in a different film all together. They missed out on a huge market by not having it suitable for a younger audience.

My friend, his wife and two children (aged 7 and 10) left the film because it was too scary. I'm sure lots of other families did the same, and you can see that effect on the box office. I know Thor is rated PG-13 as well, but there is a night and day difference between the two in terms of how scary they are to younger children.

 

[S.A.A.D.]

-Parallax. The movie version was a mix of Legion and Krona.
-The power ring (sort of). It didn't talk and certain abilities weren't present.

 

[webhead921]

Parallax was the weakest link in the film. He's not as bad as some make him out to be though. I would agree with above posters that it would have been better to have a villain with dialogue that interacted with the corps. I thought this was one of the things first flight did excellently, starting out with the GL's fighting kanjar ro, the leading up to sinestro. I thought hector was a good villain though, and parallax was leagues ahead of galactus in FF4 2.

 

[arman200]

Parallax was the weakest link in the film. He's not as bad as some make him out to be though. I would agree with above posters that it would have been better to have a villain with dialogue that interacted with the corps. I thought this was one of the things first flight did excellently, starting out with the GL's fighting kanjar ro, the leading up to sinestro. I thought hector was a good villain though, and parallax was leagues ahead of galactus in FF4 2.

I don't know, I personally disliked Hector the most. A lot of the audience was chuckling at him all throughout the lab scene, and just before he died. He wasn't menacing, he was completely overplayed and cheesy. He also seemed like he had a very weak motive. Okay, his father got him a job and thinks he might be a screw-up....so he should kill him? And his only real job in the film was to bring Parallax to Earth.

Parallax was very weak as well though. He seemed absent throughout the movie, and he brought up some inconsistencies. He always speaks English, even when there are no ring translators around? He can kill hundreds of citizens in an instant, as well as four Corps members, but Hal and Hector take a while(very convenient for Hal of course)?

I didn't like either villain, and I think that's a big thing they got wrong in the movie.