What Green Lantern Got Wrong

[rdh007]

Martin Campbell is the Ford (car company) of directors. Serviceable, utilitarian, but not inspiring in the least.

Goldeneye and Casino Royale rank up there for Bond intros, but if there's a sequel, they've got to find someone else. Knowles floated Cuaron and I see no trouble with that.

 

[mcallima]

Beyond the basic storytelling and filmmaking problems, what really ticked me off was how the finale made the Corps look TOTALLY impotent. Instead, Sinestro should have pleaded with the Guardians to let him bring the Corps to Earth. The Guardians refuse. Then during the scene where Parallax taunts Hal (which should have been given extra weight by showing Hal protect the crowd), Sinestro descends with the Corps. Hal is made to look heroic for holding Parallax back. Sinestro looks heroic and in his future character for defying the Guardians. Then together, Hal and Sinestro defeat Parallax.

 

[KalMart]

Martin Campbell is the Ford (car company) of directors. Serviceable, utilitarian, but not inspiring in the least.

Same with Ryan Howard (aside from Beautiful Mind), Peter Hyams, Peter Weir, Wolfgang Peterson (aside from Das Boot)...

...and trust me, that's still quite an accomplishment.

Goldeneye and Casino Royale rank up there for Bond intros, but if there's a sequel, they've got to find someone else. Knowles floated Cuaron and I see no trouble with that.

I really didn't like Goldeneye. Cauron I could see picking up Batman after Nolan...but maybe it'd be too similar in some ways. Cauron should have done Wolverine. Zemeckis would be an interesting choice for GL or Superman.

 

[Octoberist]

Ron Howard?

 

[EditNinja]

Another thing that bothered me was the lack of reaction to Green Lantern's appearance. We got some of it at the party and I believe a news reporter, but it would've been greater to see more reaction from people. Is Green Lantern the only superhero?

I was hoping more would be made perhaps of the woman recording him on her phone, like how they did with Kick-Ass, turning his appearance into a media event.

Yeah, like "That glowing green man is flying! He's flying!" - Not a lot of that. LOL!

 

[arman200]

Beyond the basic storytelling and filmmaking problems, what really ticked me off was how the finale made the Corps look TOTALLY impotent. Instead, Sinestro should have pleaded with the Guardians to let him bring the Corps to Earth. The Guardians refuse. Then during the scene where Parallax taunts Hal (which should have been given extra weight by showing Hal protect the crowd), Sinestro descends with the Corps. Hal is made to look heroic for holding Parallax back. Sinestro looks heroic and in his future character for defying the Guardians. Then together, Hal and Sinestro defeat Parallax.

I hated how weak the corps looked in the movie. You've got this big group of Green Lanterns, with no display of power from them. All they seem to do is sit around on Oa. Then that VERY brief scene against Parallax comes up where four of them die in an instant. Yet Hal, who never even finished his training, was able to destroy Parallax single-handedly?

Also, why again did the Guardians refuse help? I don't remember the reason, but it seems completely stupid for them to do so. They're supposed to be intergalactic peace-keepers, and the instant something comes up, they refuse to? Not to mention that Parallax was supposed to be coming to Oa, so why risk letting him? I know Sayd said a reason, but I was too busy fuming at the thought that there'd be no Corps vs. Parallax fight.

 

[CrazyDavey]

Yeah, the "romantic" stuff was really cheesy for me. It felt like the relationship was being forced. I don't know if I should blame the actors, the director or the writers... maybe even a combination.

I also feel Hector Hammond was pretty weak for a villain. I get what the producers wanted to do. They wanted to treat this like Batman Begins and save the better villain for the sequel (ala, The Joker in The Dark Knight). But the difference here is, Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul were more interesting then Hector Hammond... Parallax had an interesting backstory, but that was about it. All he did was float in space and suck peoples souls.

Other then that, I enjoyed the rest of the movie. It was fun. I just wished a lot more happened. But i'm really hoping the sequel can fix some of these mistakes, especially since we know Mark Strong was interesting in this movie, we know he'll be great in the next as the main villain.

 

[akfj]

I hated how weak the corps looked in the movie. You've got this big group of Green Lanterns, with no display of power from them. All they seem to do is sit around on Oa. Then that VERY brief scene against Parallax comes up where four of them die in an instant. Yet Hal, who never even finished his training, was able to destroy Parallax single-handedly?

The biggest weakness of the Green Lantern Corps is budget restrictions.

 

[JPC4]

The more I think about it, using Parallax as the main villain was a major problem. Hector should have been the lone antagonist with maybe a hint (like other members have suggested) of Parallax existence. This would have allowed for more character and relationship development. Because as it stands, the movie felt rushed after about the half hour mark. During the first half hour of the movie, I remember telling my wife that I couldn't see how the critics were bashing this movie. Then all the sudden the movie got a small case of Wolverine-itis, and sped through the next hour only to give us a ho-hum finally. I still liked the movie and hope it grosses enough to warrant a sequel.

Oh, and I was also dissappointed that the Guardians created the yellow ring instead of Sinestro with the help of the Weaponer of Qward.

 

[The Guard]

What was cheesy about the romance?

Also, why again did the Guardians refuse help?

The Guardians didn't want to lose more Corps members to Parallax. They needed them to defend Oa when it arrived.

I also feel Hector Hammond was pretty weak for a villain. I get what the producers wanted to do. They wanted to treat this like Batman Begins and save the better villain for the sequel (ala, The Joker in The Dark Knight). But the difference here is, Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul were more interesting then Hector Hammond... Parallax had an interesting backstory, but that was about it. All he did was float in space and suck peoples souls.

Manhunters wouldn't have been cost effective if the Corps wasn't. They weren't going to use Star Sapphire this early. This is who Green Lantern has left. Hector Hammond and Parallax. Actually, come to think of it, they used Krona, Legion, Parallax AND Hector Hammond.

 

[DarKush]

You've also got Black Hand (whom I think Sarsgaard could've played pretty well) and Nekron too for villains. There's also Atrocitus. I think the film made a mistake in smushing Krona-Parallax-Legion together. Each of them could've been separate villains for different films.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

The Green Lantern is one of DC's biggest heroes and the film was mostly loyal to the source material so WHAT WENT WRONG?

 

[Thundercrack85]

Bad writing, bad acting, bad pacing... pretty much everything.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Ultimately they didn't sell the concept of GL to the public not to mention that the movie on its own merits was just mediocre.

 

[KalMart]

Green Lantern: What went wrong?

Just the movie part, apparently.

 

[EliteF50]

I loved it, but I think the issues were due to the script, length, action, CG, and direction. Easy fixes for a possible sequel.

Get a director who knows how to work with CG, hire a screenwriter with experience, get ILM or Weta to do the effects and you're golden!

 

[S.A.A.D.]

I still find it disheartening that we won't see another Green Lantern movie in the future. I'm pretty sure that we will never see another live action Green Lantern movie again.

What I think really happened is that the movie just didn't look good enough to win over enough people and that too many people didn't like the central plot that it had to offer due to being close minded.

 

[KalMart]

I loved it, but I think the issues were due to the script, length, action, CG, and direction. Easy fixes for a possible sequel.

Get a director who knows how to work with CG, hire a screenwriter with experience, get ILM or Weta to do the effects and you're golden!

Or start over later on with that formula, and get it right from the beginning...then you won't have to fix anything with sequels...just build forward, like sequels should do.

 

[The Sage]

Already a thread with this title. Merged...

Anyway, the writing and the editing were the biggest flaws.

 

[dnno1]

Ultimately they didn't sell the concept of GL to the public not to mention that the movie on its own merits was just mediocre.

This is true. Another point is that they let toy manufacturers dictate who the target in this film (kids) without making it appeal to (adult) critics. I know that on the whole critics reviews don't matter but in this case, what's going to motivate a parent to take a child to a film if it gets bad review?

 

[KalMart]

What's going to motivate good reviews if the movie's bad?

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I still find it disheartening that we won't see another Green Lantern movie in the future. I'm pretty sure that we will never see another live action Green Lantern movie again.

What I think really happened is that the movie just didn't look good enough to win over enough people and that too many people didn't like the central plot that it had to offer due to being close minded.

It wasn't that it didn't look good enough, it was just a bad movie and very boring to boot. Way too much time spent with Hal doubting whether he should be a Green Lantern or not.

 

[The Morningstar]

The Green Lantern is one of DC's biggest heroes and the film was mostly loyal to the source material so WHAT WENT WRONG?

Green Lantern comics are overrated garbage. Well, Geoff Johns' ones are anyway.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

I still find it disheartening that we won't see another Green Lantern movie in the future. I'm pretty sure that we will never see another live action Green Lantern movie again.

What I think really happened is that the movie just didn't look good enough to win over enough people and that too many people didn't like the central plot that it had to offer due to being close minded.

Anythang but teh movie bro.

 

[Godzilla2014]

I still find it disheartening that we won't see another Green Lantern movie in the future. I'm pretty sure that we will never see another live action Green Lantern movie again.

What I think really happened is that the movie just didn't look good enough to win over enough people and that too many people didn't like the central plot that it had to offer due to being close minded.

What really happened to Green Lantern was that it was a generic retread of past superhero origin movies instead of tapping into the potential of the source material to make something that stood out from the crowd of superhero films coming out these days.

It wasn't that it didn't look good enough, it was just a bad movie and very boring to boot. Way too much time spent with Hal doubting whether he should be a Green Lantern or not.

Pretty much.