Will audiences accept yellow as a weakness for the Lanterns?

[Watson]

As all us dedicated Green Lantern fans know, yellow is to Green Lanterns as kryptonite is to Superman. The comics have done a good job of fleshing this concept out so that is believable, especially now that we know about the colour spectrum of lanterns.

That's all well and good, but for average Joe movie goer, will the yellow impurity make any sense or be believable? I worry about this because it's come up in conversation with my non-nerd friends. They heard about the Reynolds casting, and naturally they come to me, thier nerdy friend, for info. They're all on board with the GL concept UNTIL I get to the yellow flaw explanation. As soon as I try to explain it to them they think it's stupid and laugh. And I do see thier point. GL is a superhero, unless someone attacks him with a daffodil (just joking, but still).

So here's my question. What does this movie need to do to get audiences to take the leap of faith and believe that yellow is a big bad? Should the film introduce the emotional spectrum earlier then it is in the comics? Should we get hints of Parallax? I honestly don't know how it should be done, but I do think it is really important that it be explained. It could make a difference in how coherent the film is and how well audiences respond to it.

So, discuss.


PS Obviously I haven't read the script. I'm interested in what they did there but maybe keep it to tags so that the rest of us can speculate if we want.

 

[dnno1]

This guy is just too powerful without some type of weakness. Either you use yellow (maybe as a joke) or the fact that you have to use a lot of willpower to command the ring to do things -- or something like that I guess. I think you might loose some of the audience if they thought that Green Lantern was too powerful.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Or you don't even have to touch it. There will be a lot going on and tons for the uninitiated to absorb right out of the gate. A weakness can be mentioned maybe, but save fully addressing it for a sequel.

 

[Webhead2006]

I think if the script writes it in well and in a believe way the whole yellow thing could work out and the general movie goers would understand it.

 

[AnorexicBatman]

The script actually hints to the emotional spectrum. It says that a lantern's greatest weakness is the "Light of Fear" which just happens to look yellow...

They say Fear instead of yellow or as a dialog goes:
Sinestro to the Guardians: "You know that there is a more powerful light" which in turn refers to Legion/Parallax. The very physical manisfestation of fear

 

[JAK®]

The script actually hints to the emotional spectrum. It says that a lantern's greatest weakness is the "Light of Fear" which just happens to look yellow...

They say Fear instead of yellow or as a dialog goes:
Sinestro to the Guardians: "You know that there is a more powerful light" which in turn refers to Legion/Parallax. The very physical manisfestation of fear

This is actually a very good way of including the weakness.

 

[AnorexicBatman]

Which is exactly how it is in the (Blackest Night) comics....

I WISH STUDIOS WOULD UNDERSTAND THAT!!!
50 YEARS OF MYTHOS MEANS SOMETHING ASSHATS!!!

 

[hYPE]

This guy is just too powerful without some type of weakness. Either you use yellow (maybe as a joke) or the fact that you have to use a lot of willpower to command the ring to do things -- or something like that I guess. I think you might loose some of the audience if they thought that Green Lantern was too powerful.

That is going to be one of the ultimate questions. Most definitely the element of the rings weakness might not come across all to well, depending on if its done right.

 

[terry78]

It's the same principle as people making fun of Aquaman for not having useful powers, even though he pretty much has superhuman everything. Comedians have cracked jokes about GL for a while, saying all you have to do is throw a lemon at his ass and he's screwed, or something like that.

 

[dnno1]

Pretty much like this.

 

[Watson]

Pretty much like this.

heh heh.

The script actually hints to the emotional spectrum. It says that a lantern's greatest weakness is the "Light of Fear" which just happens to look yellow...

They say Fear instead of yellow or as a dialog goes:
Sinestro to the Guardians: "You know that there is a more powerful light" which in turn refers to Legion/Parallax. The very physical manisfestation of fear

Definitely prefer the way that it's explained here, but they are going to need to explain it well to make sense to the audience.

 

[Paradox1]

I'm a not big fan of the GL but I've read enough DC Comics to know who they are, and what they are. I had thought the color yellow was gone from being weakness but I guess not. As a movie goer if Green Lantern is fighting somebody and they jump infront of a caution sign and his blast is deflected or whatever this movies is gonna laughed right out of theaters by critics and the average movie goer as well. There is noway you can explain that ,that would make sense. Its just a horrible horrible character flaw in the GL I say they just dismiss the whole thing and stick to a good story forget the whole yellow weakness. I can imagine there are enough powerful enemies like Sinestro, or those Robots, or Darkseid to make the battles worthwhile without them having to pull out a caution sign or hiring Mr. Burns.

By the Way I hope they please find a way to get Kilowog in the movie he's my favorite GL.

 

[Octoberist]

I think there's a misconception of the 'yellow' weakness but after reading some of the comics, I completely buy it as a weakness..

 

[MagicPrime]

If the embrace even the most basic premise of the emotional spectrum then they can push Fear/Yellow off as a weakness.

Even so far as an opening voice over explaining the origins of the universe.

Have a big star field with 6 stars glowing brightly in the colors of the emotional spectrum.

 

[Doctor Jones]

No, the audience will laugh, unless they're creative as hell.

If we see GL run away from lemonade or stops a gold heist than that means a good laugh to the audience.

ASB&R made a hilarious point about this. And they are right if it's straight up yellow they're dealing with.

 

[Grommers]

Just got to say there is different energys, green...yellow...green is weak to yellow energy and just make some space terms with it. saying that starcumbustual particles interact with us based on our will power, some take the form of yellow others green, and yellow owns green.

 

[Perfect Cell]

I think it'd be ok if they said the GL's were weak against the yellow light of fear, which could lead to the Sinestro Corps in future sequels, but I definitely think it would come off as ridiculous if a GL is suddenly useless around a pencil or a school bus.

 

[dnno1]

If the embrace even the most basic premise of the emotional spectrum then they can push Fear/Yellow off as a weakness.

Even so far as an opening voice over explaining the origins of the universe.

Have a big star field with 6 stars glowing brightly in the colors of the emotional spectrum.

That's an intresting concept. Fear (Paralax) finds it's strength in the color yellow just as vampires find their strenght in darkness, and it would not be so much a weakness to yellow that Green Lanterns have buy being able to spot the presence of fear hiding behind the color (I am being metaphoric here). What if the ring had trouble detecting an agent of fear when he used yellow as a guise?

 

[JeetKuneDo]

I'm a not big fan of the GL but I've read enough DC Comics to know who they are, and what they are. I had thought the color yellow was gone from being weakness but I guess not. As a movie goer if Green Lantern is fighting somebody and they jump infront of a caution sign and his blast is deflected or whatever this movies is gonna laughed right out of theaters by critics and the average movie goer as well. There is noway you can explain that ,that would make sense. Its just a horrible horrible character flaw in the GL I say they just dismiss the whole thing and stick to a good story forget the whole yellow weakness. I can imagine there are enough powerful enemies like Sinestro, or those Robots, or Darkseid to make the battles worthwhile without them having to pull out a caution sign or hiring Mr. Burns.

By the Way I hope they please find a way to get Kilowog in the movie he's my favorite GL.

I agree. Some things from comics just have to go. It's not all gold. Knowing the difference is key I guess.

Like with Spider-Man. They knew to get the costume right...but got rid of the webshooters. A big improvement. The comic should have done it that way. The explanation that Peter Parker is "the world's foremost expert on webbing" just sounds silly. Mighty convenient that he would achieve that just in time to build himself some webshooters, eh?

 

[Wesley Dodds]

I don't see his weakness against yellow being a problem, particularly because in the script it's kind of downplayed. It's never directly referred to as Yellow. It's called the 'light of fear'... Hinting at the fact they'll bring in the emotional spectrum in later movies.

Also, now that we know Johns has worked on the script, i want them to bring in the idea that only rookies who have yet to overcome gret fear are powerless against yellow.
By the end of the movie, I want hal to overcome it. leaving him of it for future films...

 

[Watson]

I agree. Some things from comics just have to go. It's not all gold. Knowing the difference is key I guess.

Like with Spider-Man. They knew to get the costume right...but got rid of the webshooters. A big improvement. The comic should have done it that way. The explanation that Peter Parker is "the world's foremost expert on webbing" just sounds silly. Mighty convenient that he would achieve that just in time to build himself some webshooters, eh?

Oh dear, lets not start that debate up .

 

[Doctor Jones]

It was the right thing to do. Watson were you against it? If so, it makes logical sense.

 

[The Guard]

You're asking if in a movie about a man who has a magic green ring that can create green objects...if the audience will buy that there is a yellow impurity/weakness to that power?

The script handled it just fine. I'm sure the movie will, as well. It's absurd, but so are a LOT of elements of the mythology.

 

[terry78]

Watch that Brave and the Bold ep. The Eyes of Despero again. When Bats, who is powered up a GL suit(lordy) and Sinestro are captured in yellow rings by Despero, Sinestro is like, "focus your willpower...when that's done, there is nothing I...we...can't do." And they break free of them, even though they're obviously supposed to neutralize the power rings.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I would do it subtly. Like they did it in the script. Don't say it outright. Just allude to it but go about it differently.

Who knows? The audience could just see the yellow light as just a weakness and not think of the yellow, they'll just think of it that nutrilizes them.