Mr_Awesomeness

Originally Posted by Mandu

Ok. You want a full discussion of why I disagree with you then here you go. I did not find the rest of the movie boring and trite. I found it engaging and interesting. The only parts I didn't like were Hammond who was in my opinion played very poorly by Sarsgaard. I just plain didn't like the character. If others did then I'm not going to say that they are wrong. It's their opinion. It just doesn't match mine.

However also in my opinion you are beyond wrong when you say the Tomar-Re "Now we're going to fly" scene was stupid. Hal has to be introduced to the abilities of the ring somehow. You don't just assume that he will now be able to do anything he wants. You start with something that is simple for the ring but impossible without it. It serves the exact same purpose as the building jump scene in The Matrix. It introduces a character to what is possible. In fact it's likely that most recruits who try the flight wind up hesitating and also wind up pulling a Neo and falling. The difference is that for Hal flying was everything so he took to it naturally and instantly.

Sinestro and Kilowog randomly attacking Hal? There was a good strong reason behind each of their attacks.

Sinestro in the movie was just like he was in the comics. Maybe not the exact same history but the exact same attitude. Might makes right and those who are competent should lead while those who are not should get out of the way. No human has ever been chosen by the ring. And the race hasn't even achieved interplanetary travel let alone inter system travel. He considers them primitive and not ready for the ring. On top of that there is a powerful force attacking the corps and they just plain don't have time to be training noobs when their very existence is threatened. His whole idea in attacking Hal was to show the Guardians and Hal himself just how unworthy humans are. Especially considering that Hal had the ring of the greatest Lantern ever who was also Sinestro's trainer. He considered it an insult to the memory of Abin Sur that a mere human had his ring.

Kilowog attacking Hal had the exact same purpose as Tomar-Re's flight lesson. To show him what the ring could do. And it did point out exactly that. He got Hal to instinctively create a couple constructs. Showed him that his attention could not be focused just on creating the construction but that he rather had to be aware of the many possible dangers of space while simultaneously using his ring. And it showed him something that they have stated many times in the comic without the need to actually state it. That the ring will protect the wearer from harm even if he isn't prepared. Kilowogs surprise punch slammed Hal back into the ground but didn't even stun him. Lesson learned and emphasized. Be aware but don't be worried. Kilowog is a drill sergeant, not some welcome wagon carrying a fruit basket and pie for the new poozer.

The ring alerting Hal to danger? Try to pay attention to what is actually going on in the movie. Hal was told "Your ring will alert you to danger". I can't actually remember what scene it was right now but Hal was specifically told, just after his ring dinged twice that the ring alerts you to danger.

And how could you possibly think the ring wouldn't know Parallax was a danger? Let's see. The rings are all connected to the central power battery which feeds information to all of them. Thus they know when there is some event in a different sector or on Oa that they are expected to respond to. But even ignoring that there is another reason. This ring belonged to Abin Sur. You've heard of Abin Sur haven't you? He was in the movie? He's the guy who originally imprisoned Parallax. He's the guy who was attacked and fatally injured by Parallax? Saying that the ring wouldn't know that Parallax is a danger is like saying that Obi Wan wouldn't know Darth Vader was dangerous and would have no way of communicating that to Luke.

How did Hal find Hammond? How was Hal warned of Parallax? The same way as before. The ring alerts Hal to danger and probably does something to indicate the direction of the danger leading him in that direction. No there is no direct statement that the ring will point you in the direction of the danger but you can probably safely make that assumption. It's a sophisticated device. Not a smoke alarm with low batteries. Why did it alert to Hammond when he was an unknown? Because Hammond's power came from Parallax. Did you miss that part? Just in case you did Hammond was infected by Parallax when he pricked his finger on a bit of Parallax that was left in Abin Sur's wound. Multiple times we saw his blood being checked by himself or others and saw that the red blood cells were being coated by yellow crystals or perhaps yellow energy. This was part of Parallax and was where he was getting his power. So the ring detected him as having power coming from Parallax and so being a danger.

Hal would call the Guardians rather than attack Parallax alone? We saw Hal shown how to fly with the ring. We saw Hal shown how to fight with the ring. Did you see Hal shown how to communicate with the ring? even if he was shown how to use it why do you think he would call them? He had basically just told them "Screw you guys, I'm going home." He probably wouldn't expect any help from them. And even if he did call the Guardians do you think he would just wait around watching Parallax kill people until the other Lanterns showed up? If you do then you have no concept of what a hero is. Most especially a hero whose prime attribute is the ability to overcome fear.

So why didn't the ring place a distress call? Gee I don't know. Perhaps you missed the end of the movie. The part where the other Lanterns showed up too late to fight Parallax. Or possibly showed up in time to help fight but chose to watch and see how Hal was handling things. What did you think happened if not an alert from the ring? Did you really picture Kilowog saying "Yo dawgs. Let's go randomly hang out around Earth and see what Hal is doing."? Obviously something alerted them that Parallax was on Earth and that's why they showed up so soon after Hal started fighting. It was a matter of only a few minutes after the beginning of the Parallax fight that the other Lanterns showed up. They had to have been alerted in some way.

See what I mean when I say you don't pay attention? This is why I tell people to not bother arguing with you.

you

do

not

pay

attention

I saw it multiple times in the SGU threads where you would start jumping in and arguing about things that completely contradicted everything that actually happened in the episode. Heck, I even watched you arguing with people about how something was completely absurd and made no sense. And you hadn't even watched the episode but were just making assumptions based off of the previews you had seen the week before.

Plus, you assume that your particular like or dislike of a character must apply to everybody. If you don't like the way Sinestro's history was changed then nobody could possibly like it. But you are very very wrong Durakken. And there was actually very little changed about Sinestro let alone twisted as you seem to think. He was still an arrogant egotist who believed that leadership must be through power. The two things that changed were that he wasn't kicked out of the Corps before getting the yellow ring. And that he got the ring from a different source. Which I personally consider a vast improvement over the original comic book version. It eliminates the whole antimatter universe and the Weaponers of Quard which were not a very good concept to begin with.

It's actually a great relief to me that they eliminated the whole Qward subplot because when I see the sequel to the movie I don't want to watch the first 60 minutes be taken up with Sinestro floating around the antimatter universe and getting the ring from the Weaponers. I want to see Sinestro abusing his power, attacking the Guardians, and getting his butt kicked.

So here is what I am saying. You are capable of intelligent discussions. But there is no point in even attempting those kind of discussions with you in cases like this where you once again obviously only watched about half of what was going on and filled in the rest with your assumptions.

Now you have my counter points to your arguments. Feel free to counterpoint my counterpoints once you have actually watched the movie.