Green Lantern: The Early Reviews Are Bad. Really Bad.
By
Acemace,
Posted on: 2011-06-16 04:32 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
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yes, yes; Ryan the goofball Reynolds gave us Hal the Hero when he dashed to the ship to get Abin out. As to Abin in danger of drowning, I think it was more like he saw someone or something in this case that was clearly injured and went to help. |
Originally Posted by Veritech
Was it really that big of a deal they didn't take the simulator? Worse if it had, then the government types wouldve known exactly who to look at once GL showed up. The important part is that upon seeing Abin Sur in danger of drowning, he jumped in to help.
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As to the simulator, GL: First Flight got it right with it being an enclosed simulator that Hal as the new GL could return and then slip into it to change back to his flight suit while counting on the green glow to mask his appearance as he flew over Ferris air. Then Hal pretends to not know what happened when he asked "Was there an earthquake?"
Something like that could have been done for this movie.
I'm honestly stumped as to what was worse:
1. the overall writing/characterization of the movie
2. Ryan Reynolds as Hal. Would another in the role of Hal Jordan helped salvage this movie? Also this version of Hal we got wasn't just from Emerald Dawn but I also had bad flashbacks to Tom Cruise' character from Top Gun.......ugh.
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I think it's safe to say Abin was going to die from the gaping wound before he could have drowned.|
Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
Was he going to drown? I just remember seeing him hurt. o.O
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If they do a sequel I wouldn't mind part of the plot being about Amanda Waller and the govt. wanting to get ahold of Hal for two reasons:
1. He has alien technology in the form of the ring. You just know the govt. would LOVE to study both the ring and the power battery.
2. He has had contact with other alien races. Show me a scientist or govt. agent that wouldn't love to spend time with Hal chatting about the other races.
I finally saw Green Lantern on Friday afternoon. It was better than I expected from all of the negative reviews. I'm not a Green Lantern fan . . . I know some about the character from having been exposed to comics over the years, but really didn't know the details of the character from a rabid fan's point of view. To me there seem to be three levels of CBMs -- ones that have "what were they thinking" scenes are mostly bad. Then there are the decently OK ones, but could have been better. Then there are the ones with good characters, stories and acting. I would rank Green Lantern in the middle group.
I thought it was a decent film -- certainly not great, but I would certainly rank it above a number of other comic book films that contained clear failures. It did not have the failures of things that just didn't fit, like much of Superman Returns, or the playground scene in Daredevil, or the poor casting of Reed and Susan in Fantastic Four. I thought Hal Jordan should have been more intense, and Reynolds just has this flippant aura. His humor was OK in a few scenes . . . I think Nathan Fillion or someone who came across as more intense would have been better. Reynolds would make a better Flash, and could certainly play Deadpool well.
The chemistry between Reynolds and Lively was OK -- not as good as some but better than several genre films (like the Star Wars prequels or Fantastic Four). A good CBM usually needs a great villain, and Paralax was an amorphus threat without personality. Hammond came across as whiney, a boy who was mad because his daddy wasn't proud of him. But the film did not have the horrible plot holes that bad CBMs often have. It set up the final confrontation so that it did not come out of nowhere. It was still an entertaining film and I don't mind having spent the money to go see it.
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I saw it. I liked it. I don't trust Rotten Tomatoes any more. I think a lot of critics have a fundamental disconnect with movies that have heavy fantasy or science fiction elements.
I didn't see this movie expecting a heavy plot, bravura acting performances, deep philosophical subtexts, or a commentary on social issues. I just wanted to see the spectacle of a superhero visiting alien planets, fighting space monsters, and winning the girl. I'm not hard to please.
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RT simply reports the percentage of reviews that were positive, meaning 3 out of 5 stars or better. Right now it's about 1 in 4 "positive".
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Originally Posted by Pouncer
I saw it. I liked it. I don't trust Rotten Tomatoes any more.
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Currently the audience meter show more than half liked it. The difference between the critics' score and the audience score on this particular movie is much wider than normal.
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
RT simply reports the percentage of reviews that were positive, meaning 3 out of 5 stars or better. Right now it's about 1 in 4 "positive".
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Yes 58%. However if every review was 58% then the RT score would be 0, that's just the way their system works.
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Originally Posted by Pouncer
Currently the audience meter show more than half liked it. The difference between the critics' score and the audience score on this particular movie is much wider than normal.
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Just saw the movie and to me it felt "disjointed". There are alot of cool scenes, but together, it didn't make a movie. Hammond felt like a filler to close the gap until Parallax came to Earth. They could have given us more backround story and a real fight between Parallax and the Corps and simply did away the the Hammond character all together.
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...lantern-205703
Well it looks like despite the movie's performance at the box office, Warner's is contemplating a sequel.
Please fire Ryan Reynolds.
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More like please fire the writers.|
Originally Posted by Nericus
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...lantern-205703
Well it looks like despite the movie's performance at the box office, Warner's is contemplating a sequel. Please fire Ryan Reynolds. |
I'll write it for free, WB! >.>
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Different writers would be nice, but Ryan Reynolds is no Hal Jordan.
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Originally Posted by CaptainFoamerang
More like please fire the writers.
I'll write it for free, WB! >.> |
Fire the writer, tell the CGI to polish it up more, less Love story and more boom.
Get some good writers, and polish the CGI effects, then ill make the determination if Ryan can do Hal. Also, if im going to pay extra for 3d, use it more then 2 scenes.
Well the weekend estimates are out. Let's compare them to the rest of the "Summer" blockbusters 2nd weekend. I didn't include movies whose 2nd weekend earned less than $1000 per theater.
-62.4% - Fast Five
-47.2% - Thor
-53.6% - Jumping the Broom
-50.7% - Something Borrowed
-20.4% - Bridesmaids
-68.2% - Priest
-55.8% - PotC4
-63.5% - Hangover 2
-49.9% - Kung Fu Panda 2
-56.2% - X-Men: First Class
-39.4% - Super 8
-66.1% - Green Lantern (-65.5% preliminary)
-45.0% - Mr. Popper's Penguins (-44.2% preliminary)
Maybe three major comic book movies in 8 weeks is over saturating the theater goer a bit. Let's see if Cap's reviews suffer. Or maybe GL will act as a intermezzo.
Edit: final weekend numbers
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Yeah you'd think they'd wanted to spread em out a bit more. This summer was so front loaded with comicbook/action films. I look at the list of movies, I have so many I wanted to see in June, and then Only Captain America for July. (Transformers's release was bumped up to June 29th from July 1st.) I'm sure someone out there going well if I can only see one, then they re skiping something. | Maybe three major comic book movies in 8 weeks is over saturating the theater goer a bit. Let's see if Cap's reviews suffer. Or maybe GL will act as a intermezzo. |
Heck I was going skip POTC:Stranger Tides for precisely this reason if it wasn't in the cheap theathers tonight. (Just got back from it, was decent. Better than 2/3 but not quite as good as the first. ) Something is gotta give in the budget.
With DC Green Lantern being their sole property out this year you,d think they of all people wouldn't have wanted to overlap with 3 marvel films at once. Is coming out in August that big of a problem? heh. (I like when movies come out on my birthday.) I wouldn't be surprised if this hinder all films involved a bit.
DC really needs support the Green Lantern and keep it going with a sequel. Im sure all extra stuff (such as toys and DVD release. ) will likely help offset the cost of the film. I dont doubt a sequel could have a much tighter focus sicne they got their foot in the door with the public so they don't need fill in as much backstory and give us main event we're all looking for.
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Well they bumped up Transformers since it's a long July 4th holiday period and people travel.
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with more and more comic movie coming out where the titular characters and their origins are known I think more people are beginning to ask, "Why are not using the source material?"
This isn't a complex thing. You have a popular character that you want to launch as a movie franchise... there is a reason that character is popular and there is a reason that certain stories are considered great and they are all easily converted into movie format.
Go look at Emerald dawn or Secret Origins. Both of those stories are well done and both could be made into a movie with almost no problems. The fact that movie studios and directors don't understand this is making people start to wonder.
I mean, the argument for why Black leather was used instead of blue and yellow spandex... look at new class, the didn't use spandex but something that looks like the X-men and doesn't look bad. Look at Spiderman 1 and 2 which is pretty much taken directly from Ultimate Spiderman 1-14. Look at Thor and Ironman. They kept to the character and didn't change them and they're all great movies.
How about Watchmen? Great movie
Kick-***? Entertaining movie
Now look at superman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, and now GL... They moved away from the character's source material and they do badly.
It seems so frickin simple and easy. Take out the 6 issue arc TPBs and make movies out of them. They're practically done for you. All you have to do is follow what the TPB does and you make money. Why would they not do that?
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Well, isn't more of WB supporting GL than DC? I think if they're smart they'll try. But if it bombs, I think they'll either wash the whole thing or reboot it down the line. :/
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Originally Posted by Lastjustice
Yeah you'd think they'd wanted to spread em out a bit more. This summer was so front loaded with comicbook/action films. I look at the list of movies, I have so many I wanted to see in June, and then Only Captain America for July. (Transformers's release was bumped up to June 29th from July 1st.) I'm sure someone out there going well if I can only see one, then they re skiping something.
Heck I was going skip POTC:Stranger Tides for precisely this reason if it wasn't in the cheap theathers tonight. (Just got back from it, was decent. Better than 2/3 but not quite as good as the first. ) Something is gotta give in the budget. With DC Green Lantern being their sole property out this year you,d think they of all people wouldn't have wanted to overlap with 3 marvel films at once. Is coming out in August that big of a problem? heh. (I like when movies come out on my birthday.) I wouldn't be surprised if this hinder all films involved a bit. DC really needs support the Green Lantern and keep it going with a sequel. Im sure all extra stuff (such as toys and DVD release. ) will likely help offset the cost of the film. I dont doubt a sequel could have a much tighter focus sicne they got their foot in the door with the public so they don't need fill in as much backstory and give us main event we're all looking for. |
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Let's see. Thor had better reviews and was new to being made a movie so it's drop is on the good side. X-Men got better reviews, but this was the fourth X-Men movie so a significant drop off is expected. Hulk got decently positive reviews, but was a reboot. A 66% drop off means you have no legs for a franchise in it's current incarnation and even a reboot has little hope, see Hulk.|
Originally Posted by Nericus
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...lantern-205703
Well it looks like despite the movie's performance at the box office, Warner's is contemplating a sequel. |
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| Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said the movie is settling in, pointing out that fanboy pics often see a significant drop-off in their second weekends. |
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I finally got around to seeing the movie this weekend, and personally I thought it was not as bad as the reviewers have been saying. I don't think it was poor quality so much as it was much more shallow than the bar has been set for comic book movies. Even Thor seemed slightly deeper, and I think it had stronger performances overall. But still, given where you have to start, with a guy with a magic green ring given to him by blue aliens, it was I thought appropriate for the material.|
Originally Posted by Durakken
The ring that hal doesn't know how to use randomly started speaking off screen and told hal that it has been scanning for yellow energy... a thing there are no signs of it could do nor that it would be doing cuz noone asked it to and then told Hal where or how to find it... AND Hal who hasn't accepted his role decides to go and fight it despite not know what the ring would be meaning nor would it care that that there was "yellow energy" in the area.
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I am puzzled by why there is any remotely controversial discussion about this particular point mentioned above, though. First of all, the ring was established in the movie to be able to communicate information to the wearer that it thought was important. It communicated the oath to him, and on Oa it communicated background information about the Green Lantern Corps without specifically being asked.
Why tell Hal about mini-Paralax? Because whatever he told the Corp, the ring chose him to be the lantern of that sector, and the ring was therefore alerting Hal to a threat to that sector that was high enough to be significant to the Corp. It would not alert him to every cat stuck in a tree, but someone wielding Paralax's power on Earth might have registered as a more serious threat. The ring isn't omniscient, so it can't just automatically finger Hammond until Hammond either uses enough power all at once or transforms enough for the ring to classify him as a threat.
And why did Hal respond? Probably the same reason he responded at the party. The ring probably didn't "talk" to him so much as communicate on a more visceral level. Hal got the sense that people were in danger, and Hal is one of those people that responds to that feeling on instinct. When given time to think, when his self confidence is challenged as on Oa, he tends to run away. But when the ring said "fire" Hal ran towards the fire instead of away, which is his nature.
None of this seems to remotely strain reasonable logic. Now, how 3600 Lanterns can patrol the entire universe, good luck with that one.
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Back in some older issues of GL there were times when Hal would ask the ring to locate danger and it would guide him to the trouble but not tell him what the trouble was. When Hal "resigned" back in the 80's before the first Crisis, John Stewart is promoted from backup GL of 2814 to full time GL. While flying around Earth he asked the ring to locate a source of trouble and the ring formed a green arrow pointing straight up. This led him to a damaged space shuttle in orbit. |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I finally got around to seeing the movie this weekend, and personally I thought it was not as bad as the reviewers have been saying. I don't think it was poor quality so much as it was much more shallow than the bar has been set for comic book movies. Even Thor seemed slightly deeper, and I think it had stronger performances overall. But still, given where you have to start, with a guy with a magic green ring given to him by blue aliens, it was I thought appropriate for the material.
I am puzzled by why there is any remotely controversial discussion about this particular point mentioned above, though. First of all, the ring was established in the movie to be able to communicate information to the wearer that it thought was important. It communicated the oath to him, and on Oa it communicated background information about the Green Lantern Corps without specifically being asked. Why tell Hal about mini-Paralax? Because whatever he told the Corp, the ring chose him to be the lantern of that sector, and the ring was therefore alerting Hal to a threat to that sector that was high enough to be significant to the Corp. It would not alert him to every cat stuck in a tree, but someone wielding Paralax's power on Earth might have registered as a more serious threat. The ring isn't omniscient, so it can't just automatically finger Hammond until Hammond either uses enough power all at once or transforms enough for the ring to classify him as a threat. And why did Hal respond? Probably the same reason he responded at the party. The ring probably didn't "talk" to him so much as communicate on a more visceral level. Hal got the sense that people were in danger, and Hal is one of those people that responds to that feeling on instinct. When given time to think, when his self confidence is challenged as on Oa, he tends to run away. But when the ring said "fire" Hal ran towards the fire instead of away, which is his nature. None of this seems to remotely strain reasonable logic. Now, how 3600 Lanterns can patrol the entire universe, good luck with that one. |
So yes the rings can detect trouble and lead the GL to it but not necessarily tell them what it is. Also after his first encounter with Hammond the ring may well have detected Parallax energy/influence in Hammond and Hal knew that Hammond was key to getting to Parallax.
As to only 3600 GL's for the entire universe....yeah....that is a bit of a low number. After GL:Rebirth it was increased to 7200 so that two lanterns per sector so that each could back each other up but that still seems a bit low for the entire universe
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I know the rings have this ability in the comics, but I was specifically pointing out the in-movie justification.|
Originally Posted by Nericus
Back in some older issues of GL there were times when Hal would ask the ring to locate danger and it would guide him to the trouble but not tell him what the trouble was. When Hal "resigned" back in the 80's before the first Crisis, John Stewart is promoted from backup GL of 2814 to full time GL. While flying around Earth he asked the ring to locate a source of trouble and the ring formed a green arrow pointing straight up. This led him to a damaged space shuttle in orbit.
So yes the rings can detect trouble and lead the GL to it but not necessarily tell them what it is. Also after his first encounter with Hammond the ring may well have detected Parallax energy/influence in Hammond and Hal knew that Hammond was key to getting to Parallax. As to only 3600 GL's for the entire universe....yeah....that is a bit of a low number. After GL:Rebirth it was increased to 7200 so that two lanterns per sector so that each could back each other up but that still seems a bit low for the entire universe |
As to the low number of Lanterns, it made somewhat more sense when they were the Guardians of the Galaxy. A few thousand Lanterns for the Milky Way would be spread thin, but if you assume cosmic crimes don't happen often its not too bad. You end up with each Lantern patrolling a volume maybe 1500x1500x1500 light years. That's somewhat better than every Lantern having a couple billion light year cube all to themselves.
Maybe the Guardians of the Universe exaggerate, because the Guardians of the Local Group just doesn't impress ladies.
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More like Guardians of the known universe heh. I just picture they divided up as much as they felt like patrolling and left the rest to fend for themselves.(The Kirbylee system...ah it's the ghetto of space....I'm not going there. Take it off the charts.) I mean they had the one issue where there were new races discovered that were blind so they had make the oath about sounds. All reality too big to cover...even if you're an immortal blue yoda.
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I'm going to agree with Durakken on something -- "Emerald Dawn" would have made a terrific movie. Not just a terrific Green Lantern movie, but a terrific movie. There's enough there to give you Hal Jordan's angst, the hint of a love story with Carol Ferris, AND would have put Sinestro (you know, Green Lantern's deadliest foe) front and center as the villain instead of a lousy CGI hackfest.|
Originally Posted by Durakken
Go look at Emerald dawn or Secret Origins. Both of those stories are well done and both could be made into a movie with almost no problems. The fact that movie studios and directors don't understand this is making people start to wonder.
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The abomination currently in theaters is a massively wasted opportunity.
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Actually the Hal we got in this movie seemed to be from Emerald Dawn. A bit whiney, arrogant of his abilities, self centered, irresponsible, completely screwed up from watching his father die......|
Originally Posted by Defenestrator
I'm going to agree with Durakken on something -- "Emerald Dawn" would have made a terrific movie. Not just a terrific Green Lantern movie, but a terrific movie. There's enough there to give you Hal Jordan's angst, the hint of a love story with Carol Ferris, AND would have put Sinestro (you know, Green Lantern's deadliest foe) front and center as the villain instead of a lousy CGI hackfest.
The abomination currently in theaters is a massively wasted opportunity. |
Now having Legion from Emerald Dawn as the enemy instead of Parallax would have been cool, and we could have saved Sinestro as the enemy and Parallax for the sequel.
Also Sinestro's comment to Hal at the end of this movie about how Hal is arrogant, outspoken, headstrong, brash, etc etc....and that Abin Sur found one just like him to replace him.......that was what the Guardians said about Hal at the end of Emerald Dawn.
Hal suddenly being whisked away from Earth by the ring to Oa and the first alien GL he meets is Tomar-Re is also from Emerald Dawn. Tomar giving Hal some basic instruction and history of the GLC and the Guardians is from Emerald Dawn. Kilowog being Hal's drill sargeant/trainer is also from Emerald Dawn.
To me this movie borrowed a bit heavily from Emerald Dawn and just cut/pasted Parallax from the whole GL:Rebirth and current GL series into it.
The GL animated movie First Flight also had a nice Emerald Dawn tribute in it: when Hal entered the deactivated CPB and chipped away some of the yellow from the green crystal and then basically became one with the power itself, everyone sees the release of the power on the horizon......like an Emerald Dawn.....
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