Green Lantern: The Early Reviews Are Bad. Really Bad.

Just tossing in that Redbox did their review where the reviewer openly admits they weren't looking forward to the movie and still gave it a 3 star rating.

Link

I have to say I liked it. So did my father (went for father's day) and he collected the Green Lantern comics back in the 40's and 50's so his word is good enough for me

I like Green Lantern, I'm not a big fan, but I'm not a stranger to the story either. I have long since learned to 'turn my brain off' to a lot of the technical aspects of a film and just watch it.

The CGI wasn't bad but in a few places where you could see the 'zippers' so to speak. The acting was good enough... The biggest complaint was a few areas of pacing seemed off somehow, but there was a lot of story to get through.

At the end of the day, it's an action movie about a popular comic book hero. I liked the theme they were trying to present (I actually liked the Parallax origin story and look far better than the comic one). For those who think Parallax looked like a big dust creature, watch carefully for the faces stretched in agony and the skeletons of its victims reaching out to pull others in over the length of its psuedopods. I liked the character of Hal Jordan. Not exactly the way he was presented originally in the comics, but this one fit into the story well with the theme of awakening the courage within himself. I can see the Hal Jordan we know being better represented in sequels, or a JLA movie, if they do either. This was about him maturing and 'coming into his own' responsibilies.

All and all a fun film. I think we need to stop over analyzing these movies for the most part and just enjoy them for what they are, or they're going to stop making them.

http://www.ew.com/ew/package/0,,2048...html?hpt=hp_t2

Looks like GL is #1 this weekend with 52 million in revenue.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

The critics are not "nerdraging" or "not getting it"

Let me put it this way...
There are very few movies that are less than passable... and those that are, are often so bad that they provide a laugh at how crappy they are which makes them better then an "average" movie

So to say that "Oh I enjoyed watching it" well no ****... Most if not all movies that are in a genre you like are going to be "enjoyble" to some degree. Does that may it good? No.

But it's good... right? No. Even if I take out the fact that it is GL it is not a good movie. They is crappy cuts and horrible story pacing and far too much focus on things they shouldn't have and far too little on things they should have. The movie based on it's on merits is mediocre at best and bad at worst since most film grads would never make the type of errors in this movie's editing.

But let's add in the fact that it is GL... The characters have none of the characteristics from the comics OR those characteristics are the faux version that can often be mistaken for the right version if glanced at...and when you write from a place you just glanced at the source material it shows. This is why Hal Jordan is not Hal, Sinestro is not Sinestro, The Guardians are not the Guardians, Hector Hammond is not Hector Hammond, and Carol Ferris is not Carol Ferris. And that's just characterization and not the facts of the story like the planet they landed on is supposed to be the home of the Red Lanterns, the Guardians would have told Sinestro it's stupid to form yellow rings because that's not how it works, and there is no more yellow impurity because parallax isn't in the battery any more, Oh and lets not go into the fact that Parallax doesn't look like a bug anymore, which its design is based off the innate fear that man has.. or just how ugly the costumes are...even in comic format.

Oh, and what about the writing. Its bad and doesn't seem to even pay attention to itself. The Omniscient Narrator speaks 2 or 3 times... once at the beginning and once somewhere in the middle. The narrator tells you the wrong information when it says "Green Lanterns are without fear" not once but twice (different ways mind you) and yet the whole friggin point of the movie is not that a GL is without fear, but rather has the ability to OVERCOME fear.

So I'm looking at a bad to mediocre film on its own merits then it gets almost every element of its license wrong and lets tie in the fact it cost, what? 300 million dollars to make? where as I can probably name several low budget high quality movies that are way better in every aspect or perhaps we can compare it to it's own genre family of adaptation superhero movies that are far better with less...in almost every aspect.

The movie has all that against it... and then you look at the potential and how disappointing the movie is to anyone that recognizes good film making and knows the story and the disappointment makes the 1* rating seem generous.



And as far as those saying "it doesn't have to get the elements right" I'm sorry, but I pay money for a Movie of a concept/character whatever. If nothing but the skin of that movie is that, then you are defrauding people in my opinion...and that goes for all media. Movies get away with this crap too much and it is why we don't have good movies coming out any more.

I hate the fact that movies get away with being able to #1 remake the same thing ove3r and over again or make adaptation where as in other mediums that hardly ever happens... and #2 lie about the product that they are delivering to us. They give you a surface experience of this or that license, but the substance is completely lacking and in effect it becomes a completely different product thus making the sales a fraud imo.


And further GL also suffers from the fact it opened against Thor which is at the heart of the matter the same movie done better for the same amount and is true to it's source material.

So when you combine those 6 (i think) things I mentioned you end up with a movie to anyone with a clue that is utter crap from any direction you look at it.

"Green Lantern" is enjoyable overall, and I had a good time. Quite frankly, I was primarily relieved that it was not a sneering camp-fest take on GL. Hollywood does not look kindly on anyone who sets themselves up a as a foe to "Evil," but fortunately this was not another Batman TV series or something worse.

Super hero films that do very well seem to have one or more of the following: 1) a riveting performance 2) an engaging/compelling story 3) a sense of fun and some "wow." Green Lantern could have easily had more of the last two if the creative team had done just a bit better.

Story: As others have noted, there are scenes that are too short, and others that do not logically flow into each other. Plot holes show up. Logic lapses. There are FOUR writers, and it shows. (If I see one more super hero with "Daddy Issues," I am going to scream, and not only do those get wedged into the plot, our intrepid writers add some "Daddy Issues" for one of the baddies, too. Geez Louise.) The resolutions of the challenges posed by the villains seem pretty sudden and perfunctory. I was not too happy with the notion that Hal Jordan does not appear to know how to use the Ring, and his "training" seems to be having other Green Lanterns tell him that he does not know how to use the Ring while beating him up. And as in most super hero movies where the protagonist is not invulnerable, Hal takes enough injury to incapacitate several ordinary humans and yet keeps on functioning, unless we need him helpless for an involuntary mind-meld. In short, there are annoyances of varying degree in the story overall and in divergence with the GL canon that are bothersome. They are ultimately just that, however, annoyances.

Fun and Wow: A Green Lantern can construct literally ANYTHING, and now with CGI, such flights of fancy can finally be depicted onscreen. I for one was hoping to see something "fun" in the constructs. For example, I was REALLY hoping we would see GL do an Ice Slick in green, complete with baddies slipping and falling as they try to escape. I think audiences would have liked that. Alas, there was nothing really as fun as that, nor any construct that was a WOW, either. There are some reasonably good ones, but not any that you will leave the theater wanting to tell your friends about, and that is too bad. It did not have to be that way.

There is also going to be the same frustration with GL as I have with Superman: If they use their powers to full potential, the fight is over in seconds. There is no dramatic tension. (There is a cartoon in which the Joker tells Batman that he can save either Rachael or Harvey Dent, but he cannot possibly get to both of them, and then Superman suddenly appears carrying the both of them. He then tosses the Joker into outer space and asks Batman if he wants to go get a beer. THAT sort of thing.) GL does not show us what he has very much here, and is more "under-powered" than usual.

HOWEVER

I liked it overall and am glad I saw it.

The movie gets a LOT of things right. The Oath is presented in a straightforward manner with no sniggering. Sinestro looks great and is well presented. The notion that the Ring could seek out one who would combat Evil and have no fear is seen as reasonable, and indeed, correct. (Although I would have laughed if after Abin Sur tells the Ring to bring him "someone without fear" if Daredevil had returned in that green bubble. )

The acting is acceptable, not as terrible as the critics would like to let on. Now, there are no compelling performances. But if you switched Ryan Reynolds and Robert Downey Jr. between their films, would Iron Man be as good without the Downey Personna? Would his personna even work as well in "Green Lantern?" Everyone does a reasonably good job, and Ryan Reynolds is fine given what he has to work with.

This is an easy film for critics to turn their noses up at. I think a basically Noble hero will have rough sledding critically unless a lot of things hang together just right.

If you go in not expecting greatness and willing to enjoy the things that are done right, you will have a good time I think. I did.

Seeing as how the ring was sent out to find someone without fear and is worthy in the DC universe...why didn't it go and grab Bruce Wayne?