Saturday, June 18, 2011

VLOG 6-17-11: Green Lantern Movie



I give my quick thoughts on the Green Lantern movie. ‎

50 comments:

Spectrum Pulse said...

Have not yet seen the movie, but it looks like you and Roger Ebert are in the minority about this movie - everyone from Moviebob to Lindsey and Todd to pretty much every other film critic has hated this movie.

But then again, maybe we've been spoiled by X-Men: First Class - and yeah, I know you really don't care about the X-Men (can't blame you, the movies have ranged from okay to godawful), but I'd argue that Michael Fassbender's arc as Magneto in that movie probably will stand as comparable, if not superior, to Sarsgaard's villain arc in this film.

So yeah, glad to hear a differing opinion, but I really think you're doing yourself a disservice by not seeing the X-Men film, if only for the perspective (and the chance to see one of the best superhero flicks to come out in a long time).

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"So yeah, glad to hear a differing opinion, but I really think you're doing yourself a disservice by not seeing the X-Men film, if only for the perspective (and the chance to see one of the best superhero flicks to come out in a long time)."

Oh, I'll see it eventually - I just haven't had a strong desire to go see it.

That Robed Guy said...

I felt the ending of the movie was tacked on just because they needed a resolution to it. I can't quit put my finger on it, but it is a lot like the last spoonful of delicious ice-cream has a bug in it, essentially degrading the quality of the rest of the carton you already ate.

Not to mention the problem with proper escalation. As I know you have played 4E in the past, I shall use it as a comparison. This movie felt like we started on the Heroic Tier, skipped Levels 4 through 10 and the Paragon Tier, and went straight to Epic Tier. Paralax should have been the looming threat, only to finally arrive in the third movie.

I mentioned more in my own VLOG, but that was the bigger issues to me.

Anonymous said...

I saw this earlier and I had also seen various things on twitter and even on the movie's own wiki page and it concerned me going in. While we were waiting for the bit during the credits I commented that I had no idea what they were going on about. This movie does what all origin movies, good/bad/other, do: Set up who our hero is, give him a reason for becoming who he was meant to be, give us a reason to like/care about him and going on from there as needed, that is setting up any potential sequels. Yes, the details may be different from what's in the comics but comic movie isn't slightly different from its source material? I was familiar enough with the comics to know that their sequel hook was coming, I just didn't expect it to be this soon. I figured it'd be early on during the next movie.

That all said, I very much liked this one. It was funny where it needed to be, serious where it need to be and filled in the extra bits with an appropriate amount of action.

Were there problems with this one? Personally? I'd only say the pacing seemed a little off in bits, but I'd blame that on editing more than anything and I rolled my eyes when I saw who it was that did the editing. He directed NEM, btw.

Fiery Little One

Jaebird said...

Now see, this is the kind of mentality I look forward from people who view movies. I've seen MovieBob's rage-filled review, and it tells me that he's too much of an elitist jerk to care about what he has to say.

You, on the other hand, seem to know what you're looking forward to. And that is to have a good time watching a comic book movie. Granted, there have been stinkers, but still.

Keeping in mind that I haven't seen the movie yet, and the spoilers didn't bother me as much. It seemed to play out exactly as I'd imagine, given the source material that acted as the template for the film.

Hawkx1 said...

The only part that made me scratch my head is right after the credits roll we see Senestro put on the yellow power ring. I know it's to make him the villain for the sequel but why is it so he can be more powerful than Hal? because he can? no explanation is given especially since he gives this big speech about how great the Lantern Corps is.

PockyMech said...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Lewis, glad to know you enjoyed this movie than those butt-hurt movie critics.

I enjoyed Green Lantern in theaters today. Having friends & a power-ring (plastic of course) with me made it extra special; Plus Clancy Brown (DCAU Lex Luthor) as Parallax!! Can't say if other people will like it, but then again I'm a nerd, apparently "my opinion doesn't matter compared to the regular audience member" (OH PLEASE). Because I'm a fan of the source material, it's my favorite live action DC movie so far. Not as great as Dark Knight, but I'm not a true fan of Batman anyways. The only thing I agree with movie critics about is finding the space mythos more interesting than what happens on Earth, the rest of their opinions I view as nit-picking. I didn’t mind the plot holes as much because I get sincere character development in return. My only complaint is the difference between “Parallax” in the comics & film even if mixing Krona as a Guardian corrupted by the yellow entity was an interesting idea, but hey, no movie is PERFECT. Overall: Good Summer Fun (at least for me). P.S. I missed the scene at middle of the credits where Sinestro is wearing his yellow lantern costume.

Mountain King said...

I've been trying to write a review of this film and the problem is it was neither good nor bad. I can't say that it was one of my favourite films, but it was an entreating way to kill a couple of hours.

There were some good lines, like the point where Carol saw through the disguise and some of the more arse-hole lines from Jordan. I also liked the way they tried to capture the legion of aliens that make up the Core. They weren't all star trek aliens with bumpy foreheads but actual alien looking creatures. A real attempt to capture the feel of the comics. It just wouldn't have been practical to try that any other way than CGI, but 3D would have been pointless. (I hunted down a 2d version for the same reasons you did)

Looking back on it though it feels like there were two or three scripts thrown together. Maybe a couple of late minute rewrites (just why did Hal have to go back to Oa to talk to the Guardians and why did he have to ask permission to protect Earth?) There is also the question, if he quit wouldn't they have taken the ring from him and offered it someone else?

So yes a lot of plot holes that come, I think, from the apparent re-writes should have been addressed. There were also moments where the CGI was ropey, it looked like they just stuck a photoshoped head onto Hal's costume at some points.

One thing I have to disagree with you on is Parallax. For god's sake, it was almost identical to Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer. Or Legion in Ghost Rider. The whole evil smoke villain thing was nothing new and just reminded me of far, far worse films. Admittedly a glowing yellow alien is kinda corny, but they could have pulled it off a lot better than they did

But at the end of the day the thing is, as you said, if you go into the film expecting a Dark Knight or Watchmen like epic you'll be disappointed. On the other hand if you expect an Iron Man (film) inspired take on the character then it's alright. All this hatred and bad reviews Twitter and Rotten Tomatoes have flying around kinda miss that point.

Thomas

PS
On the other hand I know Transformers 3 is coming out. I might just be delusional from the overwhelming hatred I have directed at the half witted, incompetent, tackless, skill-less, moron that is Michael "aren't I cool" Bay.

Mildra said...

I have to admit i'm a bit baffled with the mass of negative reviews on this one, honestly it brings the question of "what did you expect?". I feel it was a pretty solid piece for an origin movie.

That said, I once again had to put up with some REALLY stupid strawman comments going over professional and nonprofessional reviews. I can't help but cringe when I hear people who I expect to know better to use non-arguments like "video game".

Again, I think its a B-, and hardly not the worst superhero film ever made like some people claim. I think its had the problem of timing, coming off of thor and First Class and not aiming to that standard.

~The Monk

boooratt said...

Wicked some one I trust to give this an ok review! I really want to see this movie and I still got hopes for it no matter that everyone seams to hate it but I never like mainstream crittics because they're always looking for the next big award winning film! The thing is every one that is a fan that reviews it doesn't seam to mention something I know that in the movie thanx to wiki and that's Sinestro stealing the Yellow Power Ring in a post credit scene like the ones from the Marvel movies!
Well, Thank you for the review now I don't feel as bad for still wanting to see this movie!

boooratt said...

Also, you should really watch Brad from the Cenama Snob and his friends review of Mr. Popper's Penguins that was funnist review I've seen in a long while!

cquizzle said...

I'm glad you liked the movie. I enjoyed it as well, I decided to be all special and went 3D when I watched it. Although, I think now, I might agree with you on not supporting 3D, that really hurts your eyes, or at least it did mine.

The mythos and the characters were cool. Hector Hammond and Sinestro were great. I thought Ryan Reynolds did a surprisingly good job as Hal Jordan. I really hope that there's going to be a sequel. Wished they showed the other Green Lanterns more. Also, wasn't too fond of Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, I don't know why. Overall, I thought the movie as great and really fun.

Anonymous said...

"Welcome to Vlog of Green Lanturn Movie, where shirts are uncomfortable." :P

I don't see many films but I don't see the point in a film based on a comic. If it strays from the source material, that's bad, but if it stays to it, then I can just read the comic. On an unrelated note, I'd much rather the film be animated given how CGI intencive it is.

The game seems interesting. It's a genre I like, but it's also a movie tie in which is usually the stamp of death. Moreso when it's a game of a film of a comic.

Anyway, thanks for the review. I won't go to see the movie, but if I'm invited by someone else I won't turn them down.
-Sabre

Razorvine said...

I haven't seen it yet, it has been back and forth in my head as to whether I would be interested. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece especially when they announced Ryan Ryenolds as Hal.

Its nice to hear you say that you liked it considering how much everybody else has been trashing it though.

I don't know, Hal has never been my favorite Lantern , its hard for me to get excited about the movie.

My friends who are Hal fans kept telling me "Well of course it has to be Hal, he's the one original Green Lantern."

And then I snarkily say, " No if this was a movie about the original Green Lantern, he'd have blonde hair, a red shirt, green cape. and a weakness to wood."

Amusingly I kind wouldn't mind seeing a movie about Alan Scott, even though he's not my favorite Lantern.

But I will probably eventually see this movie. If only to because its a Green Lantern movie, and its about time one had been made.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that at least ONE reviewer liked this movie. And it's not like you were blindly saying that it was good all over. You made some good points. I didn't see that scene where Hal barged in as a plot hole because we saw his ring blink, which I took as an emergency indicator. The plot hole that I noticed was that after Hal defeated Hector the first time, Hector somehow goes home to transform into a larger head. I hope that they will add what seemed like a cut scene into the film once it comes out on DVD.

Anonymous said...

Somehow, I don't enjoy many DC movies. Even the Dark Knight, which was objectively awesome, wasn't enjoyable for the Batman part of it. Most Marvel movies are either good or had the potential to be good, but DC movies always leave me cold. I'd actually rate myself as more a DC fan than a Marvel fan — I think the reason is that DC concepts are not as easily translatable from comic to movie format as Marvel concepts are.

Anonymous said...

I grew up on Marvel over DC, so I don't have a large interest in seeing this movie, but then again, I wasn't that interesting in seeing the new X-men movie. I was pleasantly surprised by it though. I do enjoy the differing opinions on this movie. Whenever Green Lantern comes on TV, I'm going to give it a look and see for myself what I think about it. It's not really something that I would pay money to see.

Marc said...

I'm not sure if this is in your interest (but I assume so, given how you praised the character in your Ultimatum review), but the Captain America movie does come out next month.

Dg said...

I'm not much of a movie person, but when you talked about the boxing glove thing, all I could think of was this:
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ks1h3vl6eM1qziacgo1_500.jpg
:3 because that was my first introduction to Hal Jordan (seeing that panel on other websites) so I always think of it. XD

Dunno if I'll go see the movie, but it's nice that not everyone hated it

staledogg said...

I did like how they didn't try to build Sinestro up as the villain in this movie and instead built his relationship with Hal more since that will make it all seem more important later. However, as I heard someone else say, Sinestro's taking of the yellow ring in the end didn't really make sense. He'd shown no interest in the power of fear throughout the movie other than suggesting it once as a means of fighting Parallax. Therefore his taking the ring just seemed random, even if it does eventually lead to him being the great villain we know he'll become. Other than that, though, I agree with most of what Linkara said and also enjoyed the movie.

Razorgeist said...

Thanks for the quick review!

Victor Hernandez said...

Gonna watch the hell out of this movie. Judging from the trailers it seemed to be a lot of fun. The only drawback for me was the CGI, but going by your review, it's reassuring to hear it wasn't that bad. I was going to see it anyway. As a guy who has watched most of Marvel Animated Features, I learned to enjoy the movies for what they are and to not nitpick too much, except for those godawful Next Avengers and Iron Man films, so freaking boring.

Can't believe you haven't seen X-Men: First Class, best film in the series and among the top of best superhero films ever. Yeah, it completely murders most of the canon from the comics but the end result is astonishing.
It's hard to believe this was done by FOX, it better resembles something done by Marvel Studios.
Has nothing to do with the comic of the same name, though I enjoyed it as well.

Jer Alford said...

I'm suprised that when he was going over the list of phrases he was guessing for the oath that he didn't go...
"It's morphin' time!"

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda worried that the potential commercial failure of this movie may cause DC to scrap all of their DC projects (except for Batman and Superman that are already in production) for at least a decade

The_Random_Ninja said...

I like that you've given this movie a positive review. Before I went to see it, the local newspaper had written a pretty bad review on it calling it "among the top 5 worst comic book movies" what are they basing that on? I've seen way worse comic book movies, but Green Lantern shouldn't be anywhere near that list.
Not to say that there weren't problems. A fair warning, this will contain some form of spoilers. One thing that is a minor plot hole that no one seems to bring up is that when Hal's teleported by the ring to Abin Sur's crash sight, or to OA he leaves his car wherever he was, and no one thinks it the slightest bit odd or worry about him. He vanishes and leaves his car at his brother's house! How does he get it back? Why does his brother not care? A scene that should have been left out entirely: He arrives late to his nephew's birthday party on the same day as his plane crash, he has a brief talk with his nephew who he convinces everything is fine and he'll always be there. A touching scene, but utterly pointless. I can see what they were trying to do; however, none of this comes into play later. The whole family that was in the birthday scene are neither seen nor spoken of again. He should have found Abin Sur on his way home from the base or better yet, when he crashed. Sinestro taking the yellow ring was not out of character because it was his idea to make the ring and was adamant about using its power--this worked because they established him as a character who would do what it takes to beat the villain. However, where this falls flat is once Hal has beaten Parallax, Sinestro gives a rousing speech about staying true to the green power of will. This makes it seem as though he has no intention of using the yellow ring now. Minutes later he puts the ring on. To me, he should have been yellow when he rescued Hal from the sun (just not evil) Or had the yellow ring on, but his suit not changed yet. It's like they did it just get him in the Yellow suit. Another thing I don't get: Sinestro threw 12 GLs at Parallax and he killed them all in like 10 seconds (sinestro running away), but Hal, one Man, was able to beat him. Either Hal has cajones the size of a VW or the other lanterns just didn't "want" to beat Parallax hard enough. Also, it appears that Abin Sur crashed that morning while Hal's own crash was happening, why did it take the secret lab people all day to get out there. Were they bogged down in the massive paper work it takes to requisition an expedition to investigate a UFO crash...oh wait, they're a secret organization they should just be able to do what they want :P
Addressing Linkara's point on Hal barging into the secret lab to fight Hammond: The ring could have lead him there. It was established that it warns him of danger. It stands to reason that it would know where the danger is. Therefore, Hal could follow the signal to find said danger and face it head on.

Now for the Pros. The effects were spectacular, way better than the initial trailer showed. The acting was amazing: Mark Strong as Sinestro was a stroke of genius, and Ryan Reynolds brings a cocky innocence to Hal Jordan. Of course Hector was great. His fall to darkness was very believable. He's been under-appreciated his whole life, and with Parallax, he can finally get back at a world that mocks him. Parallax himself was at first (in my opinion) not very good, but at the end he was much better. He grew and mutated as the movie went on--becoming a large amorphous entity that eats people.
I like how they develop the rapport between Hal and Sinestro. You can see that they respect each other in the end. And finally someone who recognizes the hero behind their mask. It was hilarious! On the whole, it was a pretty good movie. It makes no sense that people have been giving this such a negative review. I'm glad that Linkara is so positive about it.

Torkuda said...

I have to say I agree that I liked this movie. It was just plain good old fashioned fun. I actually liked that it wasn't the Dark Knight since I'm getting a little fed up with the only good films on the market feeling the need to preach to me. This was just what DC comics are about for me, fun.

On the plot holes. Your first objection was you didn't see how Hal knew to come in guns a blazing to where our villain was killing his father. The explanation was there, but kinda shoe horned in, so it's not surprising you didn't piece it together. Like "how did Hal get across the galaxy moving at a speed slower than the speed of light?". Explanation "there's a portal right PFFFT there"... I don't recall any portals in the books I read, I thought they got around by the power of will and some other such "not magic". The explanation was that Hal's ring flashes when a threat is near. How near... does it flash more intensely as it gets closer, is it just a general warning, what does the ring define a threat as... these are things we obviously don't need to know. It's not a plot hole, an explanation is PRESENT, it's just movie logic at it's finest. Everything is summed up and bottom lined.

Why did Hal go to the guardians? To stop them from using the yellow ring because... because... well he wasn't present when they decided to make the ring so how did he even know about it? I think it was supposed to be implied that he went seeking reinforcements... but logically he didn't know about the full force of parallax either since he wasn't there for that explanation either. If he had such faith in the power of will, was he really scared into asking for help with Mr. Potato head? (Sorry, he was a good villain, but don't tell me you don't see the connection.) Yea... you could drive a semi truck through that hole.

Anonymous said...

I went into the film not knowing that much about green lantern and quite enjoyed it. I'm now considering checking the comics out but I have no idea where to start. I don't read comic books at all but I heard that all of DC is getting rebooted or something soon so maybe I should look into it there?

Doornik1142 said...

I haven't watched the whole video yet (I shut it down immediately when I heard the spoiler warning) but I'm glad to hear that Lewis at least enjoyed it. My hopes were very low for this movie. In fact I always thought that Green Lantern was one of if not the most unfilmable comic book superhero out there. I didn't think there was any way to make a movie about Green Lantern in live action. I'll be sure and watch the rest of this review once I can scrape together enough money to go see the movie.

On a related note, did Lewis ever do a vlog review of the Thor movie? I'd love to hear his thoughts on that as well but I don't know if I ever saw it on the site. Did he review it recently and I just missed it?

KaiKasparek said...

Wow, you are the only person I know who actually liked this movie. Good for you I suppose.

Anonymous said...

The mythos was pushed aside to recycle scenes from the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four films. They did 15 minutes or so of Oa and the rest was poorly edited blandness.

As Todd in the Shadows pointed out, the studio may have edited it into incoherence to fit more showings in, so maybe it has some unfinished scenes on the cutting room floor. I'm sure they wouldn't hire Angela Basset to do 3 lines of dialogue (especially when playing the Nick Fury equivalent.)

Did it have scenes that would piss fans off? No and maybe that's good enough for some, given how comic movies have betrayed us in the past. But this is Fantastic Four level stuff, just bland and forgettable. I say go see X-Men, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Is it comic-accurate? No. Is it a good movie? Hell yeah.

boooratt said...

OK! I just finnished watching this movie earlier today! Ys I went to a Sunday Matinee showing but they still got a chunk of my money in that they were only doing the 3D version on Matinee so it wouldn't have matter if I waited till the nighttime showing they were still getting $8 out of me! But, back to the movie, I gotta say it was alot better then what I'd been hearing! It had problems I didn't care for but they weren't major! the plot holes everyone keeps talking about I did notice but as also stated if you knotice when Hak's eyes glaze over white the(and he's not in his mask) it's downloading info into his drain(like th Matrix)! I like to think of it like a Spidey-Sense, but with a bit more of a headsup!
Well alot of problems in this I can see either being remidied in a sequal or in deeleted scene I kinda hope excist! like it felt like some scenes were missing! Becaus(back to Hal at the beach/swamp just before he goes to fight Hammond the 1st time) he seems to see a bluish/green light and I'm thinking that in a sequal it could be revealed that Ganthet or one of the Gaurdains visited him and told him of the coming danger and that to could exsplain why he went to them before the finnal battle!
Also as for Sinestro I do think it could be possible in a sequal to exsplain some unseen in the 1st movie stuff like he was working with Paralax as some else mentioned and I notice he lead a sqad of Lanterns to fight it and he was the only survivor! I think he was working with it(now why he would when he seemed like such a hardcore Corps. member, maybe it made a deal with him as you could tell Sinestro was actually afraid the Lanterns weren't strong enough to defeat it without that yellow power ring and they were initally reluctant to make such a weapon! So, my point sorry rambling! I'm thinking it told him it'd leave his planet Korugar aloan if he's help sabatage the Gaurdains, because from the comics Sinestro was very overly protective of his home world to the point he took it over and that was why he got booted from the Corps!)
My complaints are some of the same as other! Like why did Paralax have to be a giant cloud!? Because like most I agree he looked like a turd! you gotta admit that he was drownish/black tubes swam with flecks of yellow shining threw!!! Get it? like a corny dof turd! Why couldn't he'd been like the comic? in it he was like a mix of the Xenomorphs from Aliens and a praying mantis with bits of a Asain dragon thrown in for that magical effect! that's been more scarier even though I do admit the giant toothed mouth and Clancy Drown voice and yellow glowing eyes were creepy they would've looked better on something not attached to the leftover Gah Lak Tus effect from FFROTSS!!! my only other complant is just ne I got with most comicbook movies ingeneral and that is why does the villain gotta die at the end always!? Hammond was not that evil he deserved to die so quick! I just hate it when that happens! sure it might be a cold day in hell when a comicbook movie franchise reuse a villain in more than one movie that isn't X-Men or the Dark Knight series! I'd profered if somehow Paralax just took back his powers from Hammond and left him all deformed and crippled and we got to see him in like a post credit scene in the hospital like in the books with the brace on his head helping keep hit from killing him like the Elephantman and just give a small wink or hint he's still got a little power left like they did with Magneto in... nevermind bad exsample... Bullseye in Daredevil... the directo's cut not theatrical! one!!!
I do also want to comment that I did like that whole Hotwheels Race Track construct rescur that I never would've saw coming!

SpeedyEric said...

I've seen "Green Lantern" on openning day, and I really enjoyed it. It's a pretty good origin story, and I'm looking forward to see future installments, because I'd like to see Sinestro put on the yellow ring, and what other villain(s) of the Green Lantern mythology. It's really nice to see that Warner Bros. and DC are making superhero movies other than Batman and Superman. I really would like to see films about Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Justice League, and a few others.

Kagato said...

I am glad I am not the only one who liked this movie. Joining me to my left is Roger Ebert and to my right is Linkara. We three now laugh at the crazy negative reviews this movie is getting. After all, it takes a big man like Roger Ebert to say this with a straight face:

"I liked it better than Thor."

VonGoat said...

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy this all that much, ut it's nice to see that not everyone goes with the critics opinion.

Ken Godberson said...

I enjoyed it. The graphics and fights were good and it had a pretty good story.

My one major problem was Sinestro. Don't get me wrong, Mark Strong did a very good job as Sinestro. However, I feel that he wasn't built up as a future villain that well. I would've like to have seen a bit more friction between him and the guardians than we saw. And the sequel hook made it seem like Parralax corrupted Sinestro, which is vastly different from the comics.

Regardless, I enjoyed it.

Yogurt said...

Huzzah! Someone who agrees with me! Yeah, I liked GL too (more than Thor). I can't wait for the sequel.

Saidi from tunisia said...

On the subject of X-men first class:
so x-men first class is a success, giving us the same old soup with Magneto, Xavier & blah blah blah... well FUCK THAT! what is Magnus but an irrelevant misguided child before En Sabah Nur, THE villain with actual relevance, resonance & full of story potential! THE ROCK OF THE ETERNAL SHORE, THE HIGH LORD, THE TESTER OF HUMANITY, APOCALYPSE! check this out!

http://devilkais.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3jdgta

This a revamp worthy of his majesty, the floating heads show you the forms he has taken through the centuries to test civilizations & get rid of the unworthy of living, this is the appearance & overwhelming power earth heroes are to fight, but the worst shall come to pass!


On the subject of green lantern movie:

too predictable, but enjoyable nonetheless… here’s my crazy idea for a green lantern movie! Bruce Campbell is Hal Jordan in “Emerald Trainwreck”, witness how he makes chainsaws & boomsticks constructs , slaughtering his friends while boozing it up to OA, seducing Carol Ferris or Arisia or [insert random girlfriend name ,human, female or otherwise] & laughing maniacally as he gets his Parallax costume & pets a yellow space bug that he names Hal jr, then back on earth the question that begs to be asked! will he feel remorse? NAAAH, Marz’s Parallax Jordan>Johns Stud Jordan! Why would you ask? Well he was more entertaining like that for one, & definitely more relatable (come on now, if you had the might of Parallax, wouldn’t you use it to selfish goals, especially if you were in a depressing mid-life crisis?) cheers Linkara, looking forward your Eminem review, BIG FAN OF the Real Slim Shady so it's gonna be fun

Kathryn said...

I just saw the movie today and I have to say that I was very happy with it. I loved the whole "You think covering your cheek bones" thing, as well as when the guardians just gave Sinestro a yellow ring. Yeah, cause THAT is not going to come back to haunt them.

I agree with that this movie does not deserve the negative reviews it has been getting. So what if there is too much CG? As an animator / self proclaimed writer, I very much loved the CG bits overall. Plus, if you can show me a guy in real life who got a power ring with the power to create hard light constructs from a group of alien beings who claim to be protecting the universe, then I'll side with the to much CG people for that. Cause that guy should have been in the movie, even if he was a total Guy Gardner.

All and all, it was a fun time. It is just sad to me that so many people only see the negitives and the rest of the people just jump on the boat.

August said...

Geoff Johns's run on Green Lantern(Along with Gail Simone's run of Birds of Prey) is what got me to read DC on a regular basis. With that said, I was actually disappointed with the movie. I didn't expected to be the next Dark Knight(Then again my standard of great superhero movie is "The Incredibles") but the movie was badly edited and rush for me to enjoy it. Probably my expectations were too high because DC said they were fully backing the movie similar to how Marvel is doing in the Avengers series. Also, I didn't like how Parallax was turned into Monsturd*(Even the Galactus cloud was a bigger threat).

*Just doing my job of spreading the name Brad(Cinema Snob) gave Parallax.

Dan Duncan said...

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and am even going so far as to see it again today , also boycotting the 3D fad that they keep ramming down our throats.

I went in to the movie expecting to have fun and that's exactly what happened, The whole Sinestro Corp lead in was a bit to brief but it was a teaser so I don't really hold it against them. As far as the Hammond Lab scene, GL showing up could have been explained better than the brief mention that the ring had a warning system attached to it, suppose we can assume that the same telepathic system that gave Hal the random knowledge about the larger universe said "Hey, your childhood friend's going berserk over there, maybe you should check it out."

I hadn't really considered the silliness of the scene with Hal confronting the guardians, but yeah, not overly necessary to the main plot (though it would've been hard to explain the last minute rescue by the other three Lanterns without it). All in all, I think the movie's biggest failing was expecting people to have a very solid understanding of the GL lore going in, thank goodness they didn't toss in a Black Lantern reference just for the fun of it. I also find it pretty interesting that while the majority of critics are bashing the film, a good chunk of the ordinary movie-goers are saying that it was decent, if not life-changing.

Volvagia said...

I would love seeing Emerald Trainwreck, even if a studio would likely NOT (though they really should) fund a $200 million dollar villain movie with Bruce Campbell in the lead role. Also, if they wanted to do a Green Lantern hero movie: Why Hal Jordan? My perception is that, among comic book fans, he (and Gardner) has scattered fans but most lean on either Stewart or Rayner. Just because there's a legacy, doesn't mean the first character is loved today by comic book fans. To make a successful comic book movie: Step One, Court the fans in every way you can. In regards to legacy characters, pick the most appreciated character of the legacy as your base line. Step Two: Pick a good screenwriter (or two) and stick with them. More discerning filmgoers will react in horror at seeing five names in the "screenplay by" credit. Step Three: Pick an appropriate director. Green Lantern would work best as an ode to creativity as well as an action movie. Martin Campbell (a workhorse action-director) doesn't seem the most appropriate choice. (I'd say Rian Johnson as the best choice) Step Four: Choose a lead actor. (If Stewart, best choice would be Anthony Mackie, if Rayner, best choice would be Rian Johnson's muse himself Joseph Gordon Levitt.)
Step Five: Once that's done, give the assembled set a list of villains and the request to "choose one." (Only release the list to the general public.) Once that's done, you will, in a year or two, have a good superhero movie.

Alain M. Diaz said...

I have to admit, I enjoyed the movie myself. I mean, it was fun, the acting was good for the most part, and while the CGI wasn't anything special, it wasn't terrible. But still... I did have a few issues with the film. The biggest being that it felt like they were trying to put too much Green Lantern Mythology into one movie, and I kinda felt the movie was rushed because of it. I mean pesonally I kinda felt they could have split this plot into three movies that were all inter-connected.

Movie 1: Hal Jordan gets the ring, fights against Hector who is infected by Parallax's fear power in Abin's body. At the end of the movie, Hal saves the day and Sinestro comes to collect Hal for the GL Corps.

Movie 2: Hal meets the corps and begins his training with Sinestro as his mentor. Sinestro goes crazy and gets his yellow lantern ring, and he and Hal duke it out.

Movie 3: Sinestro form the Yellow Lantern Corp and they summon Parallax, which results in epic battle between two groups of Lanterns and Parallax.

If they had gone this way, I kinda feel they would have developed the story and characters more. Which I know a lot of my friends wish they could have gotten. People kept asking me questions about Kilowag, Sinestro and even Carol, because they weren't 100% clear on all the details.

Still, it was not a fun movie.

John said...

i posted a review on my wordpress blog-and I whole heartedly agree. It was no Dark Knight, but its no Ghost Rider either...

i wish some more fun one liners would of been thrown out when he was trying to activate the lantern. I know you and I both would of enjoyed (and could probably picture) Ryan Reynolds going "ITS MORPHIN' TIME" trying to get the ring to work.

I also wish the "selection process" was shown, and they would of at least used it to hint at an over arching universe. DC has a much easier time since all their movies are via Warner Brothers-to create one central universe. Even something as simple as the ring flying past the Daily Planet, or maybe Wayne Enterprises. Even if it wasnt new footage of the buildings used, and they just took a clip of the buildings from Superman Returns or Batman Begins, and just threw a flying ring in with Final Cut Pro. lol. Just something to show a united universe.

as far as the mask goes. This is the same universe where people are fooled by Clark Kent removing his glasses.....they're dumb.

Anonymous said...

Hey Lewis, going back to that one plot hole, I think i can explain a part of it.

It happens very briefly and i only caught on it the second time watching it with my parents.

The ring flashes when there is imminent danger near by. I only caught this during the training scene. The ring flashed just before hector hammond went apeshit.

How he knew where to go though?my guess he just flew around to look for it. I dont know, but at the very least he knew something wrong was happening near by

Scutigera said...

Well, I suppose I'm glad some people liked the movie, since I want to see DC branch out with its other heroes. I had heard the bad reviews, but I chose to ignore them and see the movie on its own merits.

I'm sad to say that, to me, the film was painfully dull; I really disliked Hal Jordan from the start for almost getting his fellow pilot killed, and unlike in Thor, a much better movie imo, I never got that Hal really redeemed himself and 'grew up'. There was never any drama to the character or to the cast, with the exception of Hector who was the only character I cared about (and he didn't even get a proper resolution). Honestly, I really tried to get invested in what was going on, but about halfway through I was just waiting for it to be over.

The sad thing is, it would have been so easy to fix the crippling problems in this film. Instead of having Hal risk his and his partner's lives for the hell of it, why not have the other pilots pushing Hal to win for the sake of their own jobs? Why not have Carol Ferris get seriously injured as a result of his daredevil stunts, and have her physical condition be the source of fear for Hal to overcome (instead of us just being told, rather unconvincingly, that he has fear to overcome)? Why not have Hector actually look imposing so that a fight with the hero doesn't feel one-sided? Why not involve the Green Lantern Corps for more than 30 seconds? Why not have the supporting cast members actually do anything? Why not provide a reason why one untrained Lantern is able to beat Parallax when several of the best Lanterns could barely annoy him? Why not provide some motivation for Parallax other than "he's evil now?" And why on Earth did they not rewrite the script when there are obviously scenes missing?!

Okay, I'll stop. So yeah, I still hope this gets a sequel, because while it's not horrible, it doesn't measure up to what Marvel has produced this year.

Joe Maurone said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Maurone said...

I rather enjoyed Green Lantern. My rebuttal to the critics can be read at Superhero Babylon. I don't know what movie they saw, but the critics couldn't be more wrong on this, and not just the pro's; overheard at Fat Jacks Comic Crypt in Philly, one of the clerks said to another employee that Green Lantern was Superman IV bad.

Now them's fightin' words...

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed it, but it's hardly the best I've seen. Definitely above Fantastic Four, though.

I agree that Sinestro going evil came out of nowhere - even my mum (I saw it with my 'rents) thought that was weird (but she was more upset when I told her Carol turned into a supervillain).

I did think it was way too dark; not in story tone, but in colours. Especially when Hal is saying 'What's with all the green?' and I'm saying 'All the what now?' (During a scene that had a lot of green in it, but mostly looked dark, muddy grey.)

Víctor Hernández said...

Watched it two weeks ago, I didn't like it. It was done poorly, and I think I liked the Fantastic Four films more than this trainwreck. Captain America on the other hand, pure awesomeness!!
Oh, and I bought Xmen First Class today, still a very good movie.
Watch it.

Wade said...

i'm gald you liked the movie, i'm a huge lantern fan and am always happy to see when someone else who know sthe mythos liked it.