Green Lantern: Grading, Review, Discuss, Tracking, Sequel?

[Captain Craig]

Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, is the latest of the DC Comics stable to finally make it to the big screen.

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan. Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity.

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[Dream]

'Green Lantern' To Fulfill America's Wish To See Lantern-Based Characters On Big Screen

http://www.theonion.com/video/green-...ee-lant,20741/

[Gep Malakai]

"Greg Lantern."

[The Habs Fan]

C

Here is my review from the other thread:

I saw this movie tonight at an advanced screening.

There were some good parts, but overall the movie is not very good. I think the biggest problem is that there's too much stuff crammed into this movie. It would've benefited from having just one villain rather than two. Some of the plot points are not fully explained, leaving you scratching your head wondering what happened between point A and point B (probably more of a direction/editing issue rather than a script issue).

On a positive note, it's better than X-Men 3 and Wolverine.

[Captain Craig]

So I've come home from my packed screener, still wearing my Green Lantern T-Shirt and decided to go ahead and give some 'first blush' opinions on the movie. I've seen worse comic films, I've seen better, this summer already in fact but hey, they tried.

This will contain spoilers, like all our review threads, If you don't want to be spoiled skip this post but do know this: THERE IS NO POST CREDIT SCENE IF YOUR CURIOUS---HOWEVER, THERE IS A SCENE ABOUT 45 SECONDS INTO THE CREDITS.


Grade: C

***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***SPOILERS****SPOILERS****S POILERS***SPOILERS***

The movie opens with a narration about what the GLC is, what it's comprised of, how many sectors it covers and just what it is they fear: Parallax. How a noble Lantern managed to trap and entomb this entity in a far off sector of space :cut to our first scene:

At this point we open on a small moon where a crash landed alien ship is and 3 survivors are walking the surface. Their weight causes a hole to open in the surface and they fall through, down into the moon itself. As they stumble up they realize they are in a cavern and come face to face with the just described Paralax. Parallax is able to abosorb their fear and break free of his prison :Six Months Later:

We jump to OA, meet Sinestro, see a brief shot of the planet. He contacts Abin Sur whose on a rescue mission to help vicitims of Parallax whose been roaming the galaxy amassing power and destroying civilizations. Parallax finds Sur, attacks, mortally wounding him and he takes off for "the nearest inhabited world" :cut to Hal Jordan waking up next to a babe:

We meet Hal, he goes to Ferris, we meet Carol and are shown a scene of why Hal is fearless, brave, couragous, stupid or all of the above.

^^^END SPOILERS^^^END SPOILERS^^^^END SPOILERS

I really don't intend to do a full play-by-play, my feelings are that the movie is choppy, uneven and at times unsure of what it's trying to be. Is it taking the material serious and giving us a movie that is intense and serious OR is it going to be a rom/com/action campy flick? There are times when I felt it was working then abruptly shifted gears in tone.

I know on this site and a few others the Thor comparisons were made early based just on the plot synopsis and having seen the movie I think they are there in a few other areas. Sadly, they didn't put it together as well as Thor(and Thor wasn't perfect per se) but Thor did do it better.

Hector's Father, a senator=Odin
Hector=Loki
Hal and Thor are opposites: Earthman to Alien world, Godly alien to Earth

The movie needed more character development, badly imo. I don't buy Hal's friend in the movie as someone that would be close pals with Hal. No chemistry.

The one area of the film I was surprised about was Blake Lively as Carol honestly. She didn't look like Carol but I bought her hard nosed, steel reserve attitude that Blake brought to her. I did feel like Carol and Hal had a past.

Hammond has one really big action sequence near the end but I never fully bought into him as "evil" per se. Again, were they going for the sympathetic tragedy angle with him?

The movie kept telling me Hal was irresponsible, reckless and a possible aloof player but I never SAW those things. One chick in bed doesn't make you a player. Being late to work the one time we saw isn't irresponsible. He wasn't reckless in the faux dog fight, it's his job, like he said to "push the limits and test the prototype".

The screener was in 3-D and it was fairly effective for at least half the movie.

How was the CGI? He worked in more places than it didn't, I'll say that. They did manage to clean up a lot of it as most of us suspected but sadly with that much really alien landscaping and creatures when it's all there in a clump it shows in this case.

My girl-friend that I saw it with made the comment about Parallax at the end that she's seen that affect before, in FFour2. Which didn't cross my mind but really she's right. A giant malevolent force destroying civilizations as it absorbs them in it's mass to gain power & strength. It's seen doing this in the trailer so it's not a spoiler imo.

Summary: Forced, Uneven, Lacks Good Flow, Disjointed but good action scenes, some good 3-D for a change(cough Pirates,Priest).

My 'first blush' thoughts, going to bed.

[StarTrek1701]

Oh dear...

[Samurai8472]

I can feel the will slowly draining in this thread. The light is getting dimmer.

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/15...hat-that-means

It cost 300 million(That suit!!!) to make with 150 million in advertising alone.

[StarTrek1701]

The decision to go with the CGI suit was a bad one from the start. Maybe add some touch ups or something to a skin-fitted suit like Spidey's was. With the reviews its getting, WB might be in for a big shock either way.

EDIT: @Samurai8472, you are certainly right about that.

[JoeZhang]

I seriously doubt that the suit is the key issue that will sink this film.

[Captain Craig]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

---

The decision to go with the CGI suit was a bad one from the start.

It was a bit distracting at times. Not only does it course through the "veins" on the suit, nearly all the time, but several times little sparks of energy are flaring off the mask while he's talking.

This movie imo, falls into the mediocrity range of comic films like Fantastic Four or the first Ang Lee Hulk movie. It has it's stretches where it feels like a nice adaptation then shifts in tone for a sequence or two and just doesn't click.

Another thing I left out due to being tired I guess last night was:

When Hal, as Green Lantern, first approaches Carol in her office he begins speaking in this deeper, gravely voice and the audience burst out laughing...not in a good way. There is no way that was meant to be funny, him going all Bale as Batman vocally.

[davejames]

StarTrek1701 wrote:

---

The decision to go with the CGI suit was a bad one from the start. Maybe add some touch ups or something to a skin-fitted suit like Spidey's was. With the reviews its getting, WB might be in for a big shock either way.

I wouldn't say it was a "bad" idea (because there is a lot of merit to having a non-traditional suit for this character), but it was just so so unnecessary.

Fans have accepted all kinds of crazy things in superhero movies, and I doubt anyone would be fazed by one more skin-tight, leather superhero costume.

[JoeZhang]

Fans have accepted all kinds of crazy things in superhero movies, and I doubt anyone would be fazed by one more skin-tight, leather superhero costume.

But since it's a ring construct - why would he have a leather Superhero costume?

[Goliath]

That's kind of a personal question, don't you think?

What two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home is really nobody's business but their own.

[Jax]

$200 million budget, GL could be in trouble here with the recent WoM.

[JoeZhang]

WoM?