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

[Admiral_Young]

I normally base my decisions on trailers rather than reviews. That being said, I will read reviews but I won't base my decision to see a film on what the reviewer said.

[JD]

Well, I'm basing my decision more on what you guys here say than the critics. If you guys had all raved about it I wouldn't even hesitate to see it, but you guys seem feel pretty much the same way as the critics.

Well 4 people here gave it a B+ and 4 People gave it a C-...so take it from there.

[Admiral_Young]

Plus I've not seen it yet.

[JD]

I'm starting to lean more towards seeing it. Nobody here seems to have hated it, and I tend to be alot more forgiving towards movies than most people.

[Noname Given]

Captain Craig wrote:

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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.

^^^
Honestly the above sums my feelings up very accurately as well.
One spoilerish comment:

The ending scene (for me) just came out of nowhere. After hearing Hals speech to the Guardians and praising him for a job well done/reminding Sinestro of the Latern Ring's ability to choose corectly - he just goes off and puts on the Yellow/fear ring? I the original GL continuity, I believe Sinestro was expelled and crafted the yellow ring himself for use in revenge. I would have lliked to SEE something like that rather then a quick end clip of him doning the ring and having the uniiform turn yellow.

[JoeZhang]

Dream wrote:

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http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/gree...35m-midnights/

Looks like GL is going to make about the same as Thor for its first weekend, around 60-65 million. Very good numbers.

Are they? That article you quote doesn't seem to suggest that:

But those numbers mean falling stars in Hollywood. The picture had well-known actor Ryan Reynolds in it, yet looks like it can't better Thor's recent $65.7M opening weekend starring a complete unknown.

The more important figure is that the budget of this film was almost double that of Thor (AFAIK), so it needs to have decent legs to be as successful as that.

[JoeZhang]

Double the budget? Where did you hear that?

In a Deadline article.

[Agent Richard07]

Neroon wrote:

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Ryan Reynolds seemed to snark his way through it though I did find a few of his lines funny enough.

Bob: Watch your back!
Hal: That's impossible, Bob!

Noname Given wrote:

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One spoilerish comment:

The ending scene (for me) just came out of nowhere. After hearing Hals speech to the Guardians and praising him for a job well done/reminding Sinestro of the Latern Ring's ability to choose corectly - he just goes off and puts on the Yellow/fear ring?

I think he just got curious. I'd say that's enough of a reason.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

JoeZhang wrote:

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Are they? That article you quote doesn't seem to suggest that:

That's the writer's opinion, and can be read as a commentary on Reynolds' appeal as the movie itself - the article goes on to also discuss Jim Carrey's waning box office apeal (hence, "falling stars") .

The numbers are facts.

And yes, Warners is very happy with this. The studio was worried enough that they didn't even float an expectation - which they would have lowballed - and the business professionals (as opposed to, say, writers for comic book sites) - were projecting more like 50 million dollars. At no point did anyone in the know expect an opening better than this one.

Bandying putative budgets versus costs versus box office is fun but it's armchair quarterbacking. The budget was 150 million, with additional work negative costs hit around 160 million, they may have spent 100 million to promote this. They're fine. I know people were rooting for this to flop, but...better luck next time.

Admiral_Young wrote:

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^^ Yes he did...but Dennis point is that Vaughn, Goodman, and the actors were more responsible for the film part than Millar was. He was a consultant I believe.

Yes, the fact that the movie was made by the director, writers, actors and crew is not open for debate or parsing.

The business is full of "consultants;" Gene Roddenberry was a consultant on films where the only interest the filmmakers had in him was the use of his name. "Consultant" = sinecure most of the time.

[JD]

So do you think this is doing well enough that DC might start expanding their movie roster with more hero(ines) like the Flash, Wonder Woman, or Green Arrow?

[JoeZhang]

I know people were rooting for this to flop, but...better luck next time.

I don't care either way, I like talking the numbers and don't think it has legs but I have no emotional investment about the matter - I'd have to actual money on it or being involved in a project to care in that way (which is also why I don't care about or understand team sports).

[DarthPipes]

I don't think it will have legs either. It's not a good movie and will not have repeat business.

[Agent Richard07]

Blake Lively certainly has legs.

[Captain Craig]

JRoss wrote:

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Dude, that was totally supposed to be funny, and a dig at Bale. Funny on purpose.

The GL I've always read hasn't been an intentionally funny book, like say wise cracking Peter Parker. I'm sure that has to do with my problem with the scene. Misplaced humor. Just my opinion.