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

[C_Miller]

So don't look now, if GL makes $200 million...then makes another $75-100 million in DVD-Bluray sales...the sequel could happen...

RAMA

Possibly. However, if I'm a studio executive, I'm not sure I would spend the money on such a sequel to a film with such a massive budget that took this long to regain the money. Especially one that was so poorly reviewed. Typically, comic book films are not your stupid action movies or your brainless comedies (Scary Movie and others) where quality doesn't factor in to it, especially in a Post-Dark Knight world. My fear would be that it was so poorly reviewed that the public isn't going to "trust" another Green Lantern movie. I mean, it wasn't universally reviled, but it was pretty damn close.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Sadly, the failure had very little to do with the concept or the viability of the Green Lantern character for a franchise. It had most to with the fact that the movie just wasn't very good. Unfortunately, the studio will take the wrong message from this.

 

[davejames]

Well according to the superherohype forums, there's supposed to be an Extended Cut with an additional 14 minutes of footage, which'll take the movie up to a full 2 hours.

It'll probably just be more Hector and Hal/Carol stuff, but I'm still looking forward to seeing it.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I'm always perplexed by thoughts like these. An added 14 minutes won't fix the horrible CGI, the pathetic underplotting, or the complete lack of characterization.

 

[timothy]

what underplotting? and I thought cgi was pretty good for a lantern movie. saw it agin today at dollar theater.

 

[stonester1]

Yeah, and lack of characterization? Some of the reviews talked about how "bad" Carol Ferris was. They must have seen a different movie from me, because I thought she was great.

 

[Sindatur]

what underplotting? and I thought cgi was pretty good for a lantern movie. saw it agin today at dollar theater.

Yea, it's confusing to me, as someone who hasn't seen it yet (Waiting for DVD Release) when some folks say too much happened and it didn't have focus, but, other folks say basically nothing happened.

 

[davejames]

Yeah the story and characterization were a bit thin and simplistic, but no more so than in the first Spidey. That's just the kind of superhero movie they were trying to make-- something light and fun instead of adult and serious.

I thought they did that fairly well myself.

 

[timothy]

any Idea when the blu ray will come out?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Blu-ray.com says October 4th.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I was ready to hate Blake Lively as Carol Ferris. In fact I didn't like the casting at all but her performance in the movie was the least of the flaws that bothered me. I thought she did a pretty decent job in the role.

 

[timothy]

^ Blu-ray.com says October 4th.

cool thanks. can't wait.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ That isn't an official release date because there hasn't been one yet but that is close to what I've seen on the net as well.

 

[StarTrek1701]

I was ready to hate Blake Lively as Carol Ferris. In fact I didn't like the casting at all but her performance in the movie was the least of the flaws that bothered me. I thought she did a pretty decent job in the role.

Blake Lively did fine with what she was given, so did Mark Strong and dare I say Ryan Reynolds. The actors weren't at fault for anything to be honest. The story itself was dragging, unimaginative, useless and frankly, unengaging. They had $300+ million to play around with and they basically spent it on making the fucking costume shinier and 'organic' (damn I hate that word). They didn't dwelve into the GL mythos at all, nor did they actually show an inspired action set piece or sequence that could have wowed the audience. Batman Begins made everyone sit up and take notice whenever The Tumbler was on screen. Iron Man did it with the suit sequences.

What did GL show us? Kilowog throwing rocks at Jordan, Sinestro basically insulting Jordan from the get go. The action was minimal in a fucking action movie, the main villain being nothing but a floating space turd, talks of how great the GL Corps are and at the first opportunity, showing how easy it was for Parallax to beat them in a second. OA was a dead, dreary place, the Guardians absolute assholes, and Hector Hammond was a completely out of place villain.

And more importantly, showing Hal Jordan as a fucking quitter at anything and everything. In the comics Jordan is a total 180 from being a quitter, he literally takes it upon himself to show all the other species in the GL Corps that he can best them all through his sheer willpower. Since when the fuck did it become imperative for Hollyweird writers to make superheroes look like a bunch of fucking weirdos with mommy/daddy issues, completed with an attitude that would even make Emogags say "Whoa there, tone down the mascara there superhero!"

These are but a few problems this abortion of a movie has, and am glad the audience voted with their dollars on this one. GL deserves to a fucking flop. At least this iteration of such a great comics property.

 

[RAMA]

So don't look now, if GL makes $200 million...then makes another $75-100 million in DVD-Bluray sales...the sequel could happen...

RAMA

It's odds of hitting $200m worldwide have increased. It now sits at $193m but these are still low numbers, domestic and worldwide for such a tentpole film.

Films that make $75-100m on DVD are the ones that were huge hits at the box office, which GL wasn't.

A sequel at this point would be believed when casting begins but I'm not looking for that announcement anytime soon or later down the calendar.

Or movies skipped bu audiences in theaters who still want to see it at home.

I also feel with the effort the studio put into this, they will try again. I hope it won't be a remake like the Hulk though, the original which disappointed many people as GL seemed to. I think the elements are all there, so I think the sequel just needs a really good story.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

I was ready to hate Blake Lively as Carol Ferris. In fact I didn't like the casting at all but her performance in the movie was the least of the flaws that bothered me. I thought she did a pretty decent job in the role.

Blake Lively did fine with what she was given, so did Mark Strong and dare I say Ryan Reynolds. The actors weren't at fault for anything to be honest. The story itself was dragging, unimaginative, useless and frankly, unengaging. They had $300+ million to play around with and they basically spent it on making the fucking costume shinier and 'organic' (damn I hate that word). They didn't dwelve into the GL mythos at all, nor did they actually show an inspired action set piece or sequence that could have wowed the audience. Batman Begins made everyone sit up and take notice whenever The Tumbler was on screen. Iron Man did it with the suit sequences.

What did GL show us? Kilowog throwing rocks at Jordan, Sinestro basically insulting Jordan from the get go. The action was minimal in a fucking action movie, the main villain being nothing but a floating space turd, talks of how great the GL Corps are and at the first opportunity, showing how easy it was for Parallax to beat them in a second. OA was a dead, dreary place, the Guardians absolute assholes, and Hector Hammond was a completely out of place villain.

And more importantly, showing Hal Jordan as a fucking quitter at anything and everything. In the comics Jordan is a total 180 from being a quitter, he literally takes it upon himself to show all the other species in the GL Corps that he can best them all through his sheer willpower. Since when the fuck did it become imperative for Hollyweird writers to make superheroes look like a bunch of fucking weirdos with mommy/daddy issues, completed with an attitude that would even make Emogags say "Whoa there, tone down the mascara there superhero!"

These are but a few problems this abortion of a movie has, and am glad the audience voted with their dollars on this one. GL deserves to a fucking flop. At least this iteration of such a great comics property.

These days superheroes are often shown as overcoming their faults rather than being supermen right off the bat...I think that was the point of the end of Hal Jordan's story in the movie. It was also part of the new Star Trek movie...where Kirk had to overcome his rebellious nature to become more responsible.

I agree the Corps should have been stronger, and the parallax/Hammond connection didn't work well. I did like most of the Oa scenes however, though why they met in a big cave I have no idea...

RAMA

 

[the G-man]

I was ready to hate Blake Lively as Carol Ferris. In fact I didn't like the casting at all but her performance in the movie was the least of the flaws that bothered me. I thought she did a pretty decent job in the role.

Blake Lively did fine with what she was given...

Really? I thought she was, hands down, the weakest actor in the movie.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

If they needed to show Green Lantern overcoming his fear, then they should have used Kyle Rayner. Hal Jordan has always been pretty much fearless (to the point of being stupid sometimes.) But again, this brings me back to another problem I've always had with the character, and that is that Hal is the least interesting of the main lanterns. Green Lantern is not all that cool. Now, the Green Lantern Corps, that is AWESOME! That's what the movie should have been about.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The weakest actor in the film in my opinion was Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond, but then that just might be my own bias against the character.

 

[RAMA]

If they needed to show Green Lantern overcoming his fear, then they should have used Kyle Rayner. Hal Jordan has always been pretty much fearless (to the point of being stupid sometimes.) But again, this brings me back to another problem I've always had with the character, and that is that Hal is the least interesting of the main lanterns. Green Lantern is not all that cool. Now, the Green Lantern Corps, that is AWESOME! That's what the movie should have been about.

I think again...the movie suggested there is no such thing as NO FEAR, even the GL corps when faced with Parallax showed fear and died to feed it. The best GLs control their fear and use it.

RAMA