Green Lantern (2011)

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Why fuck would the audience care what had happened to this "Jedi Order"?

Most people didn't. They cared about what was going to happen to those robots who were on the run, and to that kid whose foster parents were fried by the literally faceless bad guys, and to the teenage princess who was being threatened by the masked guy in the black opera cape and Nazi helmet.

The back story of the original Star Wars movie was no more demanding than "the guys we're fighting are dictators who blow up planets and the good wizard will teach the kid to fight with a magic sword."

The obsessive importance of the "fall of the Jedi order," beyond a throw-away line or two, would be built in the sequels...which were increasingly fed to a presold audience.

Similar is true of the other examples you cite.

 

[Myasishchev]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Why fuck would the audience care what had happened to this "Jedi Order"?

Most people didn't. They cared about what was going to happen to those robots who were on the run, and to that kid whose foster parents were fried by the literally faceless bad guys, and to the teenage princess who was being threatened by the masked guy in the black opera cape and Nazi helmet.

The back story of the original Star Wars movie was no more demanding than "the guys we're fighting are dictators who blow up planets and the good wizard will teach the kid to fight with a magic sword."

The obsessive importance of the "fall of the Jedi order," beyond a throw-away line or two, would be built in the sequels...which were increasingly fed to a presold audience.

Similar is true of the other examples you cite.

Are you kidding? At least twenty minutes of ANH went to talking about Jedis, the Force, the Clone Wars, and Vader.

Avatar probably spends a half hour on the history of each individual flower in the Pandoran jungle, and another three days on how they all relate to each other and Eywa.

You have a point with Star Trek, in its most recent iteration--description of the Federation and Starfleet, and the Romulans, is minimal to nonexistent. But this is because the reboot was built on the shoulders of some six hundred hours of story which almost everyone in America is at least passingly familiar with.

And Fellowship of the Ring literally opens with a history lesson. (Interestingly, and a little damningly, it's the most visually striking scene in the film. )

But, I see the issue: there is no reason to care about the GLC without having known them, but I suspect there is precious little reason to care about the GLC here, without the space permitted by a twenty thousand page comic serial. Like Star Wars, and as you say, a Kyle Rayner Green Lantern film would be driven by the audience identifying with and caring about a dork moisture farmer given tremendous power and responsibility for no readily discernible reason.

Granted, you hate Kyle Rayner, but I hate Hal Jordan, and I'm still quite likely to see the film.

I'd also note that expository scenes are not by default uninteresting. All the scenes referred to above are interesting (even Avatar's).

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

This character seems a paint-by-numbers cypher designed to appeal to little boys creaming at the thought of finally getting behind the wheel of something with power and putting the pedal to the floor. It looks to be from this footage that it's going to be a cheesy kiddie-movie.

But wait. Let's be honest here. The only reason they're making this movie is because generations of us got hooked on GREEN LANTERN when we were eight. I've never understood why it's somehow a betrayal of the source material to try to make a superhero movie that appeals to kids. Superheroes like GREEN LANTERN were invented to separate little boys from their dimes--and to appeal to the kid in all of us.

So, yeah, getting an alien Power Ring should be cool and exciting. That's why we all started reading GREEN LANTERN comics in the first place.

Not because he was a serious grown-up who seems mature enough for forty-year movie buffs.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

This character seems a paint-by-numbers cypher designed to appeal to little boys creaming at the thought of finally getting behind the wheel of something with power and putting the pedal to the floor. It looks to be from this footage that it's going to be a cheesy kiddie-movie.

But wait. Let's be honest here. The only reason they're making this movie is because generations of us got hooked on GREEN LANTERN when we were eight. I've never understood why it's somehow a betrayal of the source material to try to make a superhero movie that appeals to kids. Superheroes like GREEN LANTERN were invented to separate little boys from their dimes--and to appeal to the kid in all of us.

So, yeah, getting an alien Power Ring should be cool and exciting. That's why we all started reading GREEN LANTERN comics in the first place.

Not because he was a serious grown-up who seems mature enough for forty-year movie buffs.

I'm not 8 years old anymore. I'm not much interested in movies aimed at 8 year olds. Further, my objection is that, in some two and a half decades of reading "Green Lantern", I don't recall ever seeing Hal Jordan behaving in the buffoonish style they have this guy acting. Therein lies the betrayal of the original source material. My main complaint is that this guy ISN'T behaving like the Hal Jordan of the comics--the one I got hooked on and enjoyed reading, maybe not quite when I was 8 but certainly by 12 or 14 years of age.

Three of the absolute BEST super-hero movies made, in my opinion, were "X-Men 2", "Iron Man" and "Batman--The Dark Knight"--NONE of which were aimed at 8 year olds. ALL of which did phenomenal box-office business. It was in the tradition of these films I had hoped to find "Green Lantern". It TPTB decided they wanted to make an artistic decision to appeal to a more juvenile demographic, they're within their rights to do so. Just don't expect me to be enthusiastic about it.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Further, my objection is that, in some two and a half decades of reading "Green Lantern", I don't recall ever seeing Hal Jordan behaving in the buffoonish style they have this guy acting. Therein lies the betrayal of the original source material. My main complaint is that this guy ISN'T behaving like the Hal Jordan of the comics--the one I got hooked on and enjoyed reading, maybe not quite when I was 8 but certainly by 12 or 14 years of age.

I don't know. My memory is that Hal Jordan didn't really have a defined personality until at least the seventies, and even then he was basically Green Arrow's straight man. Before that, he was just your generic squared-jawed Silver Age hero, in stories that were way more plot-oriented than character-driven.

So, of course, a modern movie is going to give him a more rounded personality, with more realistic emotional responses. So he gets excited about showing off his new ring and costume? That doesn't seem "buffoonish" to me, just a way of conveying a normal person's reaction to becoming a Green Lantern. (And giving the audience a chance to vicariously enjoy his discovery of his new powers.)

Because, hey, he's GREEN LANTERN! He has an alien power ring that can do just about anything! So, yeah, he's psyched. And the movie looks fun, which is what comic book movies are supposed to be.

I'm sure there are grimmer, more intense moments later on, but you're not going to sell GREEN LANTERN to a new generation of kids and teenagers by hyping forty years of comic book mythos. You got to make it look fresh and exciting.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

But wait. Let's be honest here. The only reason they're making this movie is because generations of us got hooked on GREEN LANTERN when we were eight. I've never understood why it's somehow a betrayal of the source material to try to make a superhero movie that appeals to kids. Superheroes like GREEN LANTERN were invented to separate little boys from their dimes--and to appeal to the kid in all of us.

So, yeah, getting an alien Power Ring should be cool and exciting. That's why we all started reading GREEN LANTERN comics in the first place.

Not because he was a serious grown-up who seems mature enough for forty-year movie buffs.

Exactly. I'm not eight years old, but I do want to see a GL movie aimed at just the "sense of wonder" I had at that age. IIRC, Star Wars didn't strike me as having an adult mentality in 1977 (I was twenty-something); Theodore Sturgeon quipped that not only had he enjoyed "being twelve years old" while watching Star Wars, but so had his eight-year-old son."

They're making another Batman putatively aimed at "grown-ups" anyway. Folks needn't be greedy.

I don't know. My memory is that Hal Jordan didn't really have a defined personality until at least the seventies, and even then he was basically Green Arrow's straight man. Before that, he was just your generic squared-jawed Silver Age hero, in stories that were way more plot-oriented than character-driven.

Ditto. It's been argued that his lifestyle represented something more contemporary to the 1960s than Superman - a bachelor, dating around and driving a sports car, the kind of guy featured in the "What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy?" magazine ads of the time - but that doesn't equal a personality. He was essentially the same guy as Barry Allen but without even the "funny hat" tic of being habitually late so that Iris could bust his chops in the last panel.

In this movie Jordan's character evolves via the plot formula that's de rigueur in all Hollywood movies. We meet him when he's "maintaining," and see that he has shortcomings and limitations that are supposed to make him "relatable." Ten or fifteen minutes into the movie the big Something Happens that changes his life. He thrashes around, resists the inevitable and stumbles up against himself for a good part of the movie before Rising To Meet His Destiny...etc, etc. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Greg, are you going to be writing the novelization for "Green Lantern" ?

 

[Gaith]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Does anyone get a Iron Man vibe from the glowly chest thing that GL has on his costume?

I'm getting a third-rate, cheesy bargain basement, low-brow Iron Man rip-off vibe from the whole package

As a total GL novice - same here. I have lots of respect for Martin Campbell, so I'll try to maintain an open mind, but it looks as though they're trying to fuse the glamour of a Tony Stark-style playboy with the everyman/underdog charm of a Peter Parker, which is sort of like mixing ice cream and chili.

 

[Shazam!]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

In the draft of the script I read, Pie serves in his classic role of Hal's confidant/semi-sidekick, though he's been updated from an aircraft mechanic to a video-game playing, SF-loving IT geek type

*facepalm*

 

[exodus]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

To each their own...but I'm curious to the people who aren't on board with this or are hesitant, what exactly turns you off about this? Is it just Ryan? Or is something else?

The acting seems off like some of them are actually reading from cue cards. The special EFX are underwhelming, it looks like he's flying in a giant fart. I didn't find the humor to be funny and I'll laugh at almost anything and the sets look like sets, not something that you can invision in real life. It comes off as a made for TV movie put on the big screen.

As some one else here said, for the first trailer you should be wowed. I didn't get that at all. I think you should see the trailer and say: "Damn, I wanna be Green Lantern!!!" kinda like when saw I the first trailer for Spider-Man or ever the trailer for Superman Returns. Instead it comes off as very Fantastic Four-ish. I got more "WOW" factor from the Harry Potter or the Thor trailer than this and I find that very disappointing.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

In the script floating around, Tom Kalmaku is still an airplane mechanic working for Ferris. His other interests are just additional.

You can bitch all you want about this movie, but if you're going to claim that it's not "faithful to the source material..." well, that's just the Internet talking.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Greg, are you going to be writing the novelization for "Green Lantern" ?

I wish!

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

I always have to laugh at some of the stuff people say isn't faithful to the source material in modern superhero flicks. The Internet's memory only seems to go back as far as the first X-men movie. For most of my life, I've had to sit through superhero shows and flicks where the Punisher doesn't have a skull on his chest, Daredevil dresses like a ninja, Superman displays powers heretofore unknown, Batman kills people, and the Hulk's alter ego is named David Banner.

In other words, you kids have it so good. If they made Green Lantern twenty years ago, he'd have been a beat cop with a ring that could shoot green lasers if he concentrated really hard.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

In other words, you kids have it so good. If they made Green Lantern twenty years ago, he'd have been a beat cop with a ring that could shoot green lasers if he concentrated really hard.

Exactly. I laughed out loud last year when a friend of mine complained indignantly that they had slightly rewritten a line of dialogue in WATCHMEN.

Ohmigod. Did he not realize how amazing it was that we were actually getting a faithful version of WATCHMEN, as opposed to all those old CBS tv versions of Marvel heroes in the seventies, or the campy Adam West BATMAN series, or that old CAPTAIN AMERICA serial that completely changed his origin, etc.? Or even the beloved George Reeves SUPERMAN series in which he never fought any actual supervillains, just bank robbers and gangsters . . . .

Geez, folks. We're living in the Golden Age of Comic Book Movies and people are bitching because Pieface isn't exactly like he was back in 1964? Go check out Rex Smith as Daredevil if you want to see how faithfully Hollywood used to adapt comic book heroes. Or Reb Brown as Captain America. I dare you.

And, you know, I used to have to ride my bike through the snow uphill to get my comics . . . both ways!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmbdloomPZI[/yt]

 

[Samurai8472]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

I agree. Hollywood's best and brightest are being lured to write and star in these comic book heroes. People are taking the material seriously.

Lets all forget movies like Dolph Lundgren's Punisher or Captain America.

In other words, you kids have it so good. If they made Green Lantern twenty years ago, he'd have been a beat cop with a ring that could shoot green lasers if he concentrated really hard.

Tim Burton would have been attached to direct with Tom Cruise as Hal Jordan.

The suit would be an immobile piece of latex rubber with built in muscle definitions.

Tim Burton would no longer be attached to direct.

8 years of development hell

 

[Shazam!]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

In the script floating around, Tom Kalmaku is still an airplane mechanic working for Ferris. His other interests are just additional.

You can bitch all you want about this movie, but if you're going to claim that it's not "faithful to the source material..." well, that's just the Internet talking.

Is this in reply to my facepalm? That was in light of hearing that Pieface wasn't a mechanic and was some video game playing IT nerd.

Other than that, I haven't bitched about this movie at all : /

 

[Garak]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Awesome, another abortion of a superhero movie. The trailer looked just awful. The suit looked awful. Blake Lively even looked awful, no small feat that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

In the script floating around, Tom Kalmaku is still an airplane mechanic working for Ferris. His other interests are just additional.

You can bitch all you want about this movie, but if you're going to claim that it's not "faithful to the source material..." well, that's just the Internet talking.

Is this in reply to my facepalm? That was in light of hearing that Pieface wasn't a mechanic and was some video game playing IT nerd.

Other than that, I haven't bitched about this movie at all : /

I should have indicated that the "bitching" was a more global reference.

 

[RAMA]

Re: Green Lantern E.T. Spot!!!

Awesome, another abortion of a superhero movie. The trailer looked just awful. The suit looked awful. Blake Lively even looked awful, no small feat that.

The suit looks almost exactly like the comic books...how can it be awful??

RAMA