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Green Lantern (2011)

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I was curious to see this, just because a lot of it was filmed where I live... but I think I'm going to hold on to those couple hours and skip it.
 
Maybe if it's a bomb, they'll reboot the series with John Stewart and we'll finally get a black superhero in a major motion picture.
Does Blade no longer count? Marvel comics daywalking vampire slayer played by Wesley Snipes in 3 films.

Blade had a mid-range budget at $45 million, though it surely is a superhero movie.

Ok fine, How about Storm? She was certainly one of the most prominent characters in the X-Men films.
 
Blade is still considered Marvel Studios first film and was a commercial success that generated three major motion pictures and yes a poor television spin off series. As for GL rebooting if it's a flop...whose to say that there aren't future plans to include John Stewart in a sequel? Don't have to wait for a reboot to have the possibility of seeing John.
 
Too bad. Judging from the reviews, this seems to be a poor year for comic book movies that have the word "Green" in the title.
 
Maybe if it's a bomb, they'll reboot the series with John Stewart and we'll finally get a black superhero in a major motion picture.
Does Blade no longer count? Marvel comics daywalking vampire slayer played by Wesley Snipes in 3 films.

Blade had a mid-range budget at $45 million, though it surely is a superhero movie.
Nothing hinted that budget was part of your criteria. Major Motion Pictures have various budgets.

I'd love to see Black Panther or maybe Night Thrasher show up somewhere.
 
The daily wail review has some nice zingers:

Hal Jordan's character development is that he changes from being the kind of cocky pilot Tom Cruise played in Top Gun into a galactic cop, doggedly dedicated to preserving peace, order and the right of wizened oligarchs to exercise absolute power.

Democratic ideals never enter his head, which seems odd for a modern American, but I surmise from Hal's unfurrowed brow and honed abs that his interest in current affairs may not extend beyond the sports pages.

This actually is something that's always bugged me about the entire Green Lantern mythos. It winds up addressed, but only in a "Okay, I'll trust you again" fashion. But after so many screw-ups, you get the feeling that Superman or somebody responsible for Earth should be, like, fuck you, Smurfs.

I don't feel sorry for Reynolds. I feel like for YEARS Studios have been trying to convince the public he's the next big thing. He might be a nice guy, but... he's just sorta bland and generic, to me. He's lacking a star quality.
He brought serious gravitas in The Amityville Horror.

Of course, he was also Van Wilder. So it's a wash.
 
So we're writing off movies based on reviews now and not based on how we ourselves feel about them?
Have you gone to see every single film released this year?

Sure, there are some films I may actually go to see in theatres almost regardless of what reviews say. Star Trek 2, probably.

But a comic book franchise I'd never heard of before it entered movie speculation ain't it. My euros at the cinema are better spent watching movies I have a hunch I'll actually like, and part of how one informs that hunch is reviews.
 
No of course I've not seen every film released this year, but I also don't judge movies based on reviews. Sure if there is a positive review for a movie that I am interested in seeing that's great but it isn't going to make or break me seeing it, or my potential enjoyment or dislike of it. It seems in this instant knowledge age we're in we're quick to judge stuff because of reviews now. That's fine if you do base going on seeing films on reviews i'm not attempting to judge you. I'm just curious to see that it seems to be more rampant now. Perhaps this is an entirely different subject altogether.
 
No of course I've not seen every film released this year, but I also don't judge movies based on reviews.

Then how do you decide which ones are the ones you're going to see?

I went to see Adjustment Bureau, Source Code, Black Swan, True Grit, King's Speech and 13 Assassins this year, for example. All got good reviews that I read. They were also all good films and I enjoyed the time spent at the multiplex.

Only one - True Grit - would have been possibly 'review-proof' for me, because I am a Coen Brothers fan. Reviews drew me attention to Adjustment Bureau and 13 Assassins, which I may not have heard of otherwise. Reviews sold me on King's Speech and Black Swan, which I heard of but would not have bothered with if they were badly reviewed.

I'd rather see a film which doesn't have a ton of TV spots but did get stellar reviews - and sounds interesting - simply because that's likely a better investment of my money and a more fun way to waste my time.

That's sort of what critics are here for, bless 'em, and I appreciate that.

I'm just curious to see that it seems to be more rampant now.

Oh it definitely is. RottenTomatoes changed a lot for me, and generally I rely less on local critics then I used too, although I do still read the Irish Times reviews.
 
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With aggregate sites like rottentomates, I think it's become easier to judge things based on reviews. Sure, I don't agree with them all the time. There are movies they liked (like the last Indiana Jones movie) that I hated. There are movies they hated (like Secret Window) that I liked. But I don't have the time or money to see every movie out there so it helps focus my viewing choices. And when a movie has a 25% rating, it's kind of difficult to justify seeing it unless I really like superheroes.
 
I see films based on their concept during announcement of the project...or baring that I will wait until the trailer. Most of those films you mention Kegg I anticipated from the start process of their development. I'm sort of nerdy about that type of thing.
 
And when a movie has a 25% rating, it's kind of difficult to justify seeing it unless I really like superheroes.

That's sort of how I feel.

If I'm interested in a movie, I'll go to see it despite bad reviews. If I'm not, I won't, no matter how much the critics praise it.

The Tomatometer helps me make up my mind when I'm on the fence. I probably would have gone to see Green Lantern if the reviews had been good, the way I did with Thor. But now--no. I already gave the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie a miss for the same reason.
 
Campbell making noises about not returning for the second one during promotion for this one makes a bit more sense now - as the movie came together late in post he probably realized in his interactions with management that he was not going to be asked back.

Just bought four tickets for tomorrow evening. :)

Yeah I think it'll get around 60 million.

Estimates are running from 60 as a high to 50 as a low. Apparently most movies this season other than Super 8 have somewhat underperformed their tracking projections on opening weekend; if GL opens below 50 mill that "greenlighted" sequel is probably in doubt.

God bless Roger Ebert, who knows movies and knows his own mind. He surprises me again:

"Green Lantern" does not intend to be plausible. It intends to be a sound-and-light show, assaulting the audience with sensational special effects. If that's what you want, that's what you get.
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Parallax, it must be said, is a well-imagined malevolence. Although he manifests a diabolical face, he seems otherwise to consist mostly of roiling tendrils of foul, polluted matter. In one scene while the foreground is filled with terrified humans who are fleeing toward the camera, behind them Parallax causes skyscrapers to tumble. Was it less than 10 years ago that we wondered if movies could ever use such images again after 9/11?

The movie has a character I found interesting, if inconsistent. This is Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), a brilliant scientist nerd with a wispy mustache and a servile superiority. What becomes of Hector I will not say, but Sarsgaard gives him a dimension lacking in the cookie-cutter heroics of Hal Jordan. A subplot about Hector's mind-reading abilities is not developed very well. I also liked the fierce determination of Dr. Amanda Waller (Angela Bassett) and the composure with which Senator Hammond (Tim Robbins) deals with a haywire helicopter.

The bottom line: This is a comic-book movie. Fans of the Green Lantern (in his intergalactic story mode and not his earthbound TV series) will no doubt enjoy its visualizations and its references to details of the back story that escaped me. There's a whole lot going on. We don't really expect subtle acting or nuanced dialogue. We appreciate an effective villain. We demand one chaste kiss between hero and heroine, but no funny stuff. We enjoy spectacular visuals like the Green elders, who are immortal and apparently spend eternity balancing on top of towering pillars. "Green Lantern" delivers all of those things, and for what it's worth, I liked it more than "Thor."

Link

At two and half stars I don't suppose that's a "fresh" on the Tomatometer, but it cheers me greatly and I'll take it. :)

Now quick, someone sneer about Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls - don't disappoint.
 
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Green Lantern NEEDS to open in the $60m range.

To stay with it's peers that is.
THOR, also with 3-D, opened with $65m
XM:FC, just in 2-D, opened with $55m
The drill down analysis I read was that both sold about the same amount of tickets and the variance was due to the 3-D surcharge.

So, the standard opening for a comic film this summer with 3-D seems to be $65m. For people who like these films they turned out in nearly identical numbers attendance wise. If GL opens to less than $60 they can claim some fatigue with the genre being the 3rd film and save face. If GL opens to less than $50m the write ups are going to be harsh.
 
Now quick, someone sneer about Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls - don't disappoint.

I like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It's the perfect movie to watch when it's so late you're not entirely sure you didn't hallucinate the whole thing.
 
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