Green Lantern Corps Movie Announced by Warner Bros

[Christopher]

Yeah, $200-ish million was a failure considering what the film was aiming for, but it's still a lot of butts in seats. A lower-budget film can make a quarter that and be considered a smash success.

Exactly. It's only a "failure" because the bar for success is so preposterously high these days, and that's because studios waste such enormous amounts of money making and marketing the movies in the first place. It takes more money to make a space movie these days than it takes to actually send a probe into space.

 

[DWF]

I like the idea of a GL Corps movie. I wonder if we'll get some alien GL's done with practical effects, unlike the first GL movie (although some of the alien GL's just wouldn't work practically). That said, at the bare minimum I hope we get practical costumes. If any movie I've seen in the last few years went way overboard with the CG, it was Green Lantern.

Captain America: The First Avenger had roughly the same amount of visual effects shots that Green Lantern had and nobody complained about them going overboard. The CGI was used in a different way, but really CGI is useful for creating an totality alien rae of people.

Captain America wore an actual costume, and the Red Skull actually physically interacted with him. Captain America also had a decent amount of sets to go with the CG stuff. Green Lantern didn't have a costume, basically everything on OA was CG (including every other GL who wasn't Sinestro), and his main enemy was a big CG cloud. Its not about the number of visual effects shots. Green Lantern had more CG in basically every aspect of the movie, even when it wasn't needed, and it was a lot more obvious.

Now, Green Lantern has to have a lot of CG just because of his powers and the space stuff, but the GL movie went crazy. I actually don't dislike the GL movie, but it definitely overused CG.

If you have a ring hat can create anything you can will into existance CGI is very useful. And really if you say they used CGI in places you felt ddin't needd it then you do think they had too many so it is the number of shots. There's times in Man OF Steel where Zod's armor is CGI but you'd hard pressed to tell the difference. And really Green Lantern's costume always appeared out of nowhere, CGI as odd it might be was the best way to present that.

 

[kirk55555]

If you have a ring hat can create anything you can will into existance CGI is very useful. And really if you say they used CGI in places you felt ddin't needd it then you do think they had too many so it is the number of shots. There's times in Man OF Steel where Zod's armor is CGI but you'd hard pressed to tell the difference. And really Green Lantern's costume always appeared out of nowhere, CGI as odd it might be was the best way to present that.

Of course you need CG for Green Lantern's powers. but they didn't need it for the costume and they didn't need it for every single part of OA, among other things. It makes it look fake. A really fake CG costume didn't make Hal Jordan look like a green lantern, it made him look like an actor working on a movie too cheap to build a costume. A great Green Lantern movie can be made that doesn't require half (or more) of the movie to be filmed in green suits in front of a green screen.

CG is needed for some things, especially in Superhero movies. but that didn't stop Henry Cavil from wearing a Superman suit in a bunch of scenes, especially when he interacted with people. CG for showing powers, characters too weird for practical effects or for big fight scenes is one thing. CG for basic costuming and the majority of sets is not a good use of CG.

 

[Guy Gardener]

So what are the CGI rules for someone like Ch'p having an explicit love scene?

 

[Morpheus 02]

I hope they have ALL the Corps colors in this. Can you imagine what a live-action Red Lantern would look like?

I hope they don't. Not in the first one at least. The problem I had with the GL movie (aside from the shitty writing) was that they crammed too much into the movie for the non-comic fan to digest. They should've kept it simple and focused on an Earth bound Hal with only a brief mention of the Guardians by Abin Sur as he is dying. Had they done this and gotten a sequel, they could've then introduced us to the more cosmic elements at a more natural pace, upping the danger ante' along the way.

The movie we got was trying to do too much. I couldn't tell if they were over excited or fearful that they wouldn't get a sequel and so crammed it full of stuff. Seriously, to a non-comic fan who did not know who Sinestro was, the ending where he turns into a Yellow Lantern probably made no sense. I knew who he was and it didn't make sense to me....I just knew that inevitably he'd go bad.

I seriously doubt that DC even considered the 2011 film when they greenlit this. A crappy film that no one saw isn't going to deter audiences nearly a decade after it's release.

It was the number one film in its opening weekend, though it dropped off quickly after that. I'd hardly say that no one saw it. It actually made a lot of money; the problem, as with so many blockbusters these days, is that the cost of production and promotion was so inflated that it would've had to do spectacularly well to come out ahead, instead of just reasonably well.

And I still say it's not really that bad a film. It's flawed, to be sure, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as, say, Catwoman or Jonah Hex. If it had come out six or seven years earlier, it would've been considered fairly good compared to its contemporaries. It just had the bad luck to come out in the same year as X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Captain America, so it suffered in comparison.

I agree with Lensman in that the GL film felt like it had too much....but totally disagree that it should be been earthbound.

I think Christopher, you'd agree that the Space stuff (i.e. Oa) was actually a great rendering of GL, and made the movie felt cosmic, in line with that the GL Corps is. It was the earth stuff (and the vagueness of Parallax) that really killed the movie.

And such a missed opportunity with Sinestro... Mark Strong would've been amazing in the sequel! I don't feel it was crammed in -- it felt like a Marvel post-credits scene...not so much for the casual viewer (other than a post credits scene like the Marvel movies they enjoyed)..but fanboys like me were soooo excited to see it. Any hope he could appear in the new film?

I am actually encouraged by the idea of the GL Corps movie. I just hope they show the Earth GL's "extraordinary" by their creative use of the Power Ring with

 

[Christopher]

I agree with Lensman in that the GL film felt like it had too much....but totally disagree that it should be been earthbound.

I think Christopher, you'd agree that the Space stuff (i.e. Oa) was actually a great rendering of GL, and made the movie felt cosmic, in line with that the GL Corps is. It was the earth stuff (and the vagueness of Parallax) that really killed the movie.

I'd agree that the space stuff worked pretty well, but I'd also agree with The Lensman that it was too much to cram into the first movie. Certainly the Earthbound stuff could've worked much better than it did, but maybe it would've had room to develop into something better if it hadn't been crowded out by all the convoluted cosmic mythology cluttering up the film. It might've been better to just give a taste of the larger cosmic stuff in the first film and then really open it up in the second film (assuming the first had been good enough to warrant one).

And it's appropriate that we have a commenter here called The Lensman, given how heavily the Green Lantern Corps was inspired by E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series.

And such a missed opportunity with Sinestro... Mark Strong would've been amazing in the sequel! I don't feel it was crammed in -- it felt like a Marvel post-credits scene...not so much for the casual viewer (other than a post credits scene like the Marvel movies they enjoyed)..but fanboys like me were soooo excited to see it.

I think it would've worked better if it had just hinted at his willingness to become Sinestro, rather than actually showing his transformation as an afterthought. That was just too much to put in a post-credits teaser.

Any hope he could appear in the new film?

Sinestro, quite possibly. Mark Strong's Sinestro? Most unlikely. They'll want to make this a fresh start and avoid any confusion with the previous film.

 

[Khan444]

No, making it Earthbound would be a horrible idea. One of the things that people complained about the 2011 film the most was that it didn't "go cosmic" ENOUGH! You've got this really unique/interesting mythology and space setting, and you barely use it. Such a wasted opportunity. If I want to see an Earthbound here, I've got PLENTY to choose from without sticking GL into that role as well.

Plus GOTG spent like ten minutes on Earth (if that) at the very beginning (just to set up Starlord's backstory). It then NEVER went back there again, and yet the movie was hugely successful. Basically, it did what the GL film SHOULD have done.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

No, making it Earthbound would be a horrible idea. One of the things that people complained about the 2011 film the most was that it didn't "go cosmic" ENOUGH! You've got this really unique/interesting mythology and space setting, and you barely use it. Such a wasted opportunity. If I want to see an Earthbound here, I've got PLENTY to choose from without sticking GL into that role as well.

Plus GOTG spent like ten minutes on Earth (if that) at the very beginning (just to set up Starlord's backstory). It then NEVER went back there again, and yet the movie was hugely successful. Basically, it did what the GL film SHOULD have done.

Yep, and lets face facts Hal Jordan's earthbound enemies suck ass. They suck ass so much that none of them show up anymore.

Do you get earthbound adventures in Jordan's book these day, hell no its all cosmic adventure.

 

[Gaith]

The film won't be out until 2020. The GL failure will be barely a memory by that point.

Oh, it'll be remembered, all right, in every single review.

Common sense says that the costs of developing and scripting these movies pale in comparison to their potential revenues... but there's plenty of years to pull the plug on this thing if the DCCU doesn't perform as hoped.

 

[The Lensman]

I'd agree that the space stuff worked pretty well, but I'd also agree with The Lensman that it was too much to cram into the first movie. Certainly the Earthbound stuff could've worked much better than it did, but maybe it would've had room to develop into something better if it hadn't been crowded out by all the convoluted cosmic mythology cluttering up the film. It might've been better to just give a taste of the larger cosmic stuff in the first film and then really open it up in the second film (assuming the first had been good enough to warrant one).

Exactly! I enjoyed all the mythology the first movie had as a fan, but even I, as a fan, felt they were cramming too much in for casual viewer. Basically what I'm advocating is the approach that was used in the actual comics, where there's a build up to the more cosmic elements. Hal doesn't meet another Lantern until six issues in.

What the movie needed was a streamlined and tighter approach. You start Earthbound and transition to cosmic over the next few films.

And it's appropriate that we have a commenter here called The Lensman, given how heavily the Green Lantern Corps was inspired by E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series.

Fun Fact: While I've used the Lensman handle now for almost twenty years, starting out on Trekweb....my first handle there was.....Green Lantern. Probably only RAMA remembers that nowadays as I first met him over on Trekweb way back when.

No, making it Earthbound would be a horrible idea. One of the things that people complained about the 2011 film the most was that it didn't "go cosmic" ENOUGH! You've got this really unique/interesting mythology and space setting, and you barely use it. Such a wasted opportunity. If I want to see an Earthbound here, I've got PLENTY to choose from without sticking GL into that role as well.

Plus GOTG spent like ten minutes on Earth (if that) at the very beginning (just to set up Starlord's backstory). It then NEVER went back there again, and yet the movie was hugely successful. Basically, it did what the GL film SHOULD have done.

First off, I don't remember anyone outside of one segement of FANDOM saying that they spent too much time on Earth. I've seen the same amount of people advocating what I'm advocating: start on Earth, move to space in the sequels. Like the actual comics did. The problem with GL was that it was trying to do both in equal measure and failed at both in equal measure.

GotG is a different beast because it's characters don't have a long history of being earthbound crime fighters and being a part of Earths foremost superhero team like Green Lantern. When I collected GL in the 80's I remember half the readers wanting cosmic and half complaining that Hal should be largely earthbound with the occasional cosmic story. GL fandom has always been largely split on this.

 

[JoeZhang]

So what are the CGI rules for someone like Ch'p having an explicit love scene?

That is the second one - the first one is a comedy which has Hal chased around the universe while uttering "but she's actually 209 on her planet!"