Ryan Reynolds Is Green Lantern

[Penguin]

Generally, as a Green Lantern fan, I enjoyed it in spite of itself, but it's not a very good film. I didn't find it actively awful, just bland. The villains were especially lacking. Hector Hammond ends up less than 2-dimensional, and Parallax as evil cloud with a face had no sense of danger or menace. The tornadoes in "Twister" were more suspenseful and threatening. I have no gripes with any of the performances, and as Exo noted Mark Strong is really good, though not given nearly enough to do. It seemed like they felt the need to cram as much stuff into one film as possible, without taking the time to do any of it well. The credit-cookie bit felt similarly tacked on and thin.

One thing that bugged me was that, in several long shots, the CG costume became a really awful CG body, which is pretty unforgivable considering the state of CG animation and that Reynolds was there, in-frame, with a mo-cap suit. None of the completely-CG aliens ever looked that bad. Reminded me of Blade II when Blade fights Nyssa in front of the UV lights - obviously fake and unnatural. In close-up and slow shots, the costume looks pretty great, and not every long shot is bad, either. There were a few scenes, though, that just really stood out to me.

[anime52k8]

Escape to the Movies: Green Lantern - Probably the most harsh of all the reviews, the guy even compares it to Steel.

I loved the first transformers movie. I also loved Fifth Element. I have a feeling both of those are way better movies than this one.

:edit:

The tornadoes in "Twister" were more suspenseful and threatening.

the Tornadoes in Twister where scary as f*ck.

Edited June 18, 2011 by anime52k8

[m0n5t3r]

this is the second time i've heard The 5th Element mentioned here in the past couple of days... makes me want to watch it again... Leeloo never fails to get a "rise" out of me

as for this movie, based on the reviews, i think i'll wait to watch it for free.

Edited June 18, 2011 by m0n5t3r

[azrael]

Apparently, it's so bad people are heading to the theaters to see how bad it is...

Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' takes Friday Box Office lead

[EXO]

this is the second time i've heard The 5th Element mentioned here in the past couple of days... makes me want to watch it again... Leeloo never fails to get a "rise" out of me

as for this movie, based on the reviews, i think i'll wait to watch it for free.

Apparently, it's so bad people are heading to the theaters to see how bad it is...

Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' takes Friday Box Office lead

Multipass! Autowash!

That's the reason I went to see it... it was free and wanted to see what a $300 million stinker looked like.

[Funkenstein]

Wait, 300 million? Thats how much the movie cost to make? Oh dear.

[Dynaman]

Apparently, it's so bad people are heading to the theaters to see how bad it is...

Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' takes Friday Box Office lead

Never underestimate the ability of the movie going public to be duped by advertising... (at least for opening weekend)

[Jasonc]

I didn't dislike the movie, it was, OK. However, I think I was able to enjoy it more, because I went in with no expectations, as I heard a lot of bad reviews. The villains did seem way too easy to defeat, and the "threat" in the plot didn't seem as harsh as it should have been. Could've been more action, but overall, it's a passable movie IMO.

And for the record, the title of the thread should be "Hal Jordan Is Green Lantern". I don't know who this Ryan Reynolds guy is.

[areaseven]

Never underestimate the ability of the movie going public to be duped by advertising... (at least for opening weekend)

It worked for Paranormal Activity, so I'm not surprised.

[Penguin]

Apparently, it's so bad people are heading to the theaters to see how bad it is...

Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' takes Friday Box Office lead

That's pretty much my point of view. I never avoid going to see a film I wanted to see just because of bad reviews. I'd still rather see it for myself, good or bad. "A hundred travel books aren't worth one real trip" and all that (within reason, of course). Granted, harsh reviews will tend to lower my expectations.

[areaseven]

I could care less about ticket costs, as the local board of censors issued me a movie pass that's good until September. The only theaters not covered by the pass are the ultra ones with the reclining seats and unlimited popcorn.

[Keith]

This movie could have been salvagable if the studio had made a director change, or hired a "really good" editor. As is, it comes off really awkward. Best way I can describe it, is as a not as entertaining version of "Howard The Duck," and that's not just because both movies have Tim Robbins.

[azrael]

And the numbers for this weekend...

DC Entertainment's first major release based on a DC Comics character since its formation, Green Lantern (Warner Bros.), starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard and Tim Robbins, opened relatively weak with an estimated $52.6 million, averaging $13.8k in 3,916 2D and 3D theaters. After doing more in Thursday midnights than the recent X-Men: First Class, it took in roughly $21.6 million on Friday but then had a substantial drop on Saturday, which doesn't bode well for any sort of long-term success.

[Keith]

And of course they're probably goimg to blame the property more than the director's mishandling of it. Personally, I liked the animated Green Lantern: First Flight. It managed to pack in a lot more story even though it had a much shorter runtime.

[ps99042]

Just saw it yesterday afternoon and it did its job which was to entertain me. My wife also enjoyed which was surprising to me. It definitely wasn't without its flaws but, if you saw it and are a Green Lantern fan, the scene where he flies into sky in the same manner that was seen on the cover of Emerald Dawn #1 had to make you smile.

[Dangard Ace]

Just saw it. Thought it was fine but so many points deviate from the GL mythos. Wasn't as awful as the critics say it was. Parallax was completely misused as a villain and beaten way too easily. Parallax should have been Legion.

[mikeszekely]

Saw it this afternoon. It was better than I thought... but I thought it was going to suck. Pretty much every complaint I've heard (boring characters, terrible CGI costume, deviates from comic mythos, etc I'm in agreement with, but there was some stuff I enjoyed, too (Sinestro). Ultimately, I'm not sure it was worth seeing in the theater, but I wasn't bored watching it.

[Keith]

Saw it this afternoon. It was better than I thought... but I thought it was going to suck. Pretty much every complaint I've heard (boring characters, terrible CGI costume, deviates from comic mythos, etc I'm in agreement with, but there was some stuff I enjoyed, too (Sinestro). Ultimately, I'm not sure it was worth seeing in the theater, but I wasn't bored watching it.

They could have saved so much bad CGI budget by going directly with a Sinestro Corps story. Instead we get something that looked like one of the "special needs" T-600's from Salvation made into a gas cloud.

[Golden Arms]

I saw the film tonight and agree with all of the complaints. The director/editor is horrible. It seems that a lot of the film was left on the cutting room floor. Way too story happened in way too little amount of time. The other GL's were pretty useless. Sinestro was the only thing that was done right with this film.

[azrael]

Friday Estimates by MerKladyS Benz(unofficial tally)

Yeah...I'm not sure the upcoming foreign market can make up for the $$$ lost.

[Solscud007]

Im not that much into Green Lantern. But I do like Ryan Reynolds. Some of his roles are just funny. I watched it and I liked it. Did I like it enough to get the dvd or blu ray? nope. I think my brother would have liked it but I wish he was around to explain things to me.

I had to look up parallax on wikipedia. I remember when Hal Jordan became Parallax, I have the Total Justice action figure from the 90s.

So i was a little confused about the cloud thingy that was Parallax.

I did like this more than Thor.

[Golden Arms]

I liked the film, but I was so disappointed, because it could have been so much better. I think the editing and pacing were terrible. Characters, backstory, and development happened way too soon.

[Oihan]

I was just looking over some E3 videos over at IGN (I didn't bother to watch the thing live) and saw this in the stories section.

http://www.ign.com/a...rn-might-reboot

Green Lantern Might Reboot

Plus, could Chris Nolan be taking charge of the full DC slate?

by Scott Collura

June 8, 2012

Now that Warner Bros. and DC's Justice League movie is back on track, lots of little details are emerging about the rest of their superhero slate. That includes Green Lantern, which could be facing a reboot already.

Variety has the inside track on the DC projects, with the latest word being that the studio is "figuring out whether to bring back Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern in a sequel to last year's actioner or relaunch the character in a completely new way." Michael Goldenberg, who co-wrote the first film, was commissioned to write Green Lantern 2 back in 2010, a year before the first film debuted. It would seem, however, that script may never see the light of day. (Don't cry for Goldenberg. He's now on the newly re-energized Wonder Woman script, as reported earlier this week.)

One and done?

Obviously, the notion of rebooting Green Lantern doesn't come as much of a surprise considering the financial and critical hit Warners took with the film. To spitball for a second here, maybe the studio figures they can just relaunch the character in the Justice League movie, perhaps going with the John Stewart version in order to bring some diversity to the team?

John Stewart, from the peerless Justice League cartoon

Additionally, many seemingly dead or on-life-support projects appear to be back in development, as per Variety, including Aquaman, Green Arrow, The Suicide Squad and Shazam. The Flash and Lobo, both of which were in the script stage last we heard, are also still on track. But some of these namedrops by the trade don't make all that much sense. Why develop a Green Arrow movie when you have a TV show featuring the character coming up this fall? Suicide Squad feels like a stretch when they're still trying to nail their main heroes. And an Aquaman movie? Really?

Still, there's no doubt that the big question facing the studio is what to do with Batman once Christopher Nolan completes his trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises this summer. Do they dare reboot? (Of course they do.)

The story continues that the studio execs are being careful how they proceed now, as they're still feeling the sting of Green Lantern (and, let's face it, probably Superman Returns as well). Sources indicate that the execs now realize they need to hire "creatives that genuinely understand the characters the way Joss Whedon was comfortable with The Avengers." That sounds like a no-duh kind of statement, but I bet it's a lot harder to achieve in the reality of the Hollywood system than you might expect.

Whatever the case, don't expect much more actual news on the DC movie front until after TDKR opens in July, at which point it sounds like Warners might want to put Nolan in charge of their whole superhero slate (he's already a producer on the upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel). That's assuming, of course, that he wants the job.

What do you guys think? Should Nolan be running the whole DC superhero movie scene? Should Green Lantern be rebooted already? Comment below!

I saw this movie on opening weekend and I actually really enjoyed the film. From the looks of things though, the majority of you (and the rest of the world) did not. Like a lot of you, I really liked Mark Strong's Sinestro! I'm hoping they bring back Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, and further explore the Sinestro Corps (I'm assuming that's where they were heading with that very last scene in the movie). If anything, I hope they bring back Mark Strong as Sinestro.

[azrael]

I saw this movie on opening weekend and I actually really enjoyed the film. From the looks of things though, the majority of you (and the rest of the world) did not. Like a lot of you, I really liked Mark Strong's Sinestro! I'm hoping they bring back Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, and further explore the Sinestro Corps (I'm assuming that's where they were heading with that very last scene in the movie). If anything, I hope they bring back Mark Strong as Sinestro.

Right now, it's all talk. Before we can revisit this topic, it would probably be best to see how The Dark Knight Rises or Man of Steel do, especially the latter. And what works for Nolan's Bat-films may only work for Batman. That, they should have figured out long ago.

If they want to salvage this franchise, they can always pull an Incredible Hulk and recast the lead and only mention things from the 1st movie in passing.

[Dobber]

Admittedly, I don't really know anything about Green Lantern, and didn't bother with the movie due to all the bashing it received, until recently. Gotta say I liked it and didn't think it was that bad at all....in fact I liked it and wanted to see more. The movie did it's job for me as I wanted to learn more about the character and picked up a few books that were recommended by a friend.

Chris

[anime52k8]

>snip<

A Lobo movie? seriously? I actually like the character but there's no way he'd ever work in a movie.

[Penguin]

If they want to salvage this franchise, they can always pull an Incredible Hulk and recast the lead and only mention things from the 1st movie in passing.

Heck, Incredible Hulk isn't even connected to Ang Lee's Hulk at all, so they could completely restart (the latter being on my list of films I thought treated rougher than they deserved).

Actually, there's a good comparison there. For me, Hulk's weakest points were the super villains (Hulk vs. Army was fun to watch, just one-sided). Giant gamma dogs and crazy dad slash Absorbing Man underwhelmed. Same for me for Green Lantern. Hector too cliche, Parallax kinda boring to goofy, and Sinestro under used and under motivated (why would he grab the yellow ring, anyway?) I could handle Reynolds as Hal again if they wanted to keep some threads, but just make some better villains. Give Mark Strong some real scenes to dive into and come up with a decent reason as to why he grabbed the ring even though Parallax was defeated without it.

For that matter, a new Green Lantern film would be a great gateway into the cosmic threats you might need a Justice League for, as Thor was for Avengers. That being said, even though most incarnations of the Justice League I can remember were brought together by cosmic-ish threats (Silver Age was Starro, post-crisis JLI era Darkseid, Morrison's JLA was white martians, New 52 is back to Darkseid, etc.), such a story might be slammed as too derivative of Avengers (have to stay away from using Wonder Woman's Greek pantheon ties for the same reason). Actually, I think the first "New World Order" arc from JLA would be a great basis for a movie. Then again, that would be awfully close to the first animated JL story arc too, but whatever.