Green Lantern discussion thread *spoilers*

How would you rate the Green Lantern movie?

  • Total voters
    18
Bass said:
It's possible that GREG LANTERN was ruined by the studio.
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Three of those sound much worse than the finished product(especially because two "mostly superior versions", on a list of four, are jokes), but the director's cut does sound like it could have ended up better. I would definitely want to see it if and when it's released, while I don't have much desire to see the normal cut again.

The Overlord said:
This is an amusing recap of the Greg Lantern film:

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/06/topless_robot_presents_the_best_scenes_from_the_gr.php
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Pretty well done. It highlights my biggest internal issue with the film - the whole plot revolves around Parallax being this nigh-unbeatable villain that Green Lanterns, in any number, are woefully outmatched by and even afraid of, but he gets his ass kicked in like five minutes by a single Green Lantern with a really simple plan. In one scene, he gets significantly flustered by a missile from a human jet. How could he be anything more than a threat-of-the-week to Kilowog or Tomar-Re, let a lone whole teams of Green Lanterns?
 
I hope they release that extended addition. The final movie, while good, was clearly edited down from a different movie.
 
I saw it last night. It was okay not great. It really needed so reworking in the script phase. My biggest problem was that at times didn't take itself seriously in a bad way that hurt the film instead of helping it. The constructs were just too ridiculous I never liked when green lantern would make specific objects. I prefer they keep it simple and focus on using his abilities in a dynamic fight sequence than just coming up with over the top constructs. Also the dialog was fairly poor I feel they could have made it better when describing yellow energy and will power but it came off to childish. And something it just failed, like the best friend who sees the suit and think superhero immediately says "Doesn't that mean you get the girl?" What girl? I know Carol is the girl but really why would he ever say that it just so out of place.

Still I felt they had a good handle on the mythology just failed trying to explain it. And the costumes look much better on screen than in promotional material. And Reynolds was very good.

Also a hot wheel cart? Really? I also don't get why it took him so long to respond. I mean the helicopter was taking forever to hit the ground and when it does it plows through the entire crowd before he does something.
 
Planet-man said:
Pretty well done. It highlights my biggest internal issue with the film - the whole plot revolves around Parallax being this nigh-unbeatable villain that Green Lanterns, in any number, are woefully outmatched by and even afraid of, but he gets his ass kicked in like five minutes by a single Green Lantern with a really simple plan. In one scene, he gets significantly flustered by a missile from a human jet. How could he be anything more than a threat-of-the-week to Kilowog or Tomar-Re, let a lone whole teams of Green Lanterns?
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I agree. Although I did like how they used Parallax as the explanation (sort of) for the yellow ring. Honestly the whole Weaponers of Qward thing probably wouldn't have worked. And they needed to get the yellow ring somehow for the sequel. It would have been better had Sinestro been working more with Hal and they teamed up to beat Parallax and we got to see more of Sinestros descent into evil.


Random said:
The constructs were just too ridiculous I never liked when green lantern would make specific objects. I prefer they keep it simple and focus on using his abilities in a dynamic fight sequence than just coming up with over the top constructs.
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I like the goofy constructs. Just shooting blasts out of the ring is no fun. And if you ever read the old GL comics or even watched the old Super Friends cartoon he is always making goofy crap. I thought the constructs in the movie were a total shout out to old school fans of the character. In fact I thought this movie above most of the others is much more for the comic fan vs the casual movie fan. Aside from the explanation of the yellow ring there were no real changes to make it more accessible to people who are not fan of the comic.
 
mike3717 said:
I like the goofy constructs. Just shooting blasts out of the ring is no fun. And if you ever read the old GL comics or even watched the old Super Friends cartoon he is always making goofy crap. I thought the constructs in the movie were a total shout out to old school fans of the character. In fact I thought this movie above most of the others is much more for the comic fan vs the casual movie fan. Aside from the explanation of the yellow ring there were no real changes to make it more accessible to people who are not fan of the comic.
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Absolutely. Plus one of the points of the ring is that you have to use your imagination. Even the movie touched on that, albeit briefly.
 
E said:
Absolutely. Plus one of the points of the ring is that you have to use your imagination. Even the movie touched on that, albeit briefly.
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Bingo!

I thought it was super cool in the comic when Johns described each earth lantern and why they make the constructs they do. The ring should respond to each user differently. I'd love to see something like that in the movies.
 
mike3717 said:
I like the goofy constructs. Just shooting blasts out of the ring is no fun. And if you ever read the old GL comics or even watched the old Super Friends cartoon he is always making goofy crap. I thought the constructs in the movie were a total shout out to old school fans of the character.
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I get that but I never liked it. I always felt whenever they made accurate everyday objects like a giant hot wheel car it feels like a little kid's imagination using the toy he has lying around. I would much prefer practical tools like the hook he used when Kilowog made the sun, the swords, the springs. And if they did use something like a drill make it look more fantastic and interesting than just an everyday drill but bigger and greener. Use the concept of creating a 3 dimension object using will and imagination with some... imagination. And so much of it became just laughable and not in a good way. It really just became what scale version of a random real life object could we just throw in instead of lets take this force field concept and really make these scenes interesting and sometimes they did there were a bunch I like but some were just too silly and boring.

Also I hated when they made a sun, a flame thrower, water. I always felt that the ring theoretical power is greater than what a Lantern can be physically capable of. As in they can create force fields that resembles objects but don't have the ability to create matter on a molecular scale. So he can make a howitzer but it doesn't have gun powder shooting lead bullets but uses the green energy to propel green bullets.
E said:
Absolutely. Plus one of the points of the ring is that you have to use your imagination. Even the movie touched on that, albeit briefly.
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I know that but I feel there needs to be limits of what a person can do, they have to be able to clearly concentrate on the form and function of the object here it was just "oh you're thinking of that there you go". I just can't but most of it.
In fact I thought this movie above most of the others is much more for the comic fan vs the casual movie fan. Aside from the explanation of the yellow ring there were no real changes to make it more accessible to people who are not fan of the comic.
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Oh definitely, in fact during the explanations I kept thinking "would anyone who hadn't read the comics actually like this" Because writing just came off so corny unless you already knew what was going on and were able to over look the exposition.

I also felt the film was stuck between being a serious and a not serious film and it just didn't work right and failed on both sides. Thor did that well having fun with it but it just couldn't work here. Think they added to much in could edit it to fit all the characters/situation/themes properly. It really needed reworking in the script phase, trim some of the fat.
 
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Random said:
I always felt whenever they made accurate everyday objects like a giant hot wheel car it feels like a little kid's imagination using the toy he has lying around. I would much prefer practical tools like the hook he used when Kilowog made the sun, the swords, the springs. And if they did use something like a drill make it look more fantastic and interesting than just an everyday drill but bigger and greener. Use the concept of creating a 3 dimension object using will and imagination with some... imagination. And so much of it became just laughable and not in a good way. It really just became what scale version of a random real life object could we just throw in instead of lets take this force field concept and really make these scenes interesting and sometimes they did there were a bunch I like but some were just too silly and boring.
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I can see where that stuff isn't for everyone. Part of it is because I think Jordan is always portrayed as something of a "man-boy". He is immature and reckless and a smart a** etc. But when he whips up a giant fly swatter or something to swat giant insect aliens or Parallax or whatever I love that kind of stuff. For me that has always been the quintessential Green Lantern.


Random said:
Oh definitely, in fact during the explanations I kept thinking "would anyone who hadn't read the comics actually like this" Because writing just came off so corny unless you already knew what was going on and were able to over look the exposition.
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Agreed. I thought at one point what good is putting in all these obscure lanterns and having the camera pan by them unless people know who they are? They get no speaking lines. Their names are not ever mentioned. But they threw them in there, which I, as a fan of the comic, thought was cool (would have liked more of that) but if you don't now who Bzzzd is then his brief appearance means zilch and adds nothing to the movie.

Random said:
I also felt the film was stuck between being a serious and a not serious film and it just didn't work right and failed on both sides.
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I agree the script could have used more work to make the final product a bit more, cohesive. But I think that line between comedy and seriousness is also kind of part and parcel to who Green Lantern is, like I said earlier, its sort of who the character is. He isn't a gloomy dark guy like Batman.
 
mike3717 said:
Bingo!

I thought it was super cool in the comic when Johns described each earth lantern and why they make the constructs they do. The ring should respond to each user differently. I'd love to see something like that in the movies.
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that was pretty cool. Green Lantern Reborn was one of the most tightly written stories I've ever read.
 
Captain Canuck said:
that was pretty cool. Green Lantern Reborn was one of the most tightly written stories I've ever read.
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Thanks. I couldn't remember what story it was in. I get it confused with when he was talking about the lost lanterns and how they use (or don't use as the case may be) their rings. I think that was Reborn also. But same idea. And yeah, cool.
 
mike3717 said:
Thanks. I couldn't remember what story it was in. I get it confused with when he was talking about the lost lanterns and how they use (or don't use as the case may be) their rings. I think that was Reborn also. But same idea. And yeah, cool.
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yeah, He says that Guy just has a huge blast of willpower, Kyle "draws" his constructs, John's constructs look like blueprints and Hal is something else (I forget)
 
Random said:
I know that but I feel there needs to be limits of what a person can do, they have to be able to clearly concentrate on the form and function of the object here it was just "oh you're thinking of that there you go".
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...that's where the willpower aspect of it comes in.
 
This is just personal taste, but I thought the constructs looked silly on screen, and I can't help but think that the general audience, most of whom wouldn't be familiar with the character would agree.
 
E said:
...that's where the willpower aspect of it comes in.
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Yeah but when it's literally anything without thinking about it there's just a point where I just say bull****. I guess what I mean is that I'm not seeing any use of willpower, concentration, and the work needed for such unnecessarily complex and sometimes childish constructions. It just makes it random and uninteresting.

Also on thinking about the plot they should have just cut Hector Hammond completely out of the movie. He just wastes so much time in the film, his origin scenes interrupts Hal's, ruining the flow of his storyline. I would have put a bit more focus on the lanterns and maybe have some crime or rescues on Earth to add some more action scenes between the training and Parallax. I think that would have made the movie much better.
 
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I can see your point Random, and was expecting more of the extreme, training-required methods of JLU(where it showed John, under Katma Tui, had to start with stuff like making juggling balls and work his way up to large objects and working machines), and I've never been quite clear on whether he can make a flamethrower or a bomb or something.

But complex, full constructs like the howitzer, flamethrower, pool of liquid, etc, were about the only original thing the movie had going for it and it would've been even more mediocre and pointless if they didn't have them. So I'm glad they did.
 
Just saw this, it was pretty good, not great, but good.

Kinda all over the place, surprised they passed up Sinestro's fall from grace (Strong was great). Reynolds did a good job, but he couldn't escape his rom-com past, and you could tell.

Random's right about Hector, but he was still necessary so Hal wouldn't go from stopping bankrobbers or whatever to defeating a planet destroying threat. He provided a bridge, so the challenge escalation wouldn't be so intense. Could it have been handled better? absolutely. Atrocitus or even Black Hand could have been better choices.

anywho a solid effort 7.5/10
 
Hopefully the next one will go for some major scaling up. Drop the Earth crap, focus on the outer space side of things. Let the art department go nuts.
Sinestro Corps War FTW!
 
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