The Green Lantern
Mostly a a black night for us this time around boys
Green Lantern is one of my favorite superheroes, more specifically, I wanted to be Hal Jordan. A test pilot, sounds like the coolest job in the world. So when Ryan Reynolds announced that he was going to be playing Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern (About a mouth after X-Men origins: Wolverine, which he had a cameo as Deadpool, sucked ass at the box office (Reynolds being the best part of the film) I was geared up to see it come out.
I was all like “it’s about fucking time”. Not just about Green Lantern becoming a movie, but for Warner Bros. doing anything else other than the Dark Knight or The Man of Steel.
Let me slap some history on ya. Back in the mid-70s Warner Bros (The Major film studio that releases all the DC comics films) purchased DC Comics. Which means that for over 40 years, Warner Bros has had access to DC’s Rooster. what makes this real shameful is that Disney just brought Marvel comics in like 2011, Yet Marvel was making movies out of their characters for the same amount of time DC was own by Warner Bros. It was a lot of misses (Fantastic Four and Captain America from the 90s are the one’s we usually sucker punch) understandable, but then they started to Hit (Starting with Blade (never forget that). At the beginning of this Century, Marvel was on a roll with good franchises like X-men and awesome franchises like Spider-Man then you had those shockers like Iron Man (What you might not know is that Iron man was a risk for Marvel because he’s not (or was not) as big or well known as the other two. The 21st Century Seems like a good time for Warner Bros. to lay out their cards with the DC line up, and they did…With another Batman movie.
But that’s how these movie studios work, right. Batman makes money, Superman makes money. We can’t risk our money with something else. Not Even Wonder Woman, Bros? When Warner Bros. first brought DC Comics the first thing to come out of the relationship was a Wonder Woman TV series.
The big three at DC, notice whose in the picture? Respect!!
And given that the three seasons of Wonder Woman became as Ionic as the two seasons of the 1966 Batman, you would think it’s a no brainier to built a film franchise off the amazon with no tag name.
They did try. during the turn of the century (Starting in 1996) I herd stories about them making a Wonder Woman movie, and I start with 1996 cause I herd they wanted to use a black woman, that’s what I remember, but I’m sure that was a false start cause the late 90s was filled with young woman playing strong independent teenagers on sappy WB dramas, of which all were white. All of these White girls were up for the part too( I remember Sarah Michelle Gellar who plays Buffy (too fucking small) and Jennifer Beils who was on 7th Heaven (would have fucked it all up) were leading the white chick parade).
I don’t know why none of this panned out. It seemed pretty easy to do Wonder Woman by making her a Xena warrior princess look-A-Like as skilled as Batman and as strong as Superman who goes out into the real world to…Get us out from under, and spends most of the movie proving how girls are better than boys with Steven Trevor, as they miscommunicate their sexual tension. This would have been super popular during the “Pretty White Kids with Problems” era. Who knows why that did not pan out, my only hope is that this years Wonder Woman (Shamefully her 1st movie in the cinema in over 75 years as a comic ion) will be great.
OK, I’m starting to rant now. I could go on to the break of dawn about how the 1990 TV Series, The Flash Mimics Tim Burton’s run on Batman so much that they missed an opportunity to use his impressive and colorful Rogue’s Gallery on the big screen, or that Warner Bros could have created a great franchise formula following behind the DC animated universe (both TV shows and movies) which is spectacular, but this is suppose to be about the Green Lantern.
Like many geeks I think I know it all and what should be done with these characters, so the idea that Warner Bros has waited so long to make a superhero movie that did not star Supes or Bats just baffles me. Than the movie comes out and it makes me shut my fucking mouth. I mean I should not even be writing this post it’s so embarrassing. The Green Lantern was just such garbage. So maybe they know something I don’t (that’s why they get paid the big bucks)
It did have a real cool intro with all that CGI green energy telling the story of the Green Lantern Corps. I herd that they actually went over budget 40 million to make those visual effects too, and the coolness keeps up with Hal Jordan testing some jet fighters in a awesome dog fight.
It’s when they get up to the Green Lantern part that it starts to go downhill. Being true to the comic book did not work for this movie. One flaw on Green Lantern that you can never get around no matter what is the need to tell his origin. Origin stories can brake a movie (Never makes) especially when it comes to comic book movies. Director Martian Campbell whose name I recall from directing James Bond flicks is an accomplished filmmaker on Christopher Nolan’s level and yet you need that kind of Nolan structure to make a comic book origin film that will break but still function(Batman Begins, good but not great like The Dark Knight)
It’s a bit Ironic. When Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern made his appearance in the silver age of comics, his origin story must have been done with less than 15 pages most likely, as part of DC showcase #22, and yet the filmmakers felt the need to be more in depth about how Abin Sur crashed landed his space ship and needed someone to give his ring to and the ring picked Jordan. It was important to have a good look at the type of man who could weld a power ring, a weapon fueled by it’s wearer’s will to be fearless. Getting to known Hal Jordan was actually cool (my favorite part is meeting his nephew Jason, because Jason Jordan sounds like a bad ass name for a space cop like the Green Lantern). This is also a good time to see Ryan Reynolds turn own his charm, so if you’re really into Reynolds (he’s ok) than you’ll like this and carry it on to when he becomes the Green Lantern.
And that’s where the problem lies doesn’t it. If only this was a movie about Hal Jordan it would have been better. Once Jordan dawns the ring it gets problematic. He has to meet the rest to the corps, an intergalactic law enforcement unit founded by little blue aliens that come from a planet called Oa. The film gets kinda cheesy with a back to back montage of Hal being trained by Killowog (A better supporting character than how he was used) and Sinsestro (Whose being set up to be the villain in the film franchises)
Then there was how Hal used his powers. This is where going straight out the comic was a big mistake. In the comic, Hal was that Green Lantern who would like to create big cartoonish objects to save the day. Like in his first heroic effort in the movie he stops a helicopter from crashing into everyone by making a roadster around it and placing it on a race track. Maybe if I was 10 that would be cool but I’m guessing not that cool or the film would have made more money. It could have been worse. Hal was also that Green Lantern who like to make big hands in order to punch and trap his enemies. They chalked it up to Hal’s human limitations combine with his imagination, to pass it off as humorous, but once the corny is done, you can’t undo the corny and it was not that entertaining
The Green Lantern Costumes were pretty cool. they looked like energy surrounding the lanterns and I liked how it glowed.
But back to bad news. You know how a lot of superheroes movies have weak villains? Well Green Lantern had the nerve to have two weak villains. Despite my fandom, the Green Lantern for me does not have the best roster of villains ( find that would be hard to do when your power is the best weapon in the galaxy). They uses Parallax in a different form than he takes in the comic (As he was Hal Jordan gone crazy in the comics). In the movie he was more of a metaphor or a symbol for evil rather than an actually villain. It’s like if I was to tie a milk crate to the top of my door so we could make a hoop and the b-ball game could keep on going. A very weak design.
Then there was Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard, an actor I’ve come to like over the years but did not realize that was him in Green Lantern, which filled me with surprise and sadness. I know Hammond was a big villain to Green Lantern in the comic, but it’s hard to believe that watching him in action on this screen. Considering that this was his origin story as well could be why I see the potential but don’t see him do anything with it, Especially against some with a power ring.
Then we have Sinestro, who is not a villain in this one, but if you know anything about comics (Not even Green Lantern, just comics) you know that Sinestro is like Green Lantern’s Joker. His origin to the dark side (or rather the yellow side) is told with this movie as well, in a way that let’s you know they were expecting this movie to produce a film franchise, where he would be a major villain, but it did not happen.
Fear itself could have been on my level.
And that’s the Green Lantern. Suffers greatly from having to tell the origin of both the corps and Hal. Reynolds was an enjoyable Hal Jordan, but Hal’s usage of the ring does not translate well onto the screen, and he has not one but two weak villains.
It’s too bad as I know DC was hooping this would be it’s Iron Man that would propel them into making more Green Lanterns and putting some other faces onto cinema. Thank God for the Avengers, however, cause without this movie to show Warner Bros. the path of making money out of superheroes, it may have been another 40 years before we see anything else but Batman vs. Superman. At the same time doing other things other than The Bat and Big Blue has not been good for them.
Just ask DC comics Jonah Hex
Hell even their last few installments of Big Blue have been iffy, but hey, one thing we learned from Marvel is that you got to pay your dues, but when you do the payoff is sweet.
