‘Green Lantern’ hit the silver screen for the first time this weekend to a less than stellar box office receipt. Earning just a fraction of the reported $300 million price tag to make the movie.
I was a good little fanboy, on opening night I slammed a 5 Hour Energy, threw on a random superhero t-shirt (I thought about wearing my Sinestro Corps t-shirt, but I didn’t want to be that guy), and headed out to the 9:50 PM showing. I got my seat in the top row, center of course, and tried not to be too cynical.
If you read our resident movie reviewer extraordinaire Dave Taylor’s review (you can find it HERE), you know he wasn’t a fan. He is absolutely right, there are a ton of plot holes and some of the story decisions are down right mysterious. Like Dave, I was very disappointed in this movie.
My question? Did they spend $250 million on marketing and forget to put any money into the actual making of the movie? If this is what Warner Bros. thinks passes for a good superhero movie never mind a Green Lantern movie, they should have gone forward with the rumored Jack Black version.
As the credits rolled and Sinestro did his thing in the post credits scene I sent out the following tweet:
“I always wondered what it would be like for Wally West to have a #greenlantern ring… now I know.”
If you don’t know, Wally West has been the Flash for the past 20 plus years. He has always been portrayed as a little irresponsible and fancy free. Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville’s Lex Luthor) voiced the character in the awesome Justice League Unlimited cartoon series, and really captured this vibe.
Hal Jordan is not meant to be all footloose and fancy free, he is head strong, stubborn and flies into battle without thought or regard for his own well being. One thing he is not… a quitter. When Ryan Reynold’s Hal Jordan quit the Green Lantern Corps after only 10 or so minutes of screen time, I realized at that point Martin Campbell and the rest of the movie’s creative team did not understand the character.
I think what disappoints me most about this version of Green Lantern is Geoff Johns. That’s right Mr. Green Lantern himself was involved in the initial scripting. Johns has spent the past 7 plus years writing Green Lantern and doing every thing in his power to get Green Lantern into the hearts and minds of superhero fans everywhere. The product that showed up on the movie theater screen does not give me hope for the DC Universe Reboot either.
Ok, I will leave you with this. Parallax is not a cloud. Parallax is not the destroyer of worlds. Parallax is the embodiment of fear, who was imprisoned in the Green Lantern’s Central Power battery and infected Hal Jordan in a moment of weakness turning him into the second rogue Green Lantern after Coast City was destroyed by Mongul and Cyborg Superman. The abomination that was Parallax in the movie was the second most disappointing thing. He has been a thorn in the side of the Green Lantern Corps for years, especially the 4 Earth-born Lanterns (Hal, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner and John Stewart).
Last thing, I promise. This movie was more Batman and Robin than Batman Begins, my only hope is at some point DC and Warner Bros. will decide to give the Emerald Warriors another chance., Hopefully not a sequel but a reboot. Look at Punisher, there have been 3 crappy Punisher movies and he keeps getting a chance.
Am I being too harsh? Too cynical? Or just too picky? Leave your comments here or over on Dave’s review or on our Facebook page and share your thoughts, feelings and concerns about Green Lantern.
