The highly anticipated day has arrived, and though many of us are celebrating at Nerdtacular ’11, we know a good number of you have already rushed out to see Warner Bros. Green Lantern movie.
A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
Time to share your thoughts on the movie. Did DC/Warner Bros. knock it out of the park, or were Hal Jordan’s constructs not strong enough to carry the movie through? Use the comment section to share your thoughts, your reviews, your predictions on the future of the franchise.
Well, what are you waiting for? GO!
50 Comments
Its alright but not good enough for people who hyped themselves for the movie. I’m quite disappointed as a GL fan. Honestly I still cant get over my disappointment. Although very short and few, every scenes with Hammond and/or the Lanterns are spectacular tho. Despite this I’ll defend the film, its just an origin story for the mainstream audience. Batman Begins isnt as amazing as TDK, so i still have high hopes (and wishes) for the sequel.
You mean “X-Men Origins: Deadpool”? ;-)
See, I’m one of the very few that preferred Begins to TDK, and I loved this movie, so maybe I’m the defective one.
It was clearly just a starting point for at least a trilogy. As a huge GL fan, I was very happy with the movie. I would say people that have a hatred for it probably don’t read the books, because as a film, it’s not gonna win any Oscars, outside of special effects. For those of you that didn’t like it, did you expect this to be The Dark Knight? The characters of Green Lantern & Batman are so different you’d be foolish to even think that. I’d say it’s a top 10-15 superhero movie as of 2011, and one of the better movies I’ve seen this year.
I thought it was entertaining, but I feel there’s more potential for the series. I thought it focused on Hal quite a bit, but as soulanger said, it was an origin story so it should. I was surprised that a few lanterns did not make an appearance. I won’t say who, but I thought there could have been more familiar faces. I was psyched to see Amanda Waller in it and her brief background, I can see how they could slip in Suicide Squad easily into the picture for the sequels. I would definitely recommend seeing it if your a fan.
It was a solid B.
The film felt very rushed in a lot of places. Like the editor didn’t want to have any scene breathe. I felt the movie could have benefited from another 20 minutes. Because of the rushed pace, we never really got to know Hal Jordan, or care for him very much.
Every scene on Oa was awesome. And Mark Strong as Sinestro was an amazing choice! I wanted to see more Sinestro in the film.
I hated Hector Hammond in the movie as a whole. And his end in the film, just proved how ineffectual as a character he was. They should have just had Parallax be the only villain.
Special effects were good. Ryan Reynolds pulled off Hal Jordan. And in 3D, it was pretty cool looking.
I have a feeling this is going to be a movie that a lot of fanboys are going to hate. But to me, it was a fun summer popcorn movie. Just turn off your brain, and enjoy.
I do hope that we get a sequel because I want more Mark Strong Sinestro.
If you liked Mark Strong in this picture, he’s gonna be in the John Carter movie too.
I wasn’t as disappointing with the movie as I thought I’d be, but that isn’t saying much.. As a GL fan, I found it really hard to see it as it should be seen, a summer blockbuster. I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t get my hopes up too high so they weren’t all smashed on the ground…
Haven’t seen it yet, but last night I rewatched “First Flight”, and you know what? Its a great GL story. And they do the origin in 7 minutes. Why do we need full length movies about the origin? You just need enough time to tell the story.
Rotten Tomatoes has it at 20% so Im really questioning bothering going to see it.
“And they do the origin in 7 minutes. Why do we need full length movies about the origin? ”
I couldn’t agree more, i’m soooo tired of origin story movies, and with the reboots, it’s getting even more annoying. Yes, we all know how Superman and Batman and everyone else pretty much became a hero. :P The animated film did it right, bang, boom, done. It also didn’t make the mistake of keeping GL on earth a lot, i feel that the space setting is it’s strength.
Add me to the list. Why do we need NINETY MINUTES to tell an ‘origin story’ in most solo-superhero movies? For (bleep)’s sake, we barely get that kind of character build-up IN THE BOOKS THEMSELVES!!!!!!!!!!!! Omygod, I haven’t been to see GL, the commercials were making me nervous about the actual storyline, and now with this bit of ‘Origin Overload’ I have a feeling I’ll just wait to downlo….er… Rent this movie.
The critics are at 24% for some unknown reason, but the audience reviews are at 65%.
Always makes me suspicious when the audience reviews are so different from the critics. Reinforces the notion of the effete critic thumbing his nose at the silly dreck for the proles.
Haven’t seen First Flight yet, but “Emerald Dawn” took 6 issues to tell the origin story. “Secret Origin” took 7. I understand the fatigue with this origin story (believe me), but this IS the first time we’ve seen this as a feature film. I’d expect something a bit more extensive.
I felt the movie was pretty solid. It had its flaws, but what super hero movie doesn’t. It’s not a Dark Knight or X2, but it holds up pretty well and is about as accurately as most comic films. I’m not a die hard fan, but I know a bit about the characters and the universe, so nothing seemed too far out of whack. It’s better than Thor in many regards. Thor was a good movie, but I felt it could have been more epic. It’s been a pretty good summer for movies thus far; very few complaints and I hope they rest of the summer movies deliver.
I kinda loved it.
I loved what each actor bought to the characters – I mean, I was interested in all of them individually and would totally watch the Carol Ferris movie and the Hector Hammond movie and for SURE the Sinestro movie, and I felt the actors did a good job with that. I loved the story, the ideas behind it, and i LOVED the Lantern training and the constructs.
I find that it really helped – the point where the whole movie changed for me is when I stopped looking for comic book Hal Jordan to appear in front of Ryan Reynold’s eyes. This is NOT a movie filled with characters from the comics(aside from Kilowog(who had too short an appearance. Yes, I want a Kilowog movie)) and Tomar-Re(the dude ROCKED. Animation and Geoffrey Rush did and AWESOME job there). This is a movie about the type of guy Ryan Reynolds would play getting a power ring. NOT Hal Jordan the cocky pilot from the comic books.
That sorta changed everything and made the movie SO much better. SO much more interesting. YOu can enjoy the characters instead of being disappointed that these people AREN’T the ones you know.
I LOVED Carol Ferris’ role as the lady who inspires Hal’s bravery. And the moment when she recognized Hal INSTANTLY – “You think I can’t recognize you because I can’t see your CHEEKBONES??” – that made the movie for me. I LOVED that part. I mean, seriously, anyone who can’t recognize that Hal and GL are the same guy are idiots. Or blind.
The Guardian twist on Parallax was interesting.
I’m with you. I’ve been a GL fan for quite awhile, and this highlighted all the things I loved in the characters–even the Pieface analog. The greatest thing about Hal is how much of an “every man” he was–how human. And they made that a central part of the story.
I also loved how they dealt with Parallax. The way they re-shaped him was pure genius, and made 30 years worth of stories easy to encompass in one or two movies. We’ve already established Parallax, Sinestro, the yellow ring, and a power source for it. Also, if you watched in the credits, you saw flashes of other colors, like orange, red, and more.
But the story worked well from my perspective. It adhered to the books just well enough while revising only what was needed.
I agree with what’s already been said. A solid B.
I don’t know. I didn’t like the whole “sun” thing, it didn’t make sense to me, but more on that when the movie is less spoilable. It was a paint-by-numbers origin with nothing surprising, and I have high hopes for the sequal.
BUT.
It could have been much better. It failed to set itself apart, to set an individual tone the way Iron Man and Thor have done. This could have been accomplished by giving me more Space Cops and less Blake Lively. Or even Hector Hammond. A lot of their scenes just seem so unimportant when you know there is a whole universe of Green Lanterns out there on the front lines. Show the people your most interesting stuff: not what the typical movie formula says you have to have. You don’t need Short Round. You don’t need Ewoks. And Micheal Bay, I couldn’t give two poops about Shia LEbouf going to college, gimme more giant effing robots!
So: I feel that if they had cut the Hammond storyline (which really didn’t sell me: his whole “nobody likes me” shtick was overplayed.) and instead had Hal go out on some intergalactic patrols before fighting the big guy, it would have been a spectacular film.
Wow. I sound like I hated it. I didn’t, I really liked it, a solid B. But I’m disappointed in thinking of how much better it COULD have been. Oh well. The sequel will be great.
It committed the cardinal sin of Superhero movies – it was boring. Here’s hoping if they get a sequel it’ll be more ‘Wrath of Khan’ than ‘Motion Picture’. Think about it – Parallax=Big, floaty thing in Space=V’Ger (hard to grasp threat to humanity). Sinestro=Intelligent, charismatic, real personal threat=Khan (mano a mano with GL). Bring It On!!
Meh.
But will probably be genius against Snyder’s Superman crapfest!
Can we really call it a “crapfest” yet when there’s absolutely nothing to look at yet?
I really enjoyed this movie. The line “He proposed?” was worth the price of admission itself.
I am worried about that they have written themselves into a corner if they plan on Green Lantern becoming a Trilogy. I expected Hal Jordan to follow the “Luke Skywalker 3 Movie Plan”:
Step 1) Get a Lightsaber (Power Ring) and remedial training, avoid a fight with Vader (Sinestro)
Step 2) Fail to defeat Vader (Sinestro)
Step 3) Defeat Vader (Sinestro), get an undeserved victory over Emporer (Parallax)
I have no idea how you build a franchise around Hal once you have him defeat Parallax singlehandedly in Act 1… It would be like having Luke defeat the Emporer in a Force Lightning Duel at the end of Star Wars and trying to come up with a good sequel
Adam W, I couldn’t agree more. Too often (perhaps due to a fear of not having another chance) the origin story of characters put them up single handedly against a FORCE THAT COULD DESTROY THE EARTH and win (STAR TREK I’m looking at you, nice trick for a maiden voyage, we defeated a ship that destroyed all of Starfleet and worlds…) Where do you go from saving the universe? It is quite all right to tell a smaller more personal story with “super heroes” and still get the audience built up into an adrenaline frenzy. The point is they should be ROOTING for your hero, and caught up the protagonists journey.
The stakes don’t have to be big, it could be beating the mean blonde haired kid in the karate tournament. They just have to be BIG to your characters!
How many times have the X-Men saved the world again?
Superman?
Spider-man?
Flash?
Avengers?
Any one of the Avengers?
Well…except maybe Hawkeye…
Maybe they’ll set up a new big bad, like Scar or Starro or something.
So was there no Ganthet in this movie? I didn’t see anyone that I thought we were supposed to think was him and none of the toys thus far have Ganthet’s name on them. Does he show up later or what?
I think there was Ganthet, but they never gave him a name. I can’t remember his name. Wasn’t he in Indiana Jones?
One other thing I’m curious about is that IMDB lists a “John Stewart” in the movie, but I don’t remember seeing him. Anyone else?
I remember hearing something about a bar fight with John Stewart. maybe it’ll be a deleted scene or something.
Sorry. I meant I don’t remember the actor’s name.
Oh, they can easily make it into a trilogy. Movie 2: Sinestro corps. Movie 3: spectrum corps.
I don’t read all the GL comics but i’m familiar with the history and the main characters. And I enjoyed a lot this movie. If it was’nt for the deficient and somewhere boring 3D, I would have give it a solid 4 stars. As it is, in 3D I’d say 3.5 stars. Or slices of meatloaf. But the real test was my girlfriend. She does not know a thing about the GL and she really enjoyed it… so this movie should have a great life, financially speaking!
Same goes here, this was the only comic book movie that my wife has actually suggested that we go see. She’s go with me to see them and has enjoyed some of the X-Men movies but this one she actually wanted to see. Granted, her interest rests solely on the fact that she thinks Ryan Reynolds is attractive, but that’s kind of what they were going for I think.
@Damascus- You’re right. Apologies to all. I concede the point. I base it purely on Snyder’s past work that I personally have been less than thrilled with and I should be hopeful that Snyder/DC/WB will give us a fantastic Superman next year. Fingers crossed. @Adam M & Kent S- ditto. I think the points you make get to the heart of my aggravation. They’ve crammed 10 pounds of story into a 5 pound sack and it’s sloppy. The approach to the storytelling in this movie is rushed, shallow and smacks of ‘one and done’. Plus, I saw Ryan Reynolds playing a character named Hal Jordan- I never saw the “Hal Jordan”. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a die-hard GL fan and I’m unable debate the virtues of the movie against the comics but I know enough about the GL canon that I really wanted, really hoped, to be blown away by this movie. All I got was… “Meh”.
Hey, once Superman comes out, I’m totally fine if you think it’s the biggest flaming pile of crap ever made, even if I love it. Everyone’s opinion is valid, lets wait till we see though.
To your other point I didn’t really get bothered by Ryan Reynolds’ portrayal of Hal, but that’s also because the Green Lantern that I cut my teeth on (if that’s the proper phrase) was Kyle Rayner. I don’t have a great deal of background on Hal except that I think a lot of people feel he’s a flaming jackass in some iterations. At least with this franchise, they could, if they’re smart, swap GL’s the moment the current actor is ready to move on to something else. Just line up the new guy in the last movie of the current GL and then you can hand off to John Stewart or Kyle Rayner or even Guy Gardner. It would do away with the whole Bond/Batman motif of different actor/same character for in-continuity titles.
Honestly, I thought he pretty much nailed Hal. They got his wanderlust, and his cocky attitude. And, to be honest, as Matthew has said time and again, which Hal were you expecting? Was it the Hal of the 60’s? The conservative space cop foil to Green Arrow of the 70’s? Parallax Hal of the 90’s? Or Geoff Johns’ current “reborn” Hal?
I’m not meaning to be insulting or combative here, and I may not be understanding your statement, but if you aren’t that familiar with Hal Jordan, then what about Reynolds’ performance didn’t call the character out?
I was not impressed. Like Jawiin said the movie did feel very rushed and you never really have time to connect with Hal Jordan as a character. In fact if I hadn’t read the comics and saw this movie I would probably hate Hal Jordans character. He talks a big game throughout the whole movie but usually doesn’t have the actions to back it up. He felt too much like Shinji Ikari.
As for the effects, they were good and my only problem was in one of the flying scenes where everything look great except for the fact that Ryan Reynolds face looks superimposed on a body made entirely of CGI.
I personally like Hector Hammonds character and I wish they had focused more on him and less on Parallax. I hate movies with big flashy CGI monsters. The fights between Hal and Parallax look silly. I would have much rather seen Parallax posses a Green Lantern or Hector Hammond and have an epic ring slinging fight.
I could have taken the entire movie WITHOUT Hector Hammond. I’m not sure what role he played. He seemed kind of thrown in- More Oa, less Hector would have turned a really good movie into a GREAT movie.
Was it Hector’s screaming out (with a bit of Parallax himself in him) that attracted Parallax’s attention or was it Hal’s (previously Abin Sur’s) ring that he felt?
Also with the way they played Hector’s character, it looks a lot like they should have shown the three of them growing up in a flashback from Hector’s point of view or something where you see how he has a thing for Carol but Hal is always there upstaging him and taking all her attention. It would have at least made that plot thread a little more realized I think.
Yeah. Hector’s role was obvious and over played. Hey, a weird looking scientist with daddy issues and girl issues! I wonder what’s gonna happen to him? His whole storyline just bored me. The only interesting question he raised was “I wonder how big they’re going to let his head grow?”
MOre OA, more Parralax. But, I still liked it. It can just be frustrating when a movie is clearly squandering it’s potential.
I just saw that the same guy who did the voice of Parallax does the voice for Mr. Krabs on Spongebob, somehow that makes him a little less intimidating. But it would have been fantastic if the first time Parallax speaks you heard Mr. Krabs talking. lol
The guy who did the voice for Parallax is Clancy Brown.
The guy who played The Kurgan.
Did anyone stay after the credits? I saw a bit with Sinestro (no spoilers) but didn’t stay longer.
Personally, I really enjoyed it. Though it was not the kind of movie I was really hoping for, it portrayed the origin in such a way that my non-comic book friend went out the day after seeing the movie and bought Green Lantern: Rebirth. I think that’s the biggest reason why I don’t feel disappointed. This movie was geared more towards the people who have absolutely no idea who Green Lantern is. That, and after losing almost all faith in superhero movies, going into expecting just an origin story and nothing else helped.
Don’t get me wrong, I was very disappointed in how quickly the big baddie was taken down, and I was hoping for the scenes on OA to at least be longer, but it was what it was. And that is a straight origin to get more viewers used to the idea of Intergalactic space cops with power rings. I have high hopes that the sequel will have more in depth space plots and more fighty-fighty. And hopefully less useless Earth bound love-story.
Going into the film I was aware of the bad negative “vibes” from the web via review headlines and Itsjustomerandomguy. Here’s what stood out for me.
Blake Lively : She was much better than the trailers implied. She did a great job.
Pacing : Yea it felt awkward at times
Fast times on Oa High
The Oa scenes went waaay to fast, especially his training. They need more of a Batman Begins approach in that the movie needed to portray that he spent a significant amount of time learning to use it. This is the army after all
Weak D.O.P
I’ll excuse Hal because he’s a newb but the other lantern’s display of power was poor overall. This is most apparent in their pathetic attempt to attack/capture Paralax. They are suppose to be elite lantern corp members and all they can come up with is a giant chain net? How human.
Where’s the calvary?
As a threat that can destroy the universe I have a hard time believing that newbie Hal Jordan could be Parallex all by himself. This would have been an opportune time to show some teamwork between Hal and members of the corps, one that would contrast from his “teamwork” with Carol at the beginning of the film.
Cheesy Ending
The ending could have been better, the last couple of lines didn’t sit well with me. And then he just flies off. That’s it?
I thought overall it was a good,fun movie.To me,the DC product were always about heroes(and details),wereas Marvel wasn’t(X-men 1st class is Jean,Bobby,Warren,Scott and Hank,not what was relewased this year-waiting for the DVD!).So in that way I’ll always see a DC film in the theatre over a Marvel.
Was it another Dark Knight.No.But it has potential.The can build a nice 3 parter here and be done with it.I was hoping for more(ie like the ring selecting Guy 1st but Hal was closer,or more on the spectrum).And the guy playing sinestro was awesome.A great setup to the sequal! I did get a good movie out of it.Two thumbs up for me!
If you’re waiting on DVD to see X-Men: First Class, do yourself a favor and go see it in theaters (not in 3D if possible). I saw it tonight and while I enjoyed Green Lantern, I personally think that First Class outshines GL by leagues. I am still in the camp that First Class should have had a different title to tell what it was but not to confuse it with what the true first class was. It was a well paced (wished for longer training sequences just like I had wanted from GL too), good character development for most of the characters and a great feel overall. Loved it. Green Lantern was cool too, I just hoped for more out of it, especially considering all the material they had to work with.
For me, I thought Blake was alright, she just always felt a little too young for the role. She was passable, and maybe because my wife watches Gossip Girl and she’s in her late teens to maybe 20 in that show it might have affected how I saw her.
I like the Marvel movies leaps and bounds over DC honestly, and that’s not truely because of quality of every Marvel vs. every DC, it’s just that DC’s only had the run of Superman films in the 70s (which I only really liked 1 and 2), the run of Batman films starting in the 80s (which I only liked 1 and 2), and of more current times Catwoman, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Dark Knight, Watchmen, Jonah Hex and now Green Lantern. Only a few of those later ones were very good.
Marvel on the otherhand (while it has it’s stinkers Elektra anyone) has had a lot more properties turned into films and many of them were either plain good to genuinely great. And if they can learn to keep Nicolas Cage out of movies, we could have a decent Ghost Rider movie someday too.
Either way though, I hope the market doesn’t dry up for the genre anytime soon and I’ll go see a movie from either company as long as it looks remotely interesting.
Another aside, if you haven’t seen X-Men: First Class or Green Lantern yet and you’re going to before they leave theaters, head to your local Best Buy and look through their Blu-Ray (and possibly Standard Def) movie sections, a lot of movies were only $7.99 or $9.99 and they came with a free ticket to see one or the other movie. You can get a Blu-Ray and see the new movie for the price of one. Only Warning is that you have to enter the code online and print the coupon off, so make sure you can get to a printer before the movie starts. I bought Watchmen (I only had Standard Def and it came with a ticket for GL) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (pretty terrible but I had a credit on my card that needed used on something and I got the ticket to First Class), and I got Forbidden Planet too (that’s just cause it’s a wonderful movie).
I watch the DC films more because they tend to follow continuity.Marvel does not.Gwen Stacey should have been in the 1st Spiderman movie and should have died.The X-men messed up the entire team.Now if they do a modern movie again,and a character like Cyclops is in it,is he now dating a sixty year old Emma Frost?As for stinkers,yes some of the Dc properties haven’t been that great(ie Superman 4).But I can count more good movies with DC than Marvel(on your list you omitted the numerous attempts to do a good Punisher movie,Spiderman and xmen 3 were pretty bad,the FF movies and although panned,Daredevil was pretty good).
I unmsderstand where you are coming from but I will wait to see Xmen on DVD.Just like i did on their last entry :Wolverine.The worst of all the franchises to date.Lets just throw all the cool characters we can into 1 film and f*@$ continuity movie.
I felt the movie was too much like the Michael Bay Transformer movies. If that’s your thing, then by all means. I would give it a C+, and the main reason is Mark Strong as Sinestro. I seriously could watch a movie about Sinestro. Blake Lively was horrible, so was Skarsgard as Hector Hammond, a character that didn’t even need to be there, and was the worst Supervillain portrayal since Danny Devito’s Penguin in Batman Returns. Angela Basset as Amanda Waller was just a disappointment. It should have been CCH Pounder, she has the presence and chops to do a better job than Basset.
I don’t get the Transformer comparison. Never been a fan of Bay’s movies, but I really dug this one. Unlike Transformers, there was an actual reason for the ancillary characters to exist, and a plot, too.
As far as the rest of your comparisons, I can see where you’re coming from. Not sure if I agree, but I see your point.
The Transformers comparison comes from the relationship, or lack there of between Hal, and Carol. I just never bought into it, maybe it’s due to their inability to protray the characters how I expected them to. But, that’s just me.
So Krona, even though they didn’t name him, became Parallax? That’s how I saw it.
Yeah, pretty much.
Which is too bad because I think alien dragon Parallax would have looked great in a movie. I can understand the pitch for making a Parallax-possessed “Krona,” as it, in theory, could give the character more depth by making him more than just fear incarnate. However, since “Krona’s” motivation was pretty much nom nom nom, it was a wasted opportunity.
Personally, I think it would have worked better to have Parallax shown as an entity that possesses people (or at least made that more explicit). Seeing a creepy monster possess someone and give them that toothy grin (and some sweet grey sideburns) could have been much more fear-inducing than what was portrayed in the film.
It also kind of sucks that now we’ll never get an actual Krona story (if there are more GL movies made, that is). It’s not that they likely would have made a movie with the actual Krona story, anyway, but now it’s taken off of the table completely.
I have mixed feelings about the movie. I absolutely loved the oa and hammond parts. Amazing cg and makup sold me with a solid story. Everything with ryan on earth just seemed to bore me to death. I’m all for setting up one of hal’s strongest relationships, and I”m not sure if it was the writing or just ryan reynolds. But every time he was on screen alone or with ferris I felt like taking a nap.