What Green Lantern Got Wrong

[The Overlord]

Since we have a "what Green Lantern got right thread", its only fair we counter that with a "What Green Lantern got Wrong" thread.

So what did the Green Lantern get wrong?

 

[Poni_Boy]

Are we talking about comic canon, comics-to-film translation or as a film in general?

 

[The Overlord]

Are we talking about comic canon, comics-to-film translation or as a film in general?

All 3, anything you think the movie got wrong.

 

[Poni_Boy]

Well, I guess my major gripes are all in here as objective as I can be about the situation: http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2011/06/15/pietros-movie-review-green-lantern Anything more detailed than that feels like repeatedly throwing a dodgeball at the fat kid in the corner

I don't want to ramble on and on about all the unnecessary canon changes, so let me think about what really mattered in that aspect and I'll get back to you.

 

[J.Howlett]

Everything, according to Morningstar...

 

[HighFivingMF]

Since we have a "what Green Lantern got right thread", its only fair we counter that with a "What Green Lantern got Wrong" thread.

Pretty much every thread in this section with the exception of the "What Green Lantern Got Right" thread is a "What Green lantern Got Wrong" thread.

 

[The Morningstar]

Everything, according to Morningstar...

No not everything. Oa was cool. The suit was cool. Sinestro, Tomar Re and Kilowog were cool. It's a shame those parts only took up about 20 minutes.

I'll mention one bad thing though...

The flashback scene. It was laughable. Was supposed to be really powerful, really emotional, but it just wasn't. And it didn't make a lick of sense. Hal has obviously been a pilot for a long time, he's probably had that picture in his cockpit a long time. But NOW he decides to freak out about it? How convenient.

Terrible writing.

 

[Boom]

Shotty editing.
Terrible directing.
Terrible script.
Terrible score.
Alarming lack of character development.
Uninspired presentation of the villains.

 

[Man of Tomorrow]

Everything.

Every aspect of GL was 'meh' to fail. Nothing about it stood out as good or excellent.


Even Strong as Sinestro wasn't given anything to do except make one-toned speeches.

 

[Boom]

And the bits with Hal's friend were just useless. What a complete waste of time.

 

[The Morningstar]

And the bits with Hal's friend were just useless. What a complete waste of time.

I know right!?!?

 

[TheFuture]

A huge galaxy was established, yet somehow the scope of the film is quite narrow.

Poor dialogue at times.

Poor development of characters and their relationships with each other. The nerdy guy with glasses calls Hal his best friend yet before this scene he just seems like a colleague, or an acquaintance at best. The childhood friendship of Carol, Hal and Hector is also undercooked.

Lack of a compelling villain.

While I disagree with the claim being made that Reynolds was playing Van Wilder here, he still didn't differentiate his own persona from that of Hal Jordan. Can he be blamed for that though is another question.

 

[ElMariachi]

The Humour---

Even if the plot of this movie had issues, this movie should have at least been funny with Ryan Reynolds as the main lead. The jokes in this movie either fell flat or I already saw them in previews. Honestly, the funniest part of the movie was Hector Hammond. I literally laughed almost every time he opened his mouth. The only thing is I don't know if they were intentionally trying to make him that ridiculous.

Some people had slight issues with the plot of Iron Man 2 but the one thing most everybody can agree on was the movie was funny and charming. Same goes with Thor and even Incredible Hulk to a certain degree. Green Lantern obviously tried to go the Iron Man route and it didn't work as well. Green Lantern seemed kinda stuck between the uber-sterile Superman Returns and the humour of Iron Man. I think if they do the sequel, they should fix this.

The Score

Easily one of the most forgettable musical scores for a major superhero movie. For a sci-fi/superhero movie---I was expecting something grand. Instead, it sounded like they got their music from the factory where they get scores for crappy 'epic' movies. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't memorable. I was honestly hoping for something like the Star Trek 09' soundtrack or Iron Man 1.


The Story

Less Earth and Blake Lively. More space and Oa. All that needs to be said. The movie really shined near the end when earth was in trouble and GL fought Parallax by himself. The other GLC had nothing to do in the movie and were somewhat wasted as supporting characters. Less Hector Hammond and his daddy/Carol Ferris issues. Kind of felt out of place to me with the greater Parallax threat. Also, I felt the Green Lantern Corps were d-bags. They didn't even help Earth and weren't very heroic at all---they may as well have been villains.

The CGI/Sets/etc.

I thought they used too much CGI. The beginning of the movie honestly felt like a videogame cutscene. As did parts on Oa. It's kind of odd when RR's head is the only real thing in the scene. The suit looked cool during some parts of the movie and pretty silly in others. The constructs looked cool though.

 

[Boom]

Eh, I actually thought Reynolds was fine, but then again I'm a Reynolds apologist. The scene where he recites the Oath while holding back Parallax was the only moment in the film I genuinely loved.

 

[The Morningstar]

Final fight. Was Hal and Parralax travelling FTL? One second Earth is in the background... then they are all of a sudden at an asteroid belt... then all of a sudden they are right by the sun.

It seemed to be all one continuous scene too. Strange.

 

[TheFuture]

Eh, I actually thought Reynolds was fine, but then again I'm a Reynolds apologist. The scene where he recites the Oath while holding back Parallax was the only moment in the film I genuinely loved.

Definitely his best moment in the film.

 

[The Morningstar]

Eh, I actually thought Reynolds was fine, but then again I'm a Reynolds apologist. The scene where he recites the Oath while holding back Parallax was the only moment in the film I genuinely loved.

Ahhhh yea. That was actually awesome i have to admit. Where Parralax is talking to him about how he is a failure, trying to put him off. And Hal is just ignoring it, quietly reciting the Oath, then roaring the last line.

 

[Boom]

Yep. Chills galore .

 

[Rowsdower!]

I love how so many of you just say "terrible writing" or "terrible directing" and don't give any real examples.

 

[The Morningstar]

We've given plenty of examples as to why the writing is horrendous.

 

[Willi Berg]

Brought to you by Hot Wheels.

 

[Poni_Boy]

Ok, I'll just go into these as they come to me:

The Power Ring. Up until April they were still unsure if it was going to have a sentient voice or not. They went with Spidey Sense instead. In several of the scenes in the theatrical cut you can see Hal starring at the ring for no reason whatsoever -- that was filmed to allow room for the ring to speak.

Doing this -- making the ring an actual supercomputer instead of solely a will power conduit -- would have allowed them to cut unnecessary expository scenes. Also, the first scene on Oa where Hal is on the platform getting "assessed" for his suit was pointless. Every fan loves the comics/animated film renditions where he is encompassed with burning green light the first time he dons the ring by Abin's body. Plus, they injected his heart and brains with what I can only describe as Oan semen, which apparently makes him know everything about Sector 2813 but not anything about Oa, the GLC or the Guardians.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yea, what the hell were those injections about?

And the ring having a voice would have been great. Maybe the voice of the users subconcious' choosing? Like with Hal maybe Carol or his Dads?

 

[routhman]

Shotty editing.
Terrible directing.
Terrible script.
Terrible score.
Alarming lack of character development.
Uninspired presentation of the villains.

+ poor FX work. I don't like Sony ImageWorks. ILM and WETA are much better.

For god sakes, SW:ROTS was made in 2005 by ILM and Yoda looked better than the Guardians! 5-6 years later and Sony still can't do better? It's sad.

 

[routhman]

I love how so many of you just say "terrible writing" or "terrible directing" and don't give any real examples.

Bad writing -- the plot was poor, underdeveloped and didn't make anyone really care about the people on screen.

Bad directing -- the cinematography was weak and the performances weren't good.

People don't give examples because they think it's self-evident. Apparently not to you.