[Movies] Why was Green Lantern bad?

[OrcsRLame]

The title really says it all. I've seen some discussion on the movie recently, and the general consensus seems to be that it's like the worst thing ever. When I watched it I can honestly say that I enjoyed it, yet this film received terrible reviews, and I've seen some people say that it should be retconned entirely for the sake of the Justice League movie.

So what makes this movie so terrible? Seemed like a fairly standard superhero movie to me. Met my expectations just fine.

[Zethras]

According to the Green Lantern fans I've talked to, is that it was highly inaccurate when it came to the actual comic.

[Skorpionss]

well me being a Green Lantern fanboy I kinda liked it tho it had one of the most anticlimatic boss fights ever... Gief a good director and good writers and it could have been one of the best superhero flicks so far... I really liked Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan

P.S when I say fanboy I don't mean it in the "I read all comics that Green Lantern appeard in" kind of way... just that I really like this character :P

[Gracin]

I honestly didn't hate the GL movie as a whole. I think more care could have been taken in certain action sequences, and some of the dialogue felt off at times. My biggest problem with it was the way they decided to do the costume, trying to do a digital overlay like that was the worst idea ever. I thought Reynolds did a good job as a more modern version of a character that originated in 1959.

[NotFunny008]

It was terrible for many reasons IMHO. I will just list a few that I can recall.

1. The movie makes the entire Green Lantern Corps look like a bunch of idiots. The audience was told how great they were but we never saw or experience this in the movie. All we ever saw was them having their collective asses kicked hard. That cast a negative impression on the entire corps.

2. Hal Jordan was trained for like two hours (it felt that way) and then went to defeat that big bad impossible evil that was going to destroy entire galaxy. Yeah right! We are not that gullible. The green lantern corps looked even more like a bunch of idiots for having a complete newbie solving all their problems. Yawn!

3. IMHO a very very bad, inappropriate choice of the big bad in a first outing. (Not to mention where the hell is Superman?? Anything that threatens the entire earth and Superman did not show up? Really? Very bad continuity problem for any subsequent Justice League attempts.)

4. Some scenes were out of order IMHO. They should have showed him playing toy cars with his nephew first before using that idea to save the Senator. They had it the wrong way round. The senator died anyway eventually completely rendering the earlier save a waste of time. Another negative mark!

5. They spent more time trying to develop the follow up movie instead of trying to make this one actually good.

6. A nitpick: he created two fighter jets to pull himself away from the Sun. And silly me that I thought planes needed air to fly and in space, there is no freaking air. He should have created two rockets instead. Jeezusss!

7. At the end, again the movie used words to describe he would become the greatest Green Lantern ever. It was always words, the audience never experienced it. I could see how he was the greatest given the other were a bunch of idiots at least according to how the movie portrayed them.

8. Basically one negative point after another and by the end of the movie, it has too many negative points and left me with a very unsatisfactory impression.

[Frozenbeef]

i liked the film...mainly due to the following:




If he wasn't in it i wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much >.<

[Youvegotfail]

it wasn't that bad, people like to over-react to things...It was by no means good, though, lol...

[Caiada]

It's cut-and-paste. The movie had absolutely no soul and it looked like the writers just wanted a paycheck. Complete waste of the character.

[Rajadog20]

It wasnt...

[Sam the Wiser]

The last battle was my only beef with the movie. Seem like he went down way to easy.

[Pool of the Dead]

It wasn't bad per se, It just had a very slow character development part of the movie, they spent 2 hrs turning Hal into the Green Lantern he was "meant to be!" and only 30mins actually fighting any villians/wrapping up the story.

I enjoyed the movie as a whole, it was just a bit slow for me.

Plus Ryan Reynolds is my Mancrush.

[OrcsRLame]

It was terrible for many reasons IMHO. I will just list a few that I can recall.

1. The movie makes the entire Green Lantern Corps look like a bunch of idiots. The audience was told how great they were but we never saw or experience this in the movie. All we ever saw was them having their collective asses kicked hard. That cast a negative impression on the entire corps.

2. Hal Jordan was trained for like two hours (it felt that way) and then went to defeat that big bad impossible evil that was going to destroy entire galaxy. Yeah right! We are not that gullible. The green lantern corps looked even more like a bunch of idiots for having a complete newbie solving all their problems. Yawn!

3. IMHO a very very bad, inappropriate choice of the big bad in a first outing. (Not to mention where the hell is Superman?? Anything that threatens the entire earth and Superman did not show up? Really? Very bad continuity problem for any subsequent Justice League attempts.)

4. Some scenes were out of order IMHO. They should have showed him playing toy cars with his nephew first before using that idea to save the Senator. They had it the wrong way round. The senator died anyway eventually completely rendering the earlier save a waste of time. Another negative mark!

5. They spent more time trying to develop the follow up movie instead of trying to make this one actually good.

6. A nitpick: he created two fighter jets to pull himself away from the Sun. And silly me that I thought planes needed air to fly and in space, there is no freaking air. He should have created two rockets instead. Jeezusss!

7. At the end, again the movie used words to describe he would become the greatest Green Lantern ever. It was always words, the audience never experienced it. I could see how he was the greatest given the other were a bunch of idiots at least according to how the movie portrayed them.

8. Basically one negative point after another and by the end of the movie, it has too many negative points and left me with a very unsatisfactory impression.

Well, the Superman thing could be explained in several ways. The easiest explanation is that Superman had something more important to do. Maybe he was at the edge of the universe punching Darkseid in the balls lol?

[Beggattron]

It was terrible for many reasons IMHO. I will just list a few that I can recall.

1. The movie makes the entire Green Lantern Corps look like a bunch of idiots. The audience was told how great they were but we never saw or experience this in the movie. All we ever saw was them having their collective asses kicked hard. That cast a negative impression on the entire corps.

2. Hal Jordan was trained for like two hours (it felt that way) and then went to defeat that big bad impossible evil that was going to destroy entire galaxy. Yeah right! We are not that gullible. The green lantern corps looked even more like a bunch of idiots for having a complete newbie solving all their problems. Yawn!

3. IMHO a very very bad, inappropriate choice of the big bad in a first outing. (Not to mention where the hell is Superman?? Anything that threatens the entire earth and Superman did not show up? Really? Very bad continuity problem for any subsequent Justice League attempts.)

4. Some scenes were out of order IMHO. They should have showed him playing toy cars with his nephew first before using that idea to save the Senator. They had it the wrong way round. The senator died anyway eventually completely rendering the earlier save a waste of time. Another negative mark!

5. They spent more time trying to develop the follow up movie instead of trying to make this one actually good.

6. A nitpick: he created two fighter jets to pull himself away from the Sun. And silly me that I thought planes needed air to fly and in space, there is no freaking air. He should have created two rockets instead. Jeezusss!

7. At the end, again the movie used words to describe he would become the greatest Green Lantern ever. It was always words, the audience never experienced it. I could see how he was the greatest given the other were a bunch of idiots at least according to how the movie portrayed them.

8. Basically one negative point after another and by the end of the movie, it has too many negative points and left me with a very unsatisfactory impression.

The answer to number 2 is that Hal Jordan is the strongest Green Lantern there isn't much training involved. Their powers are based on willpower the more willpower you have the stronger you are. So the fact that Hal Jordan beat Parallax isn't too crazy but I do think in the movie Hal Jordan's main enemy should of been Hector (the professor with the giant head).

To answer number 6 well Green Lantern constructs aren't real and they're just based off of the GL's imagination so they probably wouldn't be restrained by real world limitations. And the thing about Superman is that it's a Green Lantern why would Superman be in it? Look at the Spider-man movies the only super hero in it is Spider-man the Fantastic Four never showed up to help him fight Green Goblin, even though the Fantastic Four and Spider-man are both based in New York. Yes it would make sense that the Justice League would be there to save the Earth from Parallax but it's not a Justice League movie.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

It was pretty corny, campy, didn't have much to do with a superhero. Not many people can make a good orgin movie for a superhero. I loved the imagery though, however. And the guy who played the villian was amazing. A sequel would be nice, but I hope they do much much better with it, but for me, at the moment, it's right up there with Fantastic Four...already in need of a reboot.

[Radd]

imo i loved it when they actually used the ring to create and fight things but didnt last very long...so IMO it needed more action and less crap comedy/romance in it

[Devilyaki]

The cartoons movies they made after this were so much better, wish they put the same creativity in the live action as they did the cartoons.

[KCguy]

As superhero movies go, it was put together really poorly. It wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't very good either.

[NotFunny008]

The answer to number 2 is that Hal Jordan is the strongest Green Lantern there isn't much training involved. Their powers are based on willpower the more willpower you have the stronger you are. So the fact that Hal Jordan beat Parallax isn't too crazy but I do think in the movie Hal Jordan's main enemy should of been Hector (the professor with the giant head).

To answer number 6 well Green Lantern constructs aren't real and they're just based off of the GL's imagination so they probably wouldn't be restrained by real world limitations. And the thing about Superman is that it's a Green Lantern why would Superman be in it? Look at the Spider-man movies the only super hero in it is Spider-man the Fantastic Four never showed up to help him fight Green Goblin, even though the Fantastic Four and Spider-man are both based in New York. Yes it would make sense that the Justice League would be there to save the Earth from Parallax but it's not a Justice League movie.

And you know why The Avengers and related movies are soooooooooooooo good! One reason is that continuity is maintained throughout the entire series. The attention to little details like this clearly distinguish it from all the other run-of-the-mill, average, forgettables.

If Green Lantern is to be elevated to the same level, they cannot ignore the existence of the other heroes if they plan to use Ryan Reynolds in any Justice League attempts. All I am saying is don't use a planet, galaxy destroying baddy on a first outing. Because you will have to pull in Superman.

[Beggattron]

And you know why The Avengers and related movies are soooooooooooooo good! One reason is that continuity is maintained throughout the entire series. The attention to little details like this clearly distinguish it from all the other run-of-the-mill, average, forgettables.

If Green Lantern is to be elevated to the same level, they cannot ignore the existence of the other heroes if they plan to use Ryan Reynolds in any Justice League attempts. All I am saying is don't use a planet, galaxy destroying baddy on a first outing. Because you will have to pull in Superman.

I agree with you. The movie would of been way better if Parallax attacked Oa and you had all the Green Lanterns fighting it. There really isn't a good reason why Parallax would attack Earth anyways, he was imprisoned by the Guardians he wouldn't have any beef with Hal Jordan.

[unholytestament]

Oh god, where to start...

The special effects are TERRIBLE. Even more so if you're one of the poor scmucks who wasted money on a 3D ticket. Actually, it's not so much that the effects themselves are bad it's just that they are clearly being helmed by someone with no real artistic vision so we wind up with things that look way too cartoony when we're supposed to be taking this seriously. I cannot fathom for the life of me why they decide to make lovable brute Kilowogg all nasty and gritty looking (along with most of the other aliens) and yet the effects for most of the ring powers remind me of that damn singing sword from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".

Then there's pretty much just EVERYTHING they decided to do with Sinestro. I mean, they make him pretty much madly lustful for the power of the yellow ring even after Parallax has been defeated? Why? Just so we can set up a sequel? A sequel that, unfortuantely, sounds like it's actually going to happen... I mean, it doesn't even make sense that they can make the yellow ring so easily, but we have Sinestro lusting after the damn thing even after it's no longer needed. It's not just that this goes against the comics in countless ways, it's that it doesn't even make sense within it's own continuity!

And then there's the unfortunate implications of the movie... Hal's big "you have to be chosen" line at the climax of the movie. Fuck you, movie. You're telling me that just because you aren't the chosen one any power you acquire means you're destined to become the bad guy? We're supposed to feel good about the pampered jock douche, who has been coasting through life and the only really bad thing that has EVER happened to him is that his father died in an accident, beating the snot out of a guy who has struggled to make something of his life despite being in the shadow of multiple people and emotionally abused by his father since he was a child?

Seriously movie, fuck you.