(A note: save often and a lot, this is my third write up of this review due to shut downs and power outages)
So…Green Lantern…
Yes, I’m going to try to get in some current movies in the next couple of weeks as there are some really interesting back stories and behind the scenes Hollywood strategy going on. This movie had very little of that though and failed miserably at what it had thought out.
Green Lantern is a DC comic book superhero. Notice I say Green Lantern instead of “The” Green Lantern. The Green Lanterns are a group of intergalactic police that cruise the universe looking for trouble and…that’s about it as far as I know. The first human Green Lantern was Alan Scott, created in 1940. His back story was rewritten after WWII and the character was then Hal Jordon, the character used in the most recent movie. Over time there have been several humans who held the title of Green Lantern. But the movie screws them over at the end by saying Hal was the best Green Lantern in the universe…ever.
Since way back Warner Bros. has been the studio responsible for all the DC related comic book movies, most noticeably Superman and Batman. The recent rise of Marvel Studios with the initial help of Universal Studios put a lot of pressure on Warner Bros. to churn out rival comic book movies to retain the DC fan base and compete with the Marvel related hits. The Green Lantern movie has been in the works since 1997. There are serious suspicions from critics and fans that the introduction of the Green Lantern into the DC comic book movie lineup is a sign that Warner Bros. is working on a Justice League movie sometime in the next 10 years as Marvel Entertainment has been putting out films specifically related to The Avengers. Marvel has almost cornered the market on comic book movies in the last few years and this film is Warner Bros. attempt to make up for lost time and set up a new franchise and a new series down the line.
Talk of a Green Lantern movie began in 1997 and Warner Bros. executives wanted cult film maker and comic book writer Kevin Smith to direct it. This was a great idea but Smith turned down the offer. The idea was tossed around for years when it was decided to turn it into a comedy starring Jack Black but after news of this was leaked on the internet the project was scrapped after the enormous fan backlash. The current incarnation was decided on in 2007 when director Greg Berlanti signed to write the movie with comic book writers Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. After a year of reading comics from the Green Lantern’s entire history to present and 3 drafts, Berlanti was removed from the project and replaced by Martin Campbell. Filming began in March of 2010, three months behind schedule, and casting of minor characters continued through filming. In January 2011 it was reported that they were reshooting several scenes, that’s six months after filming ended. April 2011 was a particularly bad time as they continued casting for voice actors and Warner Bros. budgeted an additional $9 million to the already $200 million project just two months away from the scheduled release date.
It is clear from the final product that there were some screwy things going on especially in the special effects department. This movie was very innovative in that for much of the movie Ryan Reynolds was wearing a tight body suit and the Green Lantern suit was added in as a visual effect. Sadly this didn’t come out very well and initial speculation on the additional $9 million was it was intended to fix problems with the suit. For several more scenes his head was filmed and then attached to a fully computer animated body. From talking with viewers this was one of the most glaring errors in the film as his head “wobbles” slightly and looks as if it is not attached to his body.
As far as characters and writing go, this was an even bigger disaster given that 2 of the 3 writers wrote comic books professionally for many years. Hal Jordan, our protagonist, is a jerk. That’s his character motivation. He is whiny, irresponsibly, egotistical, and arrogant. But according to the plot, the only characteristic a Green Lantern really needs is to be fearless, which as it turns out Hal is not, so good luck filling that plot hole. In fact, Hal is probably the most unlikeable character in the whole movie. His big debut in the film is him waking up with a random woman, being late for work as a test pilot, killing his companies’ military contract by exploiting special knowledge he had on the project to stroke his own ego, and then crashing his F35. That’s a $122-150 million plane. What’s more, everyone else is pretty much the same. The way others at work treat him, you could argue that he crashed his plane on purpose just to spite them. Also when the other Green Lanterns show up they are incredibly unfriendly and seem to want nothing more than to beat Hal to death during his training. Apparently being an intergalactic guardian for peace and good does not require any kind of moral thinking or background checks. What really got me was that the most likeable character in the movie was the bad guy, Hector Hammond. His motivation is that he hates Hal because at one time they were after the same woman, who later turned down both of them so…I really don’t know why he’s so mad. Before becoming a super villain, Hector had PhD in Biology, taught college classes, seemed very enthusiastic about sharing knowledge with mankind, and was an expert xenobiologist, you know…because we have those… We really don’t see any kind of evil behavior from him before he gets his powers other than that he has a news clipping about the love interest implying him to be a stalker or something. However this doesn’t hold water because Hector, Hal, and Carol have all been friends since childhood and their fathers were all business partners at the Ferris Aircraft Company. Not until he can read people’s minds and finds out that everyone hates him does he turn evil. I’m just saying, the writing staff really botched the character development on this one.
The rest of the writing isn’t much better. When we are clearly supposed to identify with Hal as the hero, all the other characters are constantly beating him down and bringing up all of his character flaws. I think this was supposed to be funny and play off the string of more realistic superhero movies like Kickass but it really came across as the movie pointing out its own flaws. My biggest problem with the story is the theme of fear. Superhero movies are notorious for grabbing hold of a phrase or virtue and hanging on like an angry two year old. The villain is pure fear, he feeds on fear, the Green Lanterns are fearless, Hal Jordan is supposedly fearless until he admits his fear, he argues that the only way to admit fear is to deal with it, etc… There really is no big revelation or moral to the story other than that old classic “mean people suck”. The dialog was written at a second grade level and this again is so it translates into every language better, not that it’s helped ticket sales any.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking criticism here but there are several very interesting things the film makers did to this film for a variety of reasons. The soundtrack was written by acclaimed composer James Newton Howard. If the $209 million budget wasn’t enough to convince you they thought this was going to be the next big hit, the composer should. However I found the music very forgettable. There were two tracks however that used the bits of the main theme from the original Superman as the background melody which was incredibly obvious. I have no idea if this was an intentional connection to another DC superhero movie or if it was an attempt to recreate the feel of Superman, in either case, it just seemed silly and the theme was still mostly forgettable as it lacked any kind of tune.
There is nothing new under the sun and this movie is no exception. Even with seasoned comic book writers they couldn’t come up with an original story. And they thought they could get away with it too, except they didn’t count on anyone having seen The Last Star Fighter. If you haven’t seen this film, it’s about a young man Alex whose life is disrupted when he is drafted into an interstellar army to fight Xur and the Ko-Dan armada. Wacky confusion ensues as he is introduced to the idea that aliens exist, all the other aliens get wasted and he saves the day becoming the greatest pilot in the Rylan Star League. If you have seen The Green Lantern already this plot should sound very familiar. It really was astonishing to watch them copy a little known 1984 sci-fi plot in a 2011 summer blockbuster but there it is.
By far the most interesting quirk of this movie is its multiple digs at Marvel. The head of the Green Lanterns is an alien named Sinestro, with a name like that his parents weren’t giving him many career opportunities and it’s no surprise he turns evil at the end. The funny thing is his suit. All the Green Lanterns have personalized suits and his bears an uncanny resemblance to that used in Spiderman. It’s only the torso but the webbing design is unmistakable. Throughout the movie he is a real jerk to Hal and then at the end of the film it is implied that he comes back later as a villain. I don’t think the reference to DC’s rival was a mistake. My favorite was when Hal is being trained to be a Green Lantern. He is being taught to generate weapons with his willpower, that’s his superpower by the way, and he thinks up some guns. Sinestro immediately thinks up the Captain America shield to block the gunfire and then throws it Captain America style at Hal. I really didn’t understand the inclusion of this. I understand that they are making a for fun attack on Marvel by giving Sinestro things related to Marvel characters, but why they did this when they knew that Captain America: The First Avenger was coming out within a few weeks of The Green Lantern’s release confuses me. It seems like if it is noticed by anyone it is only free advertising for Marvel. But as we have seen, this particular crew doesn’t know how to make a movie so I wouldn’t be surprised if no one thought about that.
This so far has been one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year, and I’ve seen a lot. When on the Green Lantern Planet of Oa, I found myself wishing that this movie would be over and in two years I would get to see a buddy cop movie starring the giant wasp and giant jellyfish Green Lanterns, maybe next April if we’re lucky. It would have to be more interesting than Hal’s antics. I’ve heard massive disappointment from fans and poor reviews from those who have no knowledge of the Green Lantern comics. And as for that $209 million Warner Bros. so thoughtlessly poured into this project, they have only made back $145 million worldwide and it is already about time for it to get kicked out of theaters. I wish DC good luck with their future projects and pray they don’t insult the viewing public with a display of gross incompetence like this again. Shame on you Warner Bros. and DC…shame…
Movies Referenced:
2011-Captain America: The First Avenger
2011-Green Lantern
2010-Kickass
2002-Spiderman
1989-Batman
1984-The Last Star Fighter
1978-Superman
