197 replies to this topic

[garjones]

Yes.

I agree. I think we may be inured to it a bit as fans and yes all superheroes are somewhat ridiculous but Green Lantern is difficult. If you gave me $200m and asked me which superhero I'd make a good film about he would be last on my list of those that have been on screen so far.

[Steve Sensible]

But why? Because of the fact that he's usually shown making stupid light-constructs with the ring? Easy - you just have him create an amorphous energy-thing that acts as a shield or projectile, whatever he needs it for.

Aside from that, having him gifted the ring by a dying alien is no more problematic than Superman being the last survivor of a dying planet.

The biggest mistake they made in the movie, IMHO, is that they went full-on with the Corps and the Guardians straight away. They should have taken a much more grounded approach, if only for the first movie. Have Hal come to terms with the ring and what it can do, and have the threat be more down-to-earth as well. There's really no need to get into all the space-nonsense at all.

[garjones]

But why?

The name, the battery powered ring, the poem. Hal Jordan has no personality other than being a generic flyboy.

I agree you could still make a lot better film that the one they did and your ideas are better but I do think it's more dificult. With Superman you don't have to sell anything, everyone has already bought into it. There's an inbuilt understanding that it makes no sense nobody recognises him when he puts on a pair of glasses that's accepted by the audience.

[Arjan Dirkse]

I think Hal is usually missing a personal stake, a drive. Superman is an exile who lost his home, Green Lantern is just a lucky chap who came across an alien with a magic ring. Also the "willpower" thing, it doesn't really make sense, if I had a ring that could do everything I wanted you bet I'd have willpower. Willpower is about the willingness to undergo hardship, but what hardship does Hal endure when he has a device that gives him virtual omnipotence?

I think the way Millar used HJ in Red Son is the best use of the character I've ever seen, even if his part was quite small.

[Johnny Henning]

Yeah, Millar's GL also reminded me of Spectrum in Supreme Power.

I think like Darwyn Cooke's as well, it was a much more workable take for a long term character. Make him the guy from Rescue Dawn. A fighter pilot - not a test pilot/astronaut - who's actually been taken down and seen war and suffering on the ground. Not simply someone who doesn't have fear, but a man who had to face his fears and build his willpower to a superhuman level simply to survive as a human being.

Then give him the ring because at that point he has a very real and solid idea of the darkness he's meant to enlighten.

[T Masters]

Yeah, Millar's GL also reminded me of Spectrum in Supreme Power.

I think like Darwyn Cooke's as well, it was a much more workable take for a long term character. Make him the guy from Rescue Dawn. A fighter pilot - not a test pilot/astronaut - who's actually been taken down and seen war and suffering on the ground. Not simply someone who doesn't have fear, but a man who had to face his fears and build his willpower to a superhuman level simply to survive as a human being.

Then give him the ring because at that point he has a very real and solid idea of the darkness he's meant to enlighten.

I like that Idea. Take the Batman Begins approach: spend half the movie developing Hal as an airforce pilot embroiled in proper military conflict, play up his arrogance, but courage and ability also. The end of act 1 he's behind enemy lines and sees Abin Sur's ship crash land. Thinking it's a comrade-in-arms he immediately rushes over to help him, but instead ...

The problem with GL is that there isn't really good origin villains. You can't even touch Sinestro until Hal becomes a proper part of the corps which means, if you're smart, you save him for a second film.

[Chris D]

The problem with GL is that there isn't really good origin villains. You can't even touch Sinestro until Hal becomes a proper part of the corps which means, if you're smart, you save him for a second film.

Personally, outside of Sinestro, I don't think GL has many good villains period. But it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a decent origin villain to go with that story of Johnny's. The GL Corps must have lot of enemies, so basically one of them is out taking down the best GLs. They track down Abin Sur and kill him on Earth. Hal gets the ring and they're immediately on top of him just because he's there and happens to involve himself at the time. You could even set up at the end that Sinestro is the one who put the hit out on Abin Sur because he was tired of being the #2 GL or whatever.

[Johnny Henning]

Yeah, something like that. Or Abin Sur is in the area in the first place because Sinestro is secretly using this backwater planet some call Earth as a base to train his interplanetary Al Queda. If Hal Jordan doesn't stop it, then the G. Dubya of the Guardians are going to declare war on the whole planet because of the suspected Weapons of Stellar Destruction.

[Steve Sensible]

Sinestro - there's another silly barnacle that would get scraped off of my movie adaptation. Seriously, all you need is the dying alien part - whose name you don't need to know on account of it too is stupid.

Nolan has managed three whole movies without a single mention of Robin. Know why? Because he's lame. Everything spacey about GL is lame too so it has to go.

[Todd Gross]

Sinestro - there's another silly barnacle that would get scraped off of my movie adaptation. Seriously, all you need is the dying alien part - whose name you don't need to know on account of it too is stupid.

Nolan has managed three whole movies without a single mention of Robin. Know why? Because he's lame. Everything spacey about GL is lame too so it has to go.

I disagree. The space aspects are the best parts of GL. The story should start on Earth and end in space. GL could be DC's Star Wars.

I saw the trailer for the new Batman movie. It really looked lame compared to Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Johnny Henning]

The material itself is inherently not suited to a true "Dark Knight" approach, either. Sinestro may sound lame, but, come on, Green Lantern is not exactly a wonderful title for a superhero or a movie.

"Look out, it's the Green Lantern!"
"Seriously? Who's his sidekick, the Blue Headlamp?"

It's really gonna take a Raimi or Burton kind of imaginative approach where the director is able to create a unique world for it. I mean, you can obviously still have dark and serious elements, but I don't think they can be as "realistic" as a Nolan movie. If you go back and look at the science fiction action/adventure movies from the 80's and before like E.T., BACK TO THE FUTURE or even THE LAST STARFIGHTER, they did not insist upon realism at all.

They couldn't be realistic, for one thing, and the directors used more imagination to get you into this world from the beginning rather than waste time and energy trying to make it seem "possible" or convincing the audience that it takes place in "the real world" at any point. Obviously, most of the successful Marvel films managed it. Green Lantern tried and failed, though, but that doesn't mean that trying to play it straight or going the Dark Knight route would work.

Of course, The Dark Knight was not actually all that realistic. It's just more serious about what is possible and what's not. In a movie with real superpowers, that's not really a concern.

[steveuk]

The MIB movies get away with a lot of alien silliness on earth. I don't like the second one, but the first works because of K.

It's Will Smith's movie but K anchors the film and makes it about something. J's choice to become an agent in MIB has a price.

The villain is strong too. Incredibly silly or course, but he has personality.

Green Lantern has a lot of baggage but it also has a lot of material to draw on.

[Dave Wallace]

I think the trouble with the Green Lantern movie is that there's no growth for Hal as a character. When you meet him, he's a dick - and at the end of the movie, he's a dick who somehow managed to save the world. Which you just know is going to make him even more of a dick.

[Robert B]

The material itself is inherently not suited to a true "Dark Knight" approach, either. Sinestro may sound lame, but, come on, Green Lantern is not exactly a wonderful title for a superhero or a movie.

"Look out, it's the Green Lantern!"
"Seriously? Who's his sidekick, the Blue Headlamp?"

Yeah, I think the name is probably the biggest thing working against it. Even leaving alone the "green" part (which is stupid in and of itself), has anyone under the age of 25 even SEEN a lantern? Outside of maybe those halogen camping ones? They should have called it "The Purple Rotary Telephone".

[Johnny Henning]

On top of that - no one sees the actual lantern. He doesn't carry it around in action. If people called him anything it would be Green Ring or even Power Ring (from Morrison/Quitely's Earth²) or Glowing Green Man.

I mean, have they ever had the scene where Superman or Batman ask him why he calls himself the Green Lantern when he uses a ring?

GL -"Well, I have the Lantern."

BM - "Where?"

GL - "It's at home. It's not really a lantern though. I don't use it to find my way to the bathroom in the dark or signal trains, you know."

SM -"So, it's like a lava lamp."

GL - "No! It's a power battery."

BM - "Wait. It's not a Lantern; it's a Battery? So, you're really the Green Battery."

GL - "Guys, come on."

SM - "What's it supposed to power?"

GL - "The ring. Duh!"

BM - "So the ring can actually run out of power?"

GL - "Yeah, like every 24 hours or something."

BM - "Why 24 hours?"

GL - "It's one whole day. Duh!"

SM - "Say 'duh' again, and I'll flick you in the eye."

BM - "I thought you were part of some interplanetary police type force."

GL - "Sure, the Green Lantern Corps. So?"

BM - "So, is a day 24 hours on every planet they come from?"

GL - "Um, I'm not sure.."

SM - "That whole power battery "lantern" and the 24 hour "ring power" limit thing. I'm not sure you'd want people to know about that."

BM - "What happens if you run out of power?"

GL - "Well, the ring warns me like an hour before I reach the limit."

BM - "And then what, you have to run home and recharge or something?"

GL - "Du... Um, of course."

BM - "So, right now, you've got an alien energy source at home in a safe... What?"

GL - "It's not in a safe really. I just leave it in my closet."

SM - "Excuse me?"

GL - "Well, I put it behind stuff so people won't see it."

BM - "Stuff?"

GL - "You know, shoes. Dirty laundry."

SM - "Most of the people you fight are aliens with super-strength, shoot lasers out their noses and have advanced sensor technology, and you hide the most important piece of equipment you own in your apartment's bedroom closet under a pile of sweaty socks?"

GL - "I think it has it's own security system or something."

BM - "You think?"

GL - "... Well, uh... Nice chatting with you fellas as always, but I have to go, you know, patrol the Centauri system. See ya!"

[Jim Ohara]

Hal Jordan was meant to have the strongest will on the planet, but the guy in the movies could barely control himself. He was just a douche who got powers and continued to be a douche. You can't get behind a hero if you're not rooting for them. The template for GL was the Last Starfighter.

Honestly there was so much they got wrong in that movie that there's no salvaging it.

[garjones]

Hal Jordan was meant to have the strongest will on the planet, but the guy in the movies could barely control himself. He was just a douche who got powers and continued to be a douche.

Have you read his comic or JLA recently? It was a very accurate portrayal.

[David Meadows]

Yeah, something like that. Or Abin Sur is in the area in the first place because Sinestro is secretly using this backwater planet some call Earth as a base to train his interplanetary Al Queda. If Hal Jordan doesn't stop it, then the G. Dubya of the Guardians are going to declare war on the whole planet because of the suspected Weapons of Stellar Destruction.

This is already shaping up into the best superhero movie this side of the Avengers

[David Chapman]

Have you read his comic or JLA recently? It was a very accurate portrayal.

The writing in the comic being shit is not an excuse for the writing in the movie to be shit.

That said, I do find it very hard to see how a Green Lantern movie could be written well. It's the kind of source material that works better on the page than in live action.

[Johnny Henning]

This is already shaping up into the best superhero movie this side of the Avengers

Yeah, I'm not a big Green Lantern fan anymore - I was when I was 13, though - I even wore one of my mom's green rings about which I received no end of s**t from my relative and classmates.

Here's the basic appeal of Green Lantern compared to the other DC characters. To be Superman, you have to be from Krypton. To be Batman, you have to be rich and spend all your time training. To be Wonder Woman, you have to be a girl. To be Green Lantern you just need to find a magic green ring from space.

As we know, who the Green Lantern actually is doesn't matter so much. Hal Jordan really isn't any better than Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner or John Stewart.

However, I would like to see the GL Corps treated less like The Cosmic Knights of the Round (and really really big) Table, and more like the Space Marines from Aliens. In the comics, I'm fine with the chivalrous and noble ideal heroes of the corps, but in a cinematic version, I'd much rather see this as a kind of military force that often makes mistakes and is, at times, just the lesser of two evils. That they are far from perfect just like Hal or Kyle or whoever gets the ring is.

And it gives Sinestro a bit more justification for opposing them. In the end, he's an opportunist using the Corps' faults for his own benefit, but it is those faults that give him any traction at all in the universe.