After waiting for somewhere over 30 years I finally got to see a Green Lantern movie on the big screen. And as a fanboy of longstanding I have to say my feelings about it were pretty mixed.
On one hand I think they got some things right – the aloofness of the Guardians, Sinestro’s focus at bringing order at all costs, the diversity of the Corps, Jordan’s confidence tempered by his father’s death, the alieness of Oa, and even Carol Ferris. Plus I think some of the CGI worked well. And the little things for the fanboys and girls – like Carol’s ‘Sapphire’ call sign, the green boxing glove construct, and Sinestro’s yellow ring.
What didn’t work so well was that it felt like two movies joined together – the space focus is a key point of the GL mythos, but it felt like they didn’t really think they could take it off Earth for most of the movie. So we ended up oscillating badly between the two. Secondly, the ‘training’ sequence was so abrupt it didn’t make sense at all – in the comic books it takes several months at least – which would make Kilowog’s comment at the end of the movie about training more real. Two villains didn’t work – either could have worked, but Parallax really should have been embodied in some way (like the big yellow insect thing in the comics). And marketed really badly too.
Interestingly, I’ve recently rewatched the first DVD animated Green Lantern film – Green Lantern: First Flight – and I have to say I think it works better in terms of the plot than the new movie. I also watched the new animated film Green Lantern: Emerald Knights which came out a week to two back. That too caught the spirit of the comic books, though not all of the stories in it were as strong as each other.
I’ll buy the DVD when it comes out, and in the meantime hope that if they ever make a sequel they get back out into space more and give Kilowog and Sinestro way more screen time.
In the meantime, here are some links from the GL universe:
- DC Comics Green Lantern Secret Origin (PDF) : Shorter origin story over here.
- List of Green Lanterns in the DC Universe including Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner, plus Kilowog and Sinestro. No mention of Alan Scott though – but a good write up on him at Agent of S.T.Y.L.E.: Alan Scott, Earth’s First Green Lantern!.
- io9’s ‘A beginner’s guide to Green Lantern’
- Green Lantern: First Flight (Official Site)
- Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (Official Site)
- Reviews over at Political Jesus: Review of Green Lantern: A fan’s perspective | Political Jesus; Movie Review Tri-Blog (Rod)- Green Lantern | Political Jesus; and Sunday Funnies: The Real Reason I Went And Saw Green Lantern | Political Jesus
- Newsarama.com : Review: GREEN LANTERN Avoids Cheese and Charm in Film Debut
- Newsarama.com : Infographic: Science Fiction Superhero – GREEN LANTERN
- Newsarama.com : Why They Endure: GREEN LANTERN’s Everlasting Light
- The moral power of Green Lantern – The Globe and Mail and Green Lantern and the Psychology of Willpower | Political Jesus.
darren
Emerald Knights really disappointed me, and im really miffed at the reviews of GL thus far, well, not the reviews, but from the general concept of a movie that could have had some cool stuff in it and told a decent story but in the end was more of a star wars prequel to the original in so far as story vs effect…
it makes me wonder why Thor worked so well vs the GL not working as well, is it a distinct mismatch between the DC Superheroes and cinema? With Batman and Watchmen being the exceptions I’ve not found the cinema story’s to match up to the success of Marvel.
That being said, DC has turned to the animated film rather well, but still, not to the extent of the success that Marvel has had in that field. And Smallville with television…
Know this is a bee in my bonnet occasionally but I think Marvel and Cinema are better related than DC and Cinema, particularly in respect to the types of story that DC has to offer…
darren
btw… loved the essay in the Blackwell book on Hank being a murderer… very interesting read.
Stephen
Hi Darren,
I think there’s just a lack of imagination or understanding with the live genre. I watched the ‘Mercy Reef’ pilot, which I thought had potential to revive the Aquaman character, but it didn’t fly (or swim) with the network. Couldn’t stand Smallville, though capitulated and bought the Justice Society episode (because the JSA rock).
Personally, I like Bruce Timm’s stuff – the animated DC material works well, and I prefer it to the Marvel stuff (but don’t like the anime-style ‘The Batman’). However, the latest stuff is not overly ‘kid-friendly’, and they don’t tend to release DVD box sets for things like Justice League or Legion of Superheroes in non-US formats.
Emerald Knights was a mixed bag – but some of the stories really worked well and connected with the wider DC universe. Of course, most of the stories were adapted from comic books that worked better there.
I just rewatched Justice League: New Frontiers and Batman: Under the Red Hood. Those were very good, as opposed to the average Wonder Woman and Superman:Doomsday. Even Batman Beyond has it’s moments.
I have Superman/Batman:Apocalypse waiting to be watched, and I’m going to use ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’ in class to teach about different gospels (using the ‘Have I got a story for you’) episode.
Looking forward to teasing out a journal article on GL etc. in the next six months. When I’ve polished off the Warrior Nuns article. 🙂
darren
Batman B&tB Series 3 “jumped the shark” for me, but the idea that Batman has a Bat-Gorilla in the jungle that helps stamp out jungle based crime was a new one…
Stephen
Batman: The Brave and the Bold is to comic book movies what a ‘fluffy’ (http://www.diyfather.com/content/getting-toddlers-to-drink-milk) is to real coffee. (The revamped Brave and the Bold comic books set in the non-kids DC universe were quite good, I thought)
I quite enjoyed the earlier episodes, but after a while it seemed just to be dragging up really obscure (or modified) characters that even I had trouble identifying. Still, the kids all clamour to watch it on Saturday morning, so it’s meeting its target demographic.