MovieChat Forums > Green Lantern (2011) Discussion > WTF Happened to GREEN LANTERN (2011)?

WTF Happened to GREEN LANTERN (2011)?

posted 3 years ago by TMC-4 (20152)
6 replies | jump to latest

https://youtu.be/bu2TfYDeLDQ?list=PLrMX9ct-uNyOKfDG0WrRd6fQsB21MzorZ

WTF Happened To This Movie? – The JoBlo series that looks at TROUBLED movie productions! Box-office smashes and flops, fan-favorites or creative failures, these movies endured numerous problems behind-the-scenes.

While DC Comics superheroes Batman and Superman had already each made several appearances on the big screen, it took until 2011 for their fellow Justice League member GREEN LANTERN to find his way to cinemas. But not even a charming star (Ryan Reynolds), a two-time James Bond director (Martin Campbell) and a load of expensive VFX could prevent Hal Jordan's debut from flopping. Slip on your fancy ring and find out "WTF Happened to GREEN LANTERN!"

[–] raymondoz2007 (2098) 3 years ago

The whole concept of lantern his back story with the 12 mummys of the universe, his ring the lantern charger his powers are so goofy to translate to the screen

[–] LanceDance (1311) 3 years ago

After the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor Ragnarok, I’m pretty sure “goofy” can sell as long as it’s good enough.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 2 years ago

Green Lantern (in the comics) is the opposite of goofy. It's supposed to be serious sci-fi. He's basically a space cop, and hardcore about it. DC paired him with Green Arrow in the comics a lot, since Green Arrow was the goofier and more liberal guy and Green Lantern was the straight arrow pro-military conservative type. It's odd that they flipped personalities on Arrow and in this movie.

[–] joej2923 (3027) 3 years ago

I enjoyed the movie. The special effects were great and I was looking forward to seeing Sinestro in the sequel that never happened.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (17770) 3 years ago

Short answer: a lot. Apparently the studio hired Ryan Reynolds against Martin Campbell wanting Bradley Cooper as Hal Jordan. Also Campbell who is an otherwise fine director is not known for CGI heavy movies and he admitted being uncomfortable with the amount of fx work on the production.
The script was credited to four writers;two of whom were Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim that were mainly tv writers. So if it felt like a CW network show instead of a sprawling space opera, it's not by accident.
As for the tone, I'm not sure what the instructions were that Martin Campbell was given, but it felt like an Iron Man clone with the overly quippy dialogue and even some of the CGI looked like an MCU movie.

[–] ATG6 (3000) a year ago

This movie was almost good. Reynolds was fine for what they asked of him. The story was good. The main villain was bad, and they got the Green Lantern character wrong. He was never a jokey guy filled with self-doubt. He was an uber-confident fighter pilot and very serious (in contrast to Green Arrow, whom he was often paired with.)

When's the reboot?