How would you fix Green Lantern bad movie rep?

[Jim Thompson]

That is still wild speculation that no one can back up.

No, just observing that some people who never picked up a comic may have watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and therefore be familiar with the character.

[Darrell D.]

Which are factors related to the script, CGI, design of the suit, and negative press. It wasn't negative press from Hal Jordan's choice as Green Lantern.

I never said it was.
Merely pointing out that Hal Jordan as GL in the movie would have no bearing on the success or failure of the movie.
It's the concept.
A magic wishing ring.
Whether Jordan is popular in the comics now or not, makes no difference for the people the studio really needed to bring in to make the film a success.

[Darrell D.]

No, just observing that some people who never picked up a comic may have watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and therefore be familiar with the character.

I guess with the new cartoon, they can say, look, see! Green Lantern is this white guy!
How is the cartoon doing? I watched one episode and it bored me to tears.

[Jim Thompson]

I guess with the new cartoon, they can say, look, see! Green Lantern is this white guy!
How is the cartoon doing? I watched one episode and it bored me to tears.

I don't even know when that one is aired.

[FlashEarthOne]

I never said it was.
Merely pointing out that Hal Jordan as GL in the movie would have no bearing on the success or failure of the movie.

Which isn't true. If the script had been tighter and the costume closer to what we see in the books, it likely would have drawn the comic book fans to multiple showings. Green Lantern fans who purchase Hal Jordan's book had a large say in the failure of the movie. Most just simply didn't like the movie.

[FlashEarthOne]

I guess with the new cartoon, they can say, look, see! Green Lantern is this white guy!
How is the cartoon doing? I watched one episode and it bored me to tears.

ALL the DC animated movies have Hal as the Green Lantern and most of them have been pretty good. There are quite a few people who watch those movies and don't buy the books. He is also in Young Justice as well.

[FlashEarthOne]

No, just observing that some people who never picked up a comic may have watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and therefore be familiar with the character.

People who don't read the books, but watch DC animated movies or Young Justice know Hal Jordan as Green Lantern as well.

[SavijMuhdrox]

I really don't think solely changing which Green Lantern is cast as the main character would help the franchise, especially if its done to try and cash in on the ethnic ticket buyers. That would just backfire completely, as it would be treated like a movie tie-in video game.. "they're going to buy it anyway, why attempt to make it any good?"

What they really need to do is make sure the movie flows and makes sense first... then you can put in Jon Stewart or Hal Jordan.. both would be fine (but no Kyle or Guy.. yet)

I enjoyed the movie, it had its flaws but i was entertained. I wouldn't rate it as one of the best, but after hearing all the negative reviews, i had expected much worse.. and maybe its my bad eyesight, but i didnt have a problem with the special effects.

What really didn't work and should never be done:

1. Villains: Parallax? a floating cloud of fear that kills instantly? that was horrible. You need a villain who can trade punches and sell action figures. Hammond was alright, but a villain as icky as him needed some other 'supporting villain' who can (again) realistically trade punches with GL. I know it was all part of building up the yellow ring arc with Sinestro for another movie, but it didn't work as far as a main villain for THIS movie.
FIX (not necessarily good ones, but better ones): Keep Parallax as a background force, give hammond a giant robot lackey (Metallo). Let GL smack it around to his hearts content. OR Doctor Polaris.. OR a pre-red ring Atrocitus with a Sinestro/Hal/Atrocitus plot three-way developing.. and you can have Parallax all the while in the background calling to the villain to use fear.. but then he realizes his perfect agent is Sinestro..

2. Off-world: I get it, he has to train and go to the home planet.. but it did not work when you have relationships and plot angles back on Earth. The storyline, especially involving his training was forced and entirely too short. Here's a bunch of Lanterns! Nevermind them, back to Earth! it didn't flow right. Movie was rushed into theaters and it showed.
FIX: Hire better writers, QA the whole f'ing thing. It takes more than Yes men to make a movie, you need writers and time to develop a quality script.

3. The costume: Myeh. I didn't really buy into the costume from the get go. I'm not sure what 'teh internets' reaction was exactly; but i don't remember any huge shouts of "AWESOME! WE LOVE IT!" Now I know Hollywood doesn't wanna pay heed to the fanboy vote; but at some point they should consider it.. since IMO the same stripey pattern all over the thing was just weird.. like a man with no skin and green muscle fibers..
FIX: The costume could have been done better.. get rid of the minute details for a more solid appearance.

4. Cameos: minor grievance here, but i want more. If the movie is about Hal, I want Jon Stewart walking around, maybe even Guy Gardner. I dug the Amanda Waller reference, give me some minor chumps Green Lantern rounds up using his newfound superhero powers.. who just happen to be future Suicide Squad members.. I dug the other Lanterns showing up, but i wish they did more than just vaguely remind me of a group of loyal fanatics.. All Hail Oa!

gulp. that was more than i wanted to write.. oh well.. 3 cents then.

[Darrell D.]

Which isn't true. If the script had been tighter and the costume closer to what we see in the books, it likely would have drawn the comic book fans to multiple showings. Green Lantern fans who purchase Hal Jordan's book had a large say in the failure of the movie. Most just simply didn't like the movie.

I don't think so.
The concept was was greenlight originally as a comedy, with Jack Black as regular dude.
Personally, after reading Smigel's script, I would have liked to see that movie.

[Jim Thompson]

Which isn't true. If the script had been tighter and the costume closer to what we see in the books, it likely would have drawn the comic book fans to multiple showings. Green Lantern fans who purchase Hal Jordan's book had a large say in the failure of the movie. Most just simply didn't like the movie.

Pretty big "if" there.

[Jim Thompson]

ALL the DC animated movies have Hal as the Green Lantern and most of them have been pretty good. There are quite a few people who watch those movies and don't buy the books. He is also in Young Justice as well.

Sure, I think some would. But I'm not sure any of the cartoons Hal has been in were as popular or had the following that Justice League and Justice League Unlimited had.

[Shadowcat2576]

The GL movie had a ton of flaws, starting with the wildly disjointed script that went in 10 directions at once. The fact that the movie didn't use Sinestro as the big bad was very wrong too. GL isn't Batman or Superman. He doesn't has a dozen well known enemies that you can pick and choose from. "Name a Green Lantern Villian" would be the easiest Family Fued question ever because 98 people out of 100 will say Sinestro.

As for Hal as the star, while Hal and John may both be known by the public, Hal's is the only origin story that doesn't require tying into other characters. The JL cartoon never explored origins of the characters, something movies always do. Do you give John Hal's origin? Do you not do an origin story? Do you give John a completely new orign? None of those options make people very happy.

[SavijMuhdrox]

Sure, I think some would. But I'm not sure any of the cartoons Hal has been in were as popular or had the following that Justice League and Justice League Unlimited had.

uhhhh.. Young Justice is ridiculously popular right now. My nephew loves it, and has never picked up a comic in his life. Of course, he grasps the idea of two different Green Lanterns and doesn't give two snots which one is in the movie.. so i can't back up either horse in this case. sorry. post fail... as in my post fail

[thehod]

Which isn't true. If the script had been tighter and the costume closer to what we see in the books, it likely would have drawn the comic book fans to multiple showings. Green Lantern fans who purchase Hal Jordan's book had a large say in the failure of the movie. Most just simply didn't like the movie.

You overestimate the impact that the comic book fans have on the success of a movie.

The mistake was trying to do an Iron Man movie with a character who's a space cop with a magic ring.

[havok1977]

IMO, the main problem with the GL movie, which magnified all the other problems, was that they decided to give Hal Jordan a bog-standard hero's journey rise-and-fall-and-rise again narrative, where he first refuses the call to adventure because he thinks he's not worthy, until the time comes that he has to step up and blah blah blah.

This meant that there was a whole middle section of the film where Hal sat around moping and whining on earth, when he could have been kicking alien butt. For comparison, in the Captain America movie, Steve Rogers gets the super soldier serum and five seconds later he's chasing Nazis. Imagine instead if, after Dr Erskime was killed, Steve goes back to Brooklyn and mopes until an hour later the Red Skull begins flying his bomb to New York. That was what the GL film did.

They should have followed the plot of the GL animated movie: Hal gets the ring, and he already has the will and the motivation, so he heads off into the universe to fight interstellar villains; no cheesy 'redemption arc' required. But the makers of the GL movie were hamstrung by their allegiance to action movie cliche.

Exactly, this was my main issue with the movie. Well that and Ryan Reynolds, I just can't stand the guy. Hal being the protagonist is not really an issue, its the way the bad dialogue and awful pacing hurt the overall experience that killed the movie.

For a guy who supposedly can overcome fear in a very above average way, they went for a very bad and tired story cliche and portrayed Hal as a whiny b*tch that wouldn't step up until his hand was forced.


Lots of people complain about the CGI, and they have a point saying it's quite bad in GL; but it's not really a deal breaker for me, tho overuse is generally bad.

I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that before the movie that far more non comic book readers associated Green Lantern with the white guy from Superfriends than the black guy from the Justice League cartoon of this decade. They may not have known the name of either but they would know the race.

Heck, I'd been a comic book reader (all Marvel and Image) for well over 15 years before I was even aware John Stewart or Guy Gardner existed. I knew Hal Jordan from Superfriends and I was aware he'd gone evil sometime during the 90's. Then I was aware that a new guy had replaced Hal. Around then I started reading Morrison's JLA run and got exposed to Kyle. I'm not sure when I first discovered John Stewart existed but it was a couple of years later.

I'm mostly on the same page as this post, except that I got interested in GL's solo comic sometime in the 90s but dropped it after Hal went bonkers. But I guess I could be considered older and had more exposure to Superfriends reruns than other more recent cartoons.