Green Lantern: A DC Comics Fanboy’s Movie Review

 If you want a standard review of Green Lantern, this isn’t it. By now, you probably know what the movie is about. I’m not gonna give a detailed plot rundown, because there are plenty of other reviews that can do that better. If you don’t know the basic premise of the movie, go google it and come back here. This is more my thoughts and feelings when coming out of the movie, as someone who is an enormous DC Comics fan, who in many ways has been waiting years for Warner Brothers to exploit their DC Comics characters not named Bruce or Clark. 

And coming home from my screening of Green Lantern last night, I was pissed. Not because it’s is the worst super hero movie in the world, as some reviews have suggested, because it really isn’t. (that award might still belongs to Ghost Rider, or maybe Catwoman,take your pick) There are a lot of fun moments and things I dug about it. The movie has enough fun moments in it as to be entertaining. I loved the casting of just about all the actors; everyone in this cast is giving it their all, even when the script doesn’t give them much to work with. A lot of people resisted the idea of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan when he was cast, citing his role in Van Wilder, a movie I’ve never seen so I had no reason to hold it against him. Personally, I think the reasons so many fanboys hate Reynolds is because he is that impossible mix of incredibly good looking and charming, the guy that walks into a party and suddenly you look ten times less interesting to that girl you were trying to chat up. Reynolds is great as Hal Jordan in my opinion. My big concern, judging from the trailers, was Blake Lively, and it turns out she was fine too. And all that great concern over CGI costumes and whatnot was for nothing…it all looks fine in the end, and frankly there really is no way to do Green Lantern with practical effects. They make things out of light….I’m ok with them looking like, well…light.  I also loved the look and design for the Green Lantern Corps homeworld Oa…everything about it was well designed and the best parts of the movie take place in that location. Too bad they spend so little time there.

In many way, right now this movie is being sold as something it is not. It is not a big outer space adventure. You know that scene from the Wonder Con footage and the trailers, with the entire Corps standing together in unison listening to Sinestro? Yeah, that’s the one and only time you see the Corps, except for one other brief scene where they are all getting killed. All those posters and billboards that make this movie seem like “Green Lantern & His Cool Alien Buddies” is total horseshit,  as they’re barely in this movie. The only Lanterns we really see are Tomar Re, Kilowog and Sinestro. Kilowog has what amounts to a glorified cameo, and it is probably the coolest part of the movie. He trains Hal for what amounts to five minutes, and then Sinestro takes over for him for another five minutes (if that) and there is your training montage. The movie could have used SO much more of this, and why they didn’t do it I’ll never understand. All I can think of is cheapness. All of these things would have made for a more expensive movie, and Warners didn’t believe enough in this property to spend that kind of money. I don’t know. They said this movie cost $150 million, but I sure as hell don’t see it. I hate to say it, but Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had bigger scope than this movie in a lot of ways, and their giant space cloud monster thing at least didn’t have a cheesy head popping out of it every few seconds. 

I think the chief reason I’m so damn disappointed in this movie is I know what could have been. And what could have been was so much better than what we got. See, a couple of years back I got my hands on the first draft script for Green Lantern, and I freaking loved it.it is more or less the exact same storyline used in the movie, and in fact the final screen writng credit goes to the same people who wrote that first draft (dated 2008) But while the basic story is the same, all heart and soul that was in that script was gutted.  I immediately started reading it again after watching the movie, and it really infuriates me that this script wasn’t used. Nearly everything in the first draft script is superior to the final product we ended up with. Instead of a cheesy quick cut flashbacks to Hal’s father Martin Jordan’s death, we actually have scenes between him and his son Hal expanding their relationship. The Hal/Martin scenes are as crucial to that first draft script as the Peter Parker/Uncle Ben stuff in the original Spider-Man movie, or the young Bruce Wayne/Thomas Wayne scenes in Batman Begins. But In the final movie he’s just a photograph, a cliché of a dead father. In the original draft we see how Hal and Carol Ferris have known each other for years, going back to childhood, and how Martin Jordan’s death impacted everyone at Ferris Air and the Jordan family. We see the Jordan family fully fleshed out, not just brief cameos , but we see them as actual human beings (including Hal’s mother, a character totally cut from the movie) The relationship between Hector Hammond and his father is developed far more than it is in the final product. In the movie, you really don’t see why Hector hates his father THAT much. In the first script it is clear how very disgusted Senator Hammond is with Hector, and through Hector’s new telepathy we get to experience with him as he finds out just what the whole word really thinks of him….imagine suddenly finding out everyone around you hates you and thinks you’re creepy, gross and waste of space. I’d understand anyone going insane from that. 

  All of these things are gone from the final product. Lots of funny bits expanding the characterization of characters like Hal’s buddy Tom is here as well. Right now he is just there to give Hal someone to talk to other than talk to himself. Another total waste of a character. Sinestro has more of a relationship with Hal as well, much more than the brief scenes they share in the final product. I would have loved to see Mark Strong play some of these scenes, especially one where Hal and Sinestro visit the grieving widow of Abin Sur. Then there are all the cool missing fan wanks…we don’t see the rings looking for other recruits and passing them up (like Clark Kent and Guy Gardner) and a cool role for Alan Scott, the original GL is cut and replaced with Amanda Waller, who here is useless. Why even bother getting Angela Bassett for this? 

The final movie feels sort of like that original script, only cut to ribbons. I’d say maybe about 45% of it survived. I really don’t understand the thinking behind changing so much of it, as almost none of the changes were for the better, except for maybe one or two (in the final movie, Carol figures out Green Lantern is Hal almost instantly, which makes sense and is a funny bit. Also there is a particularly cheesy bit in the original script where the power of love ignites Hal’s ring and saves the day. I’m glad that bit was gone) But there is way more that works in that orginal script than doesn’t.  The scope is much bigger too; Not only is there a scene where Hal helps save Oa from Parallax (in the script called Legion instead) and gains the respect of Sinestro and his fellow Corpsmen, but the Corps pledge to come to Earth and help Hal out in the final battle, instead of their ones scene just standing around. We see the Corps in action on Earth, and it read so cool. 

I really don’t know what went wrong here, I don’t know who to blame. But right now I’m thinking director Martin Campbell. I remember when this movie was first announced, It was going to be directed by co-screenwriter Greg Berlanti, known more for being a television writer and producer, who only had one film directing credit to his name at the time, and indie movie called The Broken Hearts Club. Fanboys screamed bloody murder, insisting Warners get a big time action director on this movie instead. Well, they got their wish, and I wish they hadn’t. I think had Berlanti stayed as director, he would have protected all the character moments in his original script instead of sacrificing them for a quicker pace and a shorter run time. Don’t get me wrong; the original script isn’t The Godfather or anything…it is pretty derivative of other, better super hero movies in tone (Iron Man) and structure (Batman Begins) But at least it had heart, something that the final version does not have.

Like I said…this is not a terrible movie. I think some of the critics slamming this movie are slamming it for the wrong reasons. I get the sense they are trashing it hard because they are sick of superhero movies, and are just looking for one that is not so great to destroy and hopefully kill the genre for a good decade or so. I’ve read more reviews slamming the premise alone, which just goes to show how little imagination the reviewer has. I can’t understand the premise being too convoluted for modern day adults, when kids ages ten were able to understand it just fine as far back as 1960. This isn’t Inception people. I think a lot of kids will love it, and if it introduces kids to the concept of Green Lantern then I’m glad. I’m not against trashing it, believe me, just do it for the right reasons.

But as am enormous DC Comics fanboy, I’m heartbroken, because I know this movie could have been so great, but because it is so mediocre I think word of mouth will kill it. It’s failure will keep Warner Brothers from pursuing any further films for their other non Superman/Batman heroes. No Flash, No Wonder Woman, and probably no Justice League (although considering Superman and Batman are in that, that one might still have a shot actually)  For the past decade, we have seen Marvel spin all their top tier characters into box office gold, with very few exceptions (even the Fantastic Four movie did well enough to get a sequel) All I’ve ever wanted was the same for the DC heroes. Considering that the folks at Warner Brothers have stated that after their Harry Potter series is done, they would focus on their DC properties, this is not a good way to start that. So I actually still hope this movie does well anyway…I want a better sequel made. I want to see Hal Jordan fight Sinestro, and the introduction of John Stewart and Guy Gardner. Keep the cast, just give them something better to work with, and a director with an affinity for the material. That is clearly not Campbell. So for that reason alone, I’d say go see Green Lantern this weekend. Them pick up Green Lantern: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns at your local comic book store, or rent the animated Green Lantern: First Flight on DVD, either is a much better origin to Hal Jordan than what Warner Brothers has just given us