Green Lantern: The New Star Wars?

[Danny]

the green lanterns are a galaxy wide space force which chooses those with the ability to overcome great fear from every sentient species in the galaxy, with hal jordon being the first chosen from earth. the rings carry a charge of incredible power which recharges from the lanterns which act as batteries. The will power of the user is what shapes the energy. the only weakness is the yellow colour of the light spectrum which cancels it out and represents fear. thats about it. it's more space cop than super hero really.

[Neil]

I'm not missing the point. I get what you were trying to get at. I just happen to completely disagree with it. You can't say that one set of rules for the dead rising are more plausible than another because it's a situation that can't possibly happen. Would radiation that could bring back the dead also give them superpowers? Who knows! Nope, indeed neither scenario may happen, but it's how big a leap of faith you as an audience are asked to make, and indeed how often... If I'm asked to make one small leap of faith to enter a world populated by shambling dead bodies, I can absorb that. But if another film asks me to make a leap of faith into a world where not only are the living dead rising, but now their eyes instantly change so as to look like an animals. And also, so do their vocal chords to they sould like Godzilla, and so do their physical abilities so that can bounce around (and even walk along ceilings) with powers that their bodies never had before.... And now let's add that half way through this second film, the zombies start breathing fire and shooting lasers from their eyes... The first film stands a far great chance of be more absorbing. You only have a small hurdle to jump to enter this alternative reality, and the rules on the other side seem simple and fair. With the second, the hurdles are bigger and greater in number and undoubtably result in you being less believing/trustnig of this alternative reality. The script would almost seem to be cheating? It's akin to my pet hates about the last Indiana Jones film, with the rediculous fridge scene, and Marion driving a lorry down a tree seemingly knowing all will work out with a big grin on her face. Both these aspects just push the boundaries of believabilty and fairness (for me at least) too far! I've jumped one or two hurdles to get into Indiana's alternative reality, and now I'm expected to high jump over some more? Too much! My belief in a fair game while watching the film is broken. Anything can happen seemingly for any reason, so the film is in effect cheating... Why care about it? Anyway, back to the Green Lantern... So with this ring that allows them to make anything they want. What are the rules of it? What prevents them making a planet next to them for example? Or making a million more of themselves, all with similar rings? Can you see my concern, if the rules are not fair/consistant, it just becomes too intangible, and as anything could happen at anytime, it seems a little unfair?

[Mitchified]

Anyway, back to the Green Lantern... So with this ring that allows them to make anything they want. What are the rules of it? What prevents them making a planet next to them for example? Or making a million more of themselves, all with similar rings? Can you see my concern, if the rules are not fair/consistant, it just becomes too intangible, and as anything could happen at anytime, it seems a little unfair? While the constructs that can be created are only limited by the imagination of the user (which is technically why Kyle Rayner, not Hal Jordan, is the most powerful Green Lantern to be in the comics, since he had the most vivid imagination), keep in mind that the ring has a finite amount of power. It has to be recharged from time to time with one of the portable lanterns. It also only creates images with "force" behind them, meaning that it can't create life. I've always thought of it as basically the best Swiss army knife ever. the only weakness is the yellow colour of the light spectrum which cancels it out and represents fear. That was true until six or seven years ago, when in Green Lantern: Rebirth (which was fantastic, if you like Green Lantern) Parallax was removed from the Central Power Battery (the place where the lanterns get their power from). It was kind of a metaphor for the Green Lantern Corps being completely freed from fear, and now they're no longer hindered by the color yellow. Which was pretty stupid to begin with, as theoretically you could simply run into a Wal-Mart and dump yellow paint all over yourself to escape from them previously.

[Eyebiter]

Green Lantern suffers from the same problem that doomed The Green Hornet. The script writers took a mature dark superhero story and tried to make it into a comedy. Instead of making Hal Jordan a mature and professional military test pilot, they cast him as a generation Y douchebag. Rewrites and extra CGI scenes will not save this film. Green Lantern will do better than The Spirit and The Phantom, but won't be the multimillion dollar franchise that Warner Brothers is looking for.

[bassman]

Green Lantern suffers from the same problem that doomed The Green Hornet. The script writers took a mature dark superhero story and tried to make it into a comedy. When did you get an advanced screening? All kidding aside, Reynolds has addressed this concern in a few interviews. While the trailers showcase a good bit of comedy, he says it's actually only lightly sprinkled throughout and the film holds a pretty serious tone. Hal was typically a bit of a wise ass anyway, so that seems about right. Even The Dark Knight and Batman Begins have little jokes throughout, so it's nothing new for "serious" comic films. Again, I think this all boils down to poor marketing. Which I can understand....this is a tough concept to sell. Hopefully they'll get it straightened out in the next month...

[Neil]

When did you get an advanced screening? All kidding aside, Reynolds has addressed this concern in a few interviews. While the trailers showcase a good bit of comedy, he says it's actually only lightly sprinkled throughout and the film holds a pretty serious tone. Hal was typically a bit of a wise ass anyway, so that seems about right. Even The Dark Knight and Batman Begins have little jokes throughout, so it's nothing new for "serious" comic films. Again, I think this all boils down to poor marketing. Which I can understand....this is a tough concept to sell. Hopefully they'll get it straightened out in the next month... So have we got some real excitement here for this film?

[Mitchified]

Green Lantern suffers from the same problem that doomed The Green Hornet. The script writers took a mature dark superhero story and tried to make it into a comedy. Instead of making Hal Jordan a mature and professional military test pilot, they cast him as a generation Y douchebag. Rewrites and extra CGI scenes will not save this film. To be fair, with a few notable exceptions, Green Lantern was never that mature or dark. The only "mature" moments that I recall off the top of my head was the infamous racial issues of Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Hal Jordan (while possessed by Parallax) destroying Coast City, and Kyle Rayner's dead girlfriend being shoved into a refrigerator. The rest of it isn't any darker or mature than your standard comic, and it's a lot less dark than comics like Batman (R.I.P., Heart of Hush, etc.), X-Men (E is for Extinction, Riot at Xavier's, Messiah Complex), and especially the "Ultimate" and "Max" lines. Also, while there's a lot of things that could be used to describe Hal Jordan at the beginning of his career, I don't think "mature" and "professional" are at the top of that list. Green Hornet...yeah, it sucks what they did to that. They took a comic that was basically (at the time) the advancement of the noir style and turned into into whatever that abomination was.

[bassman]

Finally they release a trailer that may help explain some more to people without prior knowledge of the character. As with everything, I know there will always be skeptics and haters. But to me....this looks like an epic, EPIC movie. It looks like GL got the treatment he deserved.

[Neil]

OK... Now I'm interested!

[EvilNed]

Still looks ridiculous. But at least it now seems vaguely interesting.

[Neil]

Still looks ridiculous. But at least it now seems vaguely interesting. Agreed

[rongravy]

I just watched it fullscreen with the old surround sound going through the room, baked, of course. Looked pretty dang sweeet to me. I haven't been seeing alot of my movies lately in 3D, but this'll do, pig. And heyyyyy, I liked Green Hornet. I don't think it was an abomination, grrrr....

[Neil]

Some clips of at AICN - http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49932

[AcesandEights]

Looks like they recruited Dead Pool to fight the Kodan Armada, to me, but I'll give it a shot eventually.

[bassman]

From what I've read, the review embargo ends tomorrow or sometime before the end of this week. Most reviewers have seen it and some of them are taking to Twitter for mini-reviews. "GREEN LANTERN was terrific fun. The fact that it works at all is a miracle, but it really does cook. The first ten minutes sold me." http://twitter.com/#!/BurnettRM "Just saw Green Lantern... GOOD ****!" DavidAArnold The best part about GREEN LANTERN? How it effortlessly skips between cosmic epic to Hal Jordan's story and back again. So much fun. BurnettRM "Just done with Green Lantern screening and I must say, I really enjoyed it, jetlag and lack of sleep notwithstanding!" http://twitter.com/#!/jadeseah "So-Frakking-Un-Believable!!! I'm still spinning w/ delight & utter fangirl satisfaction!! #GREENLANTERN IS GO!!" The only negative I've seen thus far was quoting someone else's positive review and saying "You're lying. LOL. It sucks" Wasn't sure if I could take that one seriously.... Hopefully full length reviews are allowed tomorrow as i've previously heard.