Is “a fistful of power rings” a new sexual euphemism? Let’s see if we can make that happen.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I always found the original Green Lantern comic design to be one of the sexiest in comics. Yeah, I know Hal Jordan is a dude, but I always appreciated the costume’s sleek, retro-future design. It’s truly one of the few costumes in comics that doesn’t need improvement. Even Jim Lee managed to leave it relatively unchanged in his horrible Nehru collar-inspired reboot of DC comic’s entire line of characters.
Of course, the producers of the Green Lantern movie managed to muck that up by making Hal Jordan look like a emerald-hued Slim Goodbody.
Critics beat the crap out of Green Lantern. It’s averaging a 26% “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes right now. According to Box Office Mojo, estimated attendance for Green Lantern is below that of even Daredevil and Ghost Rider – two films synonymous with B-grade superhero movie flame-outs.
But the fan reaction has been interesting. People seem to be defending the movie as mindless fun. I take that to mean that the eye-candy was satisfactory even if the story fell flat on it’s face.
If you had asked me a few months ago to speculate on Green Lantern’s odds of success at the box office, I probably would have sided with the critics. Despite Ryan Reynold’s inherent likability, all of the new movie clips and preview material they were showing made Green Lantern look like amateur hour. Everything from the costume design, to the lumpy CG character work to the inclusion of Sinestro, Hector Hammond AND Parallax as villains did not inspire confidence.
But a strange thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. The success of X-Men: First Class effectively eliminated my doomsday predictions for Green Lantern. I don’t know why. Beyond their superhero subject matter, the films couldn’t be more different from each other.
I guess it’s because I was convinced that X-Men: First Class was going to be a complete bomb. To me it appeared as tone-deaf to the comics as Green Lantern appears to be. The fact that X-Men: First Class was actually good forced me to put my assumptions on hold and adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward Green Lantern.
So, despite the bad reviews, I’m still willing to invest the time to see Green Lantern. I’m willing to open up my heart a little bit and take my chances.
Because here’s the thing: I LOVE Green Lantern. For me, he’s the DC equivalent to Iron Man and I’ve been a fan of the character and the mythology for a long, long time. In fact, the GL books are the only DC books I read right now. So you know I’m serious about it.
It’s easy to love Superman or Spider-Man… Captain America or Batman. That’s like saying “I love America” or “I love vacation days.” It’s kind of a given.
It takes a little bit of fortitude to say “I love Green Lantern” or “I love Iron Man.” Because, for a long time, these guys were second-stringers and their comics were not very good.
I hate to be all “I loved these characters before they were cool.” That’s not how I feel. I’m thrilled these characters are getting their due in popular culture. I’m just trying to explain how long I have been invested in them.
So, yeah. I want to give Green Lantern and – more surprisingly – Cami wants to come with me.
Well, maybe not surprisingly. She’s a huge Ryan Reynolds fan. How big? Her favorite Ryan Reynolds movie is Just Friends. Okay, admittedly, it’s a pretty funny movie. But, yeah… watching Reynolds run around in a painted on costume for two hours? I’m sure it doesn’t hurt.
Did any of you check out Green Lantern this weekend? What did you take away from it? Is the costume everything it’s trumped up to be? Leave your comments below!
You know it's getting terrible reviews, right?
Yeah, but you know how much I love Ryan Reynolds. So it kind of balances out.
What do you think?
I think I couldn't have willed anything sexier than that with A FISTFUL of power rings.
I don’t know anything about Green Lantern, and the previews didn’t make me want to see it, in fact, quite the opposite. It just looks… weird. Green dudes on the earth, weird worlds, Ryan Renolds just isn’t a strong enough actor to properly emote the different situations his character will undoubtedly be in. I’m usually the type to go watch a comic book/superhero movie even when I don’t know anything about them, if they have strong previews that excite me, Iron Man, Thor and G.I. Joe being recent examples, but I was really turned off by the previews for GL. So yeah, I’m going to wait for the Blu-ray release and rent it.
dude, you should put a warning before that Slim Goodbody link
I saw it. I wasn’t blown away, but I also think that may have something to do with Thor and X-Men First Class spoiling me with comic book movies for the summer. I think if it was the first one I’d seen this summer, I would have liked it a lot more. It’s worth seeing. It’s very pretty, for one thing đŸ™‚
Green Lantern was decent. Not the best superhero movie out there, but not the worst (looking your way Catwoman)
We went to see it Saturday. I went in with low expectations and wanting so dearly for it to succeed, but they just didn’t pull it off.
The editing is choppy, the characterization off mark, and the script is a laundry list of amateur screenwriting mistakes that would make any self respecting RTVF major blush. A full third of the movie and several of the major characters should have been cut entirely.
And the villain looks like big pile of poop.
It taught me that I have the capacity to feel great sadness and disappointment.
Green Lantern had enough highs that if you though at any point “I want to see that film, it looks fun” then you should still go have fun. I saw it and I enjoyed it but it was still an unbalanced mess of a film. That being said, I think it had some high points in it that invoked classic hero films that Thor never strove for.
Ryan Reynolds is the biggest asset of the movie and he is squandered with many scenes in which all he’s given to do is look bewildered, tough, or stoic. This is a waste of such a charming actor who’s a pleasure to watch on screen (and as I understand it, especially the for the ladies). But it was a great family film for Father’s Day, and Tom, I think you’ll find enough in it to enjoy. Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard are both great as villians though.
Totally agree on the costume being sexy — hellooooo Soranik Natu!
THIS.
I just watched Green Lantern yesterday and had low expectations. The character “development” was weak (at best) and the dialogue was eye-roll inducing, but it was overall enjoyable to watch.
One thing that kept bugging me though is that Sinestro was a good guy. I’m not huge into the comics, but I was like… “isn’t he like… Green Lantern’s archenemy? I mean… his name is SINESTRO.” There was very little development there to make him into a bad guy, but like I said, character development was secondary in this movie.
If you can allow it, it’s mindless entertainment. Just shut off your brain and enjoy the pretty lights and sounds.
Did you see the scene during the credits when Sinestro put on the Yellow Ring?
Sinestro was a Green Lantern before he was kicked out for abusing his powers.
I saw the movie last night and it was… alright. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t amazing.
Oh, and if you like both Iron Man and the Green Lantern, might I suggest the Iron Lantern.
I have that comic!
I’d have to say of all the Amalgam characters, Hal Stark had the most potential. Dark Claw? Notsomuch.
My wife & I saw it on Saturday and we both enjoyed it. I thought it had a great “silver age” feel that fit GL perfectly.
That’s encouraging. Because as much as I love what Geoff Johns has done with the mythology surrounding Green Lantern in the Modern Age, it’s the Silver Age GL that I fell in love with.
First of all, I submitted ‘a fistful of power rings’ to urban dictionary, so there’s that. Second of all, I found the Green Lantern movie very akin to the second Fantastic Four movie, with a dash of Mystery Men thrown in. I wouldn’t see it again, but I was able to leave the theater without regretting paying for the matinee.
You submitted “A Fistful of Power Rings” to Urban Dictionary?! That’s awesome! Can you reply with the link?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=a+fistful+of+power+rings
Niiiiiice!
As someone who’s seen tons of bad superhero movies, I can assure you ‘Green Lantern’ doesn’t deserve the scorn it’s gotten. Actually, it’s one of the better comic book adaptations in recent years. In almost every category, it’s at least as good as ‘Thor’ and ‘X-Men: First Class’. GL’s biggest misfortune was being the third “cape” movie this summer. I firmly believe most major critics felt like they had to balance out their praise of ‘Thor’ and ‘X-Men’ by bringing out the snark and slamming GL. Too bad really, because it’s a good effort with a couple of great performances by supporting players.
I can’t accept that people complain about the CGI levels in the movie. It fit so well with the whole concept of Green Lantern. He can make a green version anything he thinks of, whether it exists or not. This is one of the few times that CGU works. GL is CGI Man.
The movie was okay. I feel Xmen blew it out of the water and set a standard that GL didn’t match, but it certainly wasn’t worse than Thor. I did it’s job as an origin movie and it did it good.
I just want a sequel. I really want a sequel.
Tom, I want to say that the geeky happy married feeling I got from this comic brought me out of my RSS reader just to rate it a 10/10. Very awesome; thanks for the good feelings.
You’re very welcome! Thank you for the compliments!
I actually really loved Green Lantern- I was expecting a mess since they were pushing the advertising so hard and all the spots looked terrible, but I felt it flowed much better than Thor did. All the characters they introduced do something, even if the scenes on Oa leave you wanting a little.
But it sets you up for a lovely sequel… a sequel that I want.
My wife and I saw the movie last night.
We had previously seen Thor and X-Men:First Class.
I found that Green Lantern ranked second after X-Men:
(The only reason being that I’m a DC guy and new the material better than Thor)
Things I liked about the movie:
A unique take on Parallax connected to the Guardians and its grip on Hector Hammond.
Hector Hammond as a tortured soul in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The way the Lanterns got their suits.
The CGI green constructs were well done (even the boxing glove)
Carol Ferris was hot!
We were show what happens when Green Lantern could not always save the day (I.E. the death of the Senator – Hector’s father)
Things I did not like.
Blake Lively was too wooden.
Not enough time on OA (If you are joining a law enforcement unit, especially a global entity, the training would be much, much longer. I know the movie has time constraints but a “1 month later” caption would have done the trick.
– Wanted to see the 24-hour ring charge limitation.
– Wanted to see the yellow impurity limitation (do not know if this was the submission to “fear” when attacking Parallax)
– CGI was too consuming/disorientating at times (I.E. the fight thru Abin Sur’s ship)
– The yellow ring only thrown in as “well a yellow ring”
– Maybe a small narration about Sinestro before he went rogue from the core.
Other than that, I found the movie quite entertaining.
It is just one of those situations where they tried to cram too many things into the movie.
I saw GL last friday & I liked it. (I definitely liked it a lot more than the guy sitting 3 rows ahead of me in a full GL costume who spent the whole movie shaking his head & pretty much chanting “That’s not right!” through the whole thing.)
I’m a huge fan of the comics, and felt that the movie was everything it needed to be and then some. Was it on the level of First Class, Thor, or Iron Man 1? No. Was it better than all the awful super hero movies we’ve seen in the past (Spider-Man franchise, Daredevil, etc.)? Yes. Very much so. I felt its weak points were that it tried to fit too much content in too little a time, when they tried to adapt it to the screen they changed some things that didn’t need changing (Mostly in regards to Paralax), [TOTAL SPOILER ALERT] they killed Hammond, when he would have been a strong, Hannibal-like character in a sequel [END SPOILERS], and they put emphasis on Hal overcoming fear as opposed to being fearless, which bothered me as he was supposed to start out fearless then transition to courageous. Oh, and the internet told me Mogo would be in it. And he was not.
The strong points? The acting was spot-on in many cases, especially for the corps members. I took one look at Kilowag on the posters and was worried to pieces, but his character was brilliant and, despite not much screen time, one of my favorite parts of the movie. Also, Tom gets shown as much more than just an ethnic mechanic sidekick. The use of the ring was fantastic, I could really relate to Sinestro and Hammond, and the story had a lot of what Johns has been doing in it. I got a strong Secret Origins vibe, despite the lack of Red and Black lanterns. And who knows, maybe Atrocitus was just hiding off-screen.
Rating? 7/10.
You consider the entire Spider-Man franchise to be awful? Interesting? The first movie had some problems, but the sequence involving Peter discovering his powers was transcendent. The upside down kiss was also very iconic. Spider-Man 2 is considered to be one of the best of the genre.
Spider-Man 3 was a swirling turd, though. That’s for sure.
Still on the wait to go see the movie, have to wait a few more weeks here in Argentina. Just like Thor, i don’t know too much of the character, i’ve seen an animated movie though, the one where Siniestro puts on the yellow ring… so i wanna check it out, i may be a pleasant suprise like X-men First Class was.
Oh, and i also wanted to say, this particular comic made me remember when my girlfriend told me (before we were going out): “Yeah, it’s like transformers! Awesome!… totally wanna go see the new movie when it comes out” Guess it was the day i fall in love with her đŸ˜›