Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Green Lantern"

Another round of insta-judgments. Just add trailer. Suddenly we know if...
  • yes) we're buying tickets
  • no) we're shunning the movie, or...
  • maybe so) withholding the judgments until we have more info.
Maybe so is usually the correct answer. Sometimes great trailers lead to disappointing movies. And sometimes virtually every piece of marketing for a movie will practically beg you not to see it when you might actually like it if you do  (*cough* TANGLED... more on that soon).

But it's hard not to pre-judge. Commercials invite you to do just that.



In brightest day... in blackest night... 

Ryan "Sexiest Man Alive" Reynolds stars as the Hal Jordan incarnation of Green Lantern. There have been many Green Lanterns, both before and after him but Hal is the most famous.

Yes. For those of you who are unaware, Green Lantern is actually not just any old superhero. He's powerless. The power is in his ring, a mystical device, and though he's superheroic, he's but one of many. In a way he's like an anonymous everyman worker-bee hero. It's an interesting twist on the typical one-of-a-kind hero concept if you stop to think over it. Which is why I was hoping some really crafty creative type would've pitched this as Green Lantern Corps to some cable station, and made it a really intelligent sci-fi multiple worlds series using something complex/multi-dimensional like Battlestar Galactica as inspirational role model rather than IronDevilSpiderBatSuperHulkMan. Instead it looks like we got...

No. ...just another Superhero Origin Flick. You've got your boyman who is suddenly given the gift of great power and he has to learn adult responsibility and heroism while some bland but beautiful girl encourages him from the sidelines. Sound familiar? It should. And: YAWN. I get that we need our hero myths. But do they have to be so similar every time? Also I laughed so hard this afternoon when @MediaObsessed said on twitter
Blake Lively as a fighter pilot? Oh Hollywood, sometimes penises should not be allowed in casting decisions.
HEE. So so true. I was worried about the casting from the get go. Ryan Reynolds is somewhat talented but there is something a touch blande/assembly line about him... like he's the photograph of a star rather than the flesh and blood actuality (though we totally thank him for the approximation of flesh part). When you add the Hot Girl of the Moment as the love interest it starts to just seem really... generic, like no one had a vision other than a Hulk-like grunted directive "Make Tentpole. Smash Puny Box Office Records."

Maybe So. Er... uh... I got nothing this time. It just looks so generic. It doesn't even look like good eye candy. The visual effects are generic too. It's hard to imagine this even being in contention for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars for 2011. Unless it's a really weak year. They do have 5 visual effects slot now. My point is this: I curse the day that CGI made filmmakers so lazy about the aesthetics of power. Why do all spells, mutations, powers, mystical or scientific equal gaseous colorful swirls?

I'm not interested. I'm a no. I know I complain about superhero movies a lot but I actually love superheroes. Like most boys and some girls, I grew up adoring them. I just want their movie doppelgangers to have more individualized personalities and to be made with real care for the big screen.

You?

23 comments:

Robert Hamer said...

What really made me raise an eyebrow was seeing those glimpses of Peter Sarsgaard as the villain. I don't know, just the idea of such an understated and cerebral actor playing a ridiculous-looking mad scientist was so...jarring.

chris na Taraja said...

Yes to Green Lantern
YES!! to Ryan Reynolds
but sadly, even with those two strong thumbs up, I say....

NO NO NO!!! It's the CGI supersuit! It's already bothering me in the trailer, Not sure I can look at it for 2 hours.

And do they really need to CGI and inhuman comic book body on Ryan Reynolds, who already has an body of a god!!! REALLY.

elgart said...

I cant wait for this movie..

Arkaan said...

Heh. The dialogue is TERRIBLE.

Ruth said...

I'm a maybe so...I'm not really superhero savvy, the only one I really like is Batman (no powers for him either, faves are Tim Burton ones and the brand spanking new ones). I've never seen Ryan Reynolds as the superhero type either...but it could simply just be a fun movie to watch. Once...
Green Hornet is one I'm looking forward to though...

James T said...

You're kidding right? ;)

This movie was made to raise our eyebrows. They avoided every possibility for something remotely interesting.

If I act like I've seen the... movie, it's because I (we) practically have.

If his suit was that white underwear in the first 10 seconds I might... nah, even then NO.

#toosnarky?

Daniel Armour said...

The trailer has WAY too much of an Iron Man vibe to it, the CGI looks weak and Lively looks as boring as ever (which is sad because she seemed semi-awake in "The Town"). Despite all that, it's a YES for me because I like superhero films and I like the concept of The Green Lanter. Hopefully, though, this'll be more Spider-Man than Iron Man or - god forbid - Wolverine.

RC said...

I definitly feel like the Green Lantern story is one I hardly know at all - so from that aspect, it get's a hesitant yes out of curiousity.

Filme Online Gratis said...

Seems like an interesting movie. I`ll come back with future comments and review after i`ll watch this movie

Michelle said...

Well, beside the fact that he is very very hot, ryan reynolds is a really great actor...But still, I say he's style is more adaptive to comedy than to action movies...

Anonymous said...

I smell razzies for Blake

Dom said...

I had pretty similar thoughts on the trailer. The CG is looking really rough right now, the suit is a bit awful, and Reynolds & Lively both just seem... bored. Looking like a cheap attempt to recreate the Iron Man vibe, which is a shame, because the source material is really great. I'm hoping I'll have my mind changed though, I really want this film to be great!

Bia said...

This looks shockingly bad...like amateur and corny! Totally stunned right now.

Tim said...

I've been a "no" ever since Reynolds was cast, and the trailer does nothing to disprove my feelings that this is going to be boilerplate even by the standards of modern superhero movies.

But more importantly: more on Tangled VERY soon, I hope.

OtherRobert said...

The CGI costume is distractingly bad in the real life well-lit settings. It would be like making another Garfield movie and just pasting Bill Murray's head on the cat's body. It looks fake and cheap. They should have had a real suit and a CGI suit: real for static shots/interaction with realistic environments, CGI for action and cartoonish environments.

John T said...

Yeah, I've always felt that way about Reynolds and his generic hotness-if I met him at a bar, I'd probably lose the ability to speak, but amidst the celluloid hotness of legends on the screen, he just blends so easily. That, combined with the CGI body (and again, thinking their clearly not gay penises, Hollywood), makes me a definite no here.

Derreck said...

Is there a Film Bitch award for worst line reading in a trailer? Because Blake's "This is important" deserves a spot.

But the movie looks pretty much ridiculous. I'll probably be forced to see it with my friends though.

Paul Outlaw said...

Totally maybe so, as in "I have no intention of paying to see this movie, but I would definitely see it if invited to a screening or something like that."

Deborah said...

Well, I'm almost always maybe so on this sort of thing, but I have to say, this looks really interesting in a way that no one else seems to have commented on.

It seems like a fully-fleshed superhero/fantasy world, and you just never get that in comic book movies. Mostly, you get a superhero, and a corresponding supervillain (then 3 or 4 such villains in the sequel) and everyone and everything else is decidedly normal. "Gritty." "Real world." Because Batman is SO MUCH more plausible that way. ::eyeroll::

What I love about this is the wave upon wave of aliens and other worlds and Watchers and strange beings of all types. Sure, it intrudes into and alters Hal Jordan's ordinary life, but not just by giving him powers. That's genuinely unusual in the superhero movie genre.

In that sense, it's not Iron Man, not Batman, not Spider-Man, not any of them, but uniquely Hal Jordan who flies around planets with a magic ring. I. Mean. Really.

Volvagia said...

That probably would have been brought up...IF THE EFFECTS DIDN'T LOOK SO JAW-DROPPINGLY AWFUL. (Say what you will about Avatar, but the VFX were genuinely great.) In essence: Avoid this gaudy, poorly conceived CGI mess. Thor may not be 8 1/2, but it'll at least look good, which I expect, as everyone should, out of a movie that costs a hundred and fifty million dollars. (Iron Man, The Dark Knight and Spider-Man may or may not be great movies, but at least they claim they look better than Green Lantern.) And Nolan's approach is very weird. "You want to adapt Batman." *Nolan nods his head. "And you want it thoroughly rooted in reality?" *Nolan nods again. "And you want to root out all sexuality?" *Nolan nods a third time "And you don't think fans will read any of your decisions critically?" *Nolan shakes his head. "And you don't think that this will turn all non-action scenes into a bunch of philosophical talking heads?" *Nolan shakes his head. "You're hired." It's better than what Schumacher did, but it feels like just another a studio cop-out and disservice, yet in the opposite direction. Firefly, Ivy, Freeze, The Lazarus Pit. Sorry, but I'd want to see what someone thinks of these elements of the Batman myth. The Joker's a natural element (the one villain I can say has to be tackled at some point in any Batman adaptation.) Of course, The Schumacher Villains would jump to the head of my list, as they've jumped to the front of every fan's list. However, Nolan could only reasonably do Riddler. That takes you to Batman 3, but leaves off fixing perceptions of the worst movie in the series. The reason that Nolan hates it is probably different than every other Bat-Fan. (i.e.Poison Ivy and Mister Freeze shouldn't even exist in a reasonable BatVerse.)

Anonymous said...

Blake Lively was fantastic in "The Town" and both "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". She doesn't look like she's given much to do in "Green Lantern".

the walking dead season 1 episode 4 said...

after watching the movie i think it will be one of the best movie of 2011.

Donna said...

looking forward to seeing that movie , my childhood comics have come to life