Quote:
Originally Posted by
CatchThatMan 
In the original comic, the idea behind Hal being a test pilot was that he ejects out of his plane and, by chance, stumbles upon Abin Sur who bestows the ring upon him. But in the movie he's just sitting around and Sur's escape pod lands near by because the ring "chose" him. So, having Hal as a test pilot is redundant and I also don't like that they've resorted the usual "chosen one" bulls#it that we've seen in virtually every film series.
But Hal Jordan isn’t the underdog as he’s a test pilot who bangs hot women and seems to have everything in life. How am I supposed to identify with this character? How am I supposed to sympathize with him and want him to succeed. I'm just a working class slob in real life, so how can I cheer on some fuckface test pilot that gets top poon and has a flashy car?!? It's like giving Flash Thompson Spider-man's powers instead of Peter Parker. Hal Jordan is an alpha-male who, from what I've read of the movie, has the usual Daddy issues that Hollywood gives to every "hero" these days. He's not someone struggling to pay the rent and his bills and about the worst thing he could go through is not getting laid for a week. Then he becomes savior of the Earth. It's like "Hey man, see your AWESOME life, well, it's going to get just even more AWESOME now that you have superpowers".
I'm not a comic book fan, I occasionally pick up a graphic novel from time-to-time, but this seems to be the overall problem with DC superhero's vs. Marvel. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman never have to worry about the little stuff that you, I and everyone else has to put up with on a daily basis. That's why I seems to identify with Marvel hero's more as they are given some real world problems in between battling evil super-villains.
A few points:
(light spoilers)
1) What's interesting is that the moment in the trailer where Abin-Sur crash-lands by Jordan isn't in the movie. In one of the oddest scenes of the film, Abin-Sur crashes alone, and orders his ring to summon someone worthy. Cut to Jordan walking to his car, then a gelatinous green orb overtakes him and throws him into the sky, "Evil Dead II"-style, chucking him miles away and towards the dock. When he lands, he has no idea where he is, but he sees the spaceship, and his IMMEDIATE reaction is to run towards it and save who's inside. Is he not worried that some sort of space orb just swallowed him and chucked him into the sky? The moment in the trailer makes sense. What happens in the movie is spectacularly, unnecessarily strange, I honestly didn't know what to make of it.
2) I think your argument about someone awesome becoming more awesomer kind of invalidates a lot of comic book movies, but in regards to this movie, you certainly have a point. The movie crosscuts the "origins" of Hal-as-GL and Hector-as-supervillain, except that Hector appreciates his gifts, despite them making him into a pariah and a physical beast. There's a moment where you realize Hector's opposition towards Hal comes from jealousy and Ryan Reynolds has to stand up and say something like, "You COULD be me, you know." Of course, Reynolds is dressed casually and is very handsome in this moment, whereas Sarsgaard-as-Hector is grotesquely mutated and disgusting, and you can almost see Reynolds trying to hold back a laugh. Turning this from dubious to mildly sad is that in this scene Hector tries to take control of the ring, only to be told by matinee hunk Reynolds that "he wasn't chosen." From that point on, I was 100% in Hector's corner, even though he ends up being a secondary villain to the Blob Of Doom.
For the record, according to an early script I read from the same team of writers... (SPOILERS ABOUT THE END)
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
I expected there to be a conflict in this film about the ring running out of energy, since Jordan needs the lantern to recharge. But then his ring loses power approximately ONCE during the movie, and it is NOT AT ALL at a moment of tension. In the script I read, I can't recall, but he either loses the ring or it runs out of energy and he is forced to save the day Rocketeer-style, as a regular human helped out by his fellow Lanterns. THAT made perfect sense. Instead, the goddamned guy PUNCHES THE ENEMY INTO THE SUN.
3) The dichotomy for me between Marvel and DC is that Marvel is the interpretation of Marvel characters as real life personalities, and DC heroes as gods, myths and legends. It's harder to make the latter relatable, but not impossible, as seventy years of comics proves. I think you can mind interesting comedy from GL in a film format, but it needs to be contrasted with a deadly serious space epic tone (from people who get this sort of thing - Martin Campbell never seemed to have the BOUNDLESS IMAGINATION you would need for a movie about a guy who can use jewelry to make ANYTHING). With the casting of Reynolds, and the stupid TV-level script, they tried to liberally sprinkle sitcommy humor and snide quipping instead of character-based laughs. Even Reynolds, who I am not a fan of, seems to be struggling within this format, like a square peg in a round hole.
