BELIEVE IN A GREEN LANTERN SEQUEL: IT BELIEVES IN YOU

I don't get this move at all: is DC's stable so bare that they have to hatefuck a Green Lantern 2 into existence? Doesn't everybody know The Flash? Doesn't he have a pretty basic, straightforward origin and power? Isn't Wonder Woman STILL one of DC's big three? Can't you do a Green Arrow movie for much much much less than the $300 million it took to get Green Lantern off the ground? Can't you do a Batman spinoff with Nightwing or something? Can't you just save Green Lantern for a Justice League movie, where you can hide him somewhere in the back?

I would be onboard a Jonah Hex 2 before another Green Lantern. And I love the character, but they went about everything the wrong way the first time around, and I'd believe they'd do the same again.

It's amazing to me what Marvel has been able to accomplish compared with WB and DC.  Green Lantern was shit and was uniformly terrible.  I'll play the Ryan Reynolds apologist all day long but he was woefully miscast. Everything about the film was off: casting, directing, plotting, the "3D"..craft services killed three people from what I understand.  It takes a lot to fuck up a concept of a man with a power ring who can knock the shit out of bad guys with giant green fists while flying around the Universe..and there's like 3,000+ others just like him!  But they did it.

Outside of Nolen's Batverse I just don't think WB has a unfying vision for their properties and see them as more of an extension of marketing first and story second. Say what you want about Marvel's films but at least they have vision and scope (and seemed to hit all the right notes in term of casting and direction) instead of  the WB/DC approach of throwing shit against a wall and see what's gonna stick.

The problem with the Green Lantern franchise is the Green Lantern. The idea of a cosmic superhero is a great one, but not one who is green, gets his power from a ring, has a weakness to yellow and who's symbol is a lantern. The iconography is shitty, and the character will not catch on in a big way with the mainstream because of it. They could make the best Green Lantern movie they could and it would still have a limited appeal.

However, if Marvel was to take its Green Lantern ripoff character Nova and spin it into a movie, I could see that working.

Well... Harry Potter money isn't gonna waste it's self.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

The problem with the Green Lantern franchise is the Green Lantern. The idea of a cosmic superhero is a great one, but not one who is green, gets his power from a ring, has a weakness to yellow and who's symbol is a lantern. The iconography is shitty, and the character will not catch on in a big way with the mainstream because of it. They could make the best Green Lantern movie they could and it would still have a limited appeal.

 

However, if Marvel was to take its Green Lantern ripoff character Nova and spin it into a movie, I could see that working.

Green Lantern didn't suffer from shitty iconography. It suffered because the film itself was shit.  I've had some terrible theater experiences the last couple of years but I can't recall seeing a movie where I was that bored and disinterested.  At least something like Transformers engaged me and held my attention in spurts.  There were parts of GL that I found myself thinking I was watching the 21st century equivalent of Howard the Duck.

The concept wasn't the problem but the execution was..and for 300 million dollars WB shouldn't be thinking sequels. They should be thinking "Who do I fire for overseeing this disaster"

I'm not saying the movie was OK; I didn't see it. What I'm saying is that a green superhero with a magic ring and a lantern symbol on his chest doesn't resonate with the public at large, like say a superhero with a bat or a spider theme. I bet half the teenagers in America don't even know what a lantern is.

Anyone know the name of the artist that drew the Green Lantern panel the article is using?

A little TinEye/Google action tells me: ethan van sciver

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renn Brown 

A little TinEye/Google action tells me: ethan van sciver

Thanks!

Doesn't Campbell have some kind of first-look deal on a sequel? Though I suppose they could hide his payoff somewhere in the catering budget for Man of Steel to keep costs down on GL2.

The movie's greatest sin was having Sinestro's turn happen as the post credits stinger. It's kind of weak that the DTV movie First Flight was able to tell a fuller, more high octane GL story in twenty fewer minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by D.S. Randlett 

The movie's greatest sin was having Sinestro's turn happen as the post credits stinger. It's kind of weak that the DTV movie First Flight was able to tell a fuller, more high octane GL story in twenty fewer minutes.

This. ^

OUCH.

Reynolds should have been the Flash, as Goyer wanted. But that ship has sailed. And we probably dodged a bullet there anyway. Only to be hit by a green one. At least it wasn't an adamantium memory-eraser bullet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

I'm not saying the movie was OK; I didn't see it. What I'm saying is that a green superhero with a magic ring and a lantern symbol on his chest doesn't resonate with the public at large, like say a superhero with a bat or a spider theme. I bet half the teenagers in America don't even know what a lantern is.

Green Lantern's powers and iconography aren't any more ridiculous than most superheroes.  If handled properly, a Green Lantern movie could easily make as much money as Marvel's second and third tier characters do.  The same goes for an DC hero that WB can bring to the screen.  From what I understand, the initial Green Lantern script would have made a far better film than the one we got.  I suspect it was just watered down and tinkered with too much.  If the previews hadn't been so shitty, it would have opened to greater numbers.  Also, if it had actually been a decent film it would have made just as much money as Thor has (and Captain America will).  X-Men: First Class underperformed because audiences disliked the past two entries in the franchise.  Green Lantern underperformed because it was a turd AND because it looked like a turd in the trailers from the get-go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeb 

Doesn't Campbell have some kind of first-look deal on a sequel? Though I suppose they could hide his payoff somewhere in the catering budget for Man of Steel to keep costs down on GL2.

He does, but he expressed disinterest in returning for a sequel BEFORE the first came out and bombed.  I severely doubt he's going to want to direct a sequel to his own failure.
 

Quotee

Originally Posted by D.S. Randlett 

The movie's greatest sin was having Sinestro's turn happen as the post credits stinger. It's kind of weak that the DTV movie First Flight was able to tell a fuller, more high octane GL story in twenty fewer minutes.

Agreed on both counts.
 

At this point, if WB are prepared to throw away that much money and still talk sequel, I think they may as well just put Bruce Timm and the rest of the people behind WB's animated DC universe in charge of their DC films as well. Hell it couldn't be any worse than most of what they're producing now.

Warren Ellis did a very brief homage to Green Lantern in his Planetary series that was way cooler than the actual Green Lantern comic. There IS a way to take the material seriously and create a good, fun Green Lantern movie. First thing: actually employ WRITERS to write a good SCRIPT.

Come on dude, that's a charge that can be levelled at at least 90% of modern blockbusters. It's the precise reason I'm becoming so jaded now every US summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

Come on dude, that's a charge that can be levelled at at least 90% of modern blockbusters. It's the precise reason I'm becoming so jaded now every US summer.

 

Go see Attack the Block. Your faith WILL BE RESTORED!

Hey, how about this; why doesn't WB just hire writers & a director who actually give a shit about the material & want to tell a story?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Hey, how about this; why doesn't WB just hire writers & a director who actually give a shit about the material & want to tell a story?

GL has wayyyy more problems than just the script. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bancroft Agee 

GL has wayyyy more problems than just the script. 

Yeah, I'd already gone into depth on this in the GL Post-Release thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cylon Baby 

Go see Attack the Block. Your faith WILL BE RESTORED!

 

I'm still hanging for a frikkin release date for it in this country!

I would LOVE to see Attack on the Block in theaters.  Sadly, I don't see it ever coming to my area unless it miraculously manages to score a nationwide release on down the road.  My ass will be stuck waiting for blu-ray, which I will gladly blind buy the day it comes out.

They're going to go straight for the Black Lanterns stuff, aren't they?