Green Lantern: The Fanboy Free Breakdown

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

Dude go see it, it's honestly not as bad as Bob says I was expecting it to be bad but I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of these reviews came from people who decided not to like it before watching or who are biased against Ryan Reynolds.

What it comes down to is this: Green Lantern has flaws. Copious, egregious, obvious flaws.

That said, if you enjoyed the movie anyway? More power to you. But just because you liked it in spite of its problems, doesn't mean those problems aren't there. It's just that you're able to look past them. Other viewers may not.

 

[teebeeohh]

this was really really good, not as entertaining as listening to bob rave about bad movies and cutting frisbees and heads into pictures but very informative.

 

[Forktongue]

I thought this was a really refreshing breakdown of the movie. I was still tempted to catch a matinee of this, mostly because Ive never been a huge Green Lantern fan and all of the reviews Ive read focus on the break from the comics. I mean, I loved the Kick-Ass movie and loathed the graphic novel so I thought I'd give Green Lantern a chance. After reading this I think I'll save my $ and go see Super-8 instead.

One more thing: Bob's last line reminded me of G4. That is a channel with a lot of money behind it but populated with people who really don't have an interest in games.

 

[BabySinclair]

So in short the movie should have progressed as such?

Prolouge: shots of paralax killing shit and the GL corps penning him up (with narration)

Act 1: Introduce Hal, Carol, and Hector at the test flight/combat simulation, Gov likes the demo. Carol's dad gets mad and suggests Hector's the better man, setting up triangle. Drop the daddy issues or keep them but replace best friend with family member. Hal meets alien and goes to Oa for training, insert insecurities and he leaves before finishing training (10-15 min.) Sinestro gets pissed with the guardians (for squeal). Heroics back on Earth to end Act 1 as Hector does his autopsy.

Act 2: More heroics as Hector starts going evil. Funny scene between the two and Hal tells Carol who reassures him. Hector kidnaps Carol and the fight between the two which ends with Hector's death but not before he wars Hal about Paralax, cut to Oa and the guardians denying Sinestro's plans as Paralax approaches Earth.

Act 3: Sad scene as Hal blames himself for Hector's death. Paralax starts blowing up shit, Hal gains the willpower to fight Paralax which ends as Sinestro disobeys orders and helps re-imprison Paralax.

Post credits: Sinestro watches as his ring changes color.


Vote: which is better, this or what the movie put out?

Oh, and the original costume is actually worn instead of the CG monstrosity and I haven't seen it so if there's scenes I'm missing that's why.

 

[BabySinclair]

*edit* double post, thanks computer

 

[Rakor]

Yeah, I would have to agree that a wordy explanitory sequence at the start is not really a good way to go with a movie like this.

Part of the point is that a regular guy suddenly has a purple alien fall on his house or whatever, and gets a mystic ring that flings him into space and expects him to protect it.

The story should flow like that, we should get into his mindset of not really knowing much then BAM! HERE'S A MAGIC RING! KILL THAT THING! STOP LOOKING AT ME! GO KILL THAT! NOW PRESS THAT BUTTON! EAT THE MAGIC FLOWER!

In my opinion anyway.

 

[Mathak]

We can only hope that's the case......but lets be honest they are not going to do a special extended edition of a movie that tanks as bad as GL has. The reason LoTR got its extended edition is because the thing we saw in theaters was AWESOME.... and so they sold the original and then after 4-6 months they resold a special extended edition, thus getting all us fanboys twice ( though by the third film I had learned the virtue of patience.)

Duinno, Kingdom of Heaven was terrible in cinemas, but they released a director's cut on dvd that was actually good. You never know.

 

[Deathninja19]

Dude go see it, it's honestly not as bad as Bob says I was expecting it to be bad but I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of these reviews came from people who decided not to like it before watching or who are biased against Ryan Reynolds.

What it comes down to is this: Green Lantern has flaws. Copious, egregious, obvious flaws.

That said, if you enjoyed the movie anyway? More power to you. But just because you liked it in spite of its problems, doesn't mean those problems aren't there. It's just that you're able to look past them. Other viewers may not.

The thing is I don't see these nitpicks as problems with the film;

The info dump: most people have an idea who Batman is or who Superman is but have no idea who Green Lantern is. This is the problem with us geeks is that we assume people have prior knowledge of GL going in, but if it wasn't for the info dump you'd have normal people constantly asking whats going on. It's not a problem but a necessity.

Hector Hammond and other characters: Yes his connection to Hal isn't elaborated on but that's fine you can infer from the way they act that they know each other. Would it be nice to see a scene of them as kids? Sure. But do we need it? No, we get all we need from their scenes together to know that all of these characters have a history. And the family gives a little depth to Hal that's about it.

The Corps: OK we could have spent more time with them but they could've overwhelmed the film and overshadow Hal they needed to be there but they should be saved for the possible sequel, the film needs to be all about Hal and his character.

Hal keeping the ring: Sure it's silly that no one goes after him but I'm assuming that they were giving him space to come around about being a GL. Yes Hal left after 5 minutes but wouldn't you want to leave is 2 different aliens started wailing on you physically and verbally.

The Jet bit wasn't that the robots lost but that it made the company look bad, it wasn't the product it was the company losing face.

None of these 'flaws' are in any way egregious or obvious, they're nitpicky at best. There's loads of problems with other superhero films (see the Dark Knight and Jokers ability to transport explosives around Gotham) but we look over them. The only reaon why GL didn't get a pass is because people decided to hate it before it came out.

 

[Grahav]

Depressive lantern

 

[Brad Shepard]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

 

[Canid117]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

If you see this as on the same levels of his expendables rage then I really doubt that you actually read the article.

 

[SouthpawFencer]

I could forgive the Guardians letting Hal keep the ring when he stormed off... IF there's evidence later on in the movie that they had a hunch that he'd prove himself worthy of it, or there was a discussion about stripping him of the ring and a Guardian saying "The ring chose him. If we are patient, we will discover why." I haven't seen the movie, and don't plan to, so I have no idea if this is the case.

I still would like to know why Ryan Reynolds was such a tragic miscast.

I'm also curious, about this, Movie Bob. Is it because Reynolds did a horrible acting job, or did his (and the screenplay's) interpretation of Hal Jordan deviate a too far from the comic book version? I noticed that you didn't say much (or anything) about ANYBODY's acting here, which may have been deliberate, as this article appeared to be a critique of the structure of the film, and not a judgement on the acting in it.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Hmm, Green Lantern Merch on the cheap. Well, it's not all bad...

Except it's all GL Corps. No Alan Scott stuff, now I has a sad.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I liked it to be honest but then again I like to set the bar really low for Superhero movies as I tend to expect cash ins. To be honest the only thing I thought that was really crappy to the source material was Parallax the rest I have kinda come to be grudgingly accept as the norm. The Parallax design was shit.

 

[Brad Shepard]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

If you see this as on the same levels of his expendables rage then I really doubt that you actually read the article.

rage is rage

 

[Canid117]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

If you see this as on the same levels of his expendables rage then I really doubt that you actually read the article.

rage is rage

Except this isn't rage this is movie bob calmly explaining the technical failings of the movie. Did you even read what he wrote? Did you even read the title?

 

[Brad Shepard]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

If you see this as on the same levels of his expendables rage then I really doubt that you actually read the article.

rage is rage

Except this isn't rage this is movie bob calmly explaining the technical failings of the movie. Did you even read what he wrote? Did you even read the title?

do you know your comming off as snippy? and yes, I read it, and i think hes full of crap, it was a good movie, not the best, he has fanboy glasses on.

 

[Canid117]

*Facepalm* Ok, this crap is getting old bob, first you attack people for liking the expendables, now this? Just stop the rage man, let people like what what they like, dont try to say there wrong for liking it, damn.

If you see this as on the same levels of his expendables rage then I really doubt that you actually read the article.

rage is rage

Except this isn't rage this is movie bob calmly explaining the technical failings of the movie. Did you even read what he wrote? Did you even read the title?

do you know your comming off as snippy? and yes, I read it, and i think hes full of crap, it was a good movie, not the best, he has fanboy glasses on.

Do you know that you are coming off as hating movie bob for being movie bob instead of for what he wrote? If you feel it is a good movie then that is your opinion and you are free to explain it. Movie Bob did not attack the people who liked this movie he attacked the movie. If you can not see the difference between those two things then you sir are the ones with fanboy glasses on not movie bob.