BEFORE: Moving on to DC heroes, I don't read Green Lantern comics, but I do read Justice League, and there's usually one of the Green Lanterns on that team at any given time. Though I haven't checked in since the recent reboot, the New 52. Linking from "Green Hornet", Cameron Diaz was in "Knight and Day" with Peter Sarsgaard.
THE PLOT: A test pilot is granted an alien ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
AFTER: This film was generally regarded as one of the financial boondoggles of 2011 - technically it made money, but it cost over $200 million to produce, and earned $222 million worldwide. Some might call that a success, but it wasn't as profitable as Warner Bros. would have liked.
What went wrong? From where I sit, it's a script problem. The story is too cosmic - the recent failure of "John Carter" (of Mars) would suggest that audiences aren't looking for storylines that take place on other planets. But there's something else:
Back in 1983, DC Comics scrapped almost 50 years of continuity, and started their comic line over, to attract new readers. They started with the origin of Superman and Batman, and spread out from there - this happened to be around the time that I was looking to expand my comic-book interests, so I jumped on board. They risked alienating older readers, but the benefit came in gaining new readers, who didn't want to get bogged down in decades of old story issues. (Wait, is this the Superman from Earth-2? Why is he getting married to the Lois Lane from Earth-47?)
Comic-book legend John Byrne was tasked with re-telling Superman's origin, and he did what just about any writer would have done - he started with the destruction of Krypton, and Jor-El placing his child on board a rocket at the last minute, sending baby Superman on a course for Earth. Cue the crash landing, the baby was found by the Kents, raised as a human, and Bob's your uncle. Years later, however, he admitted he'd fallen into a trap - since he knew the story going in, and he knew where the story began, he just started it there.
But he wondered how much cooler it might have been if he'd started with Clark Kent as a teenager, learning about his powers for the first time. Why are red beams coming out of his eyes? How come he can lift up a tractor? What the heck is going on? New readers might not already know about Krypton, so the story would have an air of mystery about it. Eventually Pa Kent would show his son the rocket, there would be a message from Jor-El and a flashback sequence, and all would be explained. This is one of the rare times where linear storytelling should have been shelved, in order to build up some suspense.
In a similar fashion, the "Green Lantern" film starts with the creation of the universe, the role of the Guardians, and the exact nature of the intergalactic Lantern Corps. So, when Hal Jordan finds the crashed alien spaceship, the audience already knows the deal. How much cooler would it have been for us to be in the dark along with him? What's the deal with this ring? Why does it give me the ability to bring my thoughts to life? Why is it dressing me so funny? We should have learned the answers at the same time as the main character.
Simply put, the movie tipped its hand way too early. They knew where Hal Jordan had to end up, and they went directly there. They could have saved Hal's induction to the Corps for a sequel - but I guess they figured if they didn't wow the audience with the interstellar stuff, there might not BE a sequel. But I stand by my ruling - after all, there is an art to the building up of suspense.
There are other ways that the film took shortcuts - like in the reveal of Jordan's secret identity to his girlfriend. Yeah, we all know that a small strip of fabric around the eyes doesn't really change the overall look of someone's face, but you just can't come out and SAY that. It's a little cool because I haven't seen that referenced before in a superhero film, but it's still a shortcut.
Magically knowing the oath? Shortcut. Getting trained in about 5 minutes? Shortcut.
NITPICK POINT: If green = will, and yellow = fear, and willpower is greater than fear, why would the Corps even consider making yellow rings? By definition, they'd be inferior, right? I know, that's where the story has to go to set up Sinestro as a villain, but it's another convenient shortcut.
NITPICK POINT #2: Using the power of the universe to power a lantern, then using the lantern to re-charge a ring seems like a very inefficient energy delivery system. I'm just sayin'.
Starring Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "Adventureland"), Blake Lively, Mark Strong (last seen in "Robin Hood"), Tim Robbins (last seen in "Top Gun"), F.O.T.B. Jay O. Sanders (last seen in "Edge of Darkness"), with cameos from Angela Bassett, Temuera Morrison, and the voices of Geoffrey Rush (last seen in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides") and Michael Clarke Duncan (last heard in "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore")
RATING: 4 out of 10 barrel rolls
No comments:
Post a Comment