Movies are awesome

[Onslaught Six]

and he axes a couple no-name guys. (Literally, they are never named and we never see them for more than three seconds. For all we know they're as new to the Corps as Hal is.)

They may not have been named in the film, but Sinestro had requested to be allowed to take some of the best Lanterns with him to fight Parallax. That wouldn't be rookies.

That's the big problem with the movie, though--it tells, not shows. We're simply told that these are apparently some of the best Lanterns, but we're never really given any indication that they are because they're complete non-characters. We don't even 'see' them for more than a few seconds--we see a wide shot of them flying towards Parallax, and then they all die. It just rushes through the whole thing without giving any weight to it--it's shallow. The movie expects us to feel scared because a bunch of characters just got killed, but I'm given no reason to care about them in the context of the movie. Kilowog could be killed in the final battle, but he's given next to no development in the film itself that nothing of value would be lost.

I do believe that kid called him uncle Hal. That was Hal's brother's house and family.

Then I missed that bit or it was only mentioned the one time. It seemed more like the kid was Hal's son from another marriage.

And yet still refuse to help Hal save Earth...
They are the Guardians of the Universe. I don't think just letting planets get wiped out is their ideal scenario here, even if they are willing to let it happen for what they believe to be the greater good of the universe.

Like I said, though--we're never really shown 'why' humanity is worth saving. Hal just kind of says "It is! Really, I assure you!" and that's the end of it.

For that matter, Hal is also the only one who ever really brings up "Humanity is a young race/has much to learn."

No he isn't. Tomar Re mentions how young humans are just after Hal woke up on Oa.

Yeah, you're right, but it's such a throwaway line that it doesn't feel like there's any 'weight' given to the situation.

If that's all it was (and I don't necessarily agree, but for the sake of argument), that's fine. It was a fun super-hero movie about a character I like. I've never watched any of the X-Men movies, and don't care how good they are because I don't care about the characters. The same goes for Iron Man. I'm surprised I actually enjoyed the first two Spider-Man movies, since I'm normally uninterested in him as well. I like Green Lantern, and this movie would really have to have screwed up big time to make me dislike it. But it didn't. The made a pretty faithful adaptation of the character and the concept behind him, and they kept me interested and entertained.

That's part of the movie's problem, though. If you already like Green Lantern, well, good for you--but it doesn't carry any of the weight the material deserves. I'll go out on a limb and say I don't care about GL any more or less than X-Men and yet X-Men did a much better job of pulling me into the universe. In GL, stuff happens but there's never a feeling of weight or meaning--Parallax goes to eat a city and Hal goes "Hey, humanity's probably worth saving!" and punches him into a sun. Despite X-Men only really involving Cold War stuff between two countries as its biggest threat, it feels a hell of a lot more epic and weighty. To use Dom's words, GL feels like the writers are moving pieces around for the sake of moving pieces around. I can't help but feel the movie would have done way better if it had focused more on Hal/Sinestro, like GL: First Flight.

Uhhh... he had just arrived on Earth. How much destruction was he supposed to have accomplished in that short amount of time, before he chased Green Lantern off the planet?

...Is that what happened? It looked more like Hal chased Parallax off by...er, not being afraid of him and saying the GL oath? Anyway, they could have made Parallax larger or actually made him feel like a threat--he didn't seem to do much of anything besides float there not-menacingly. Parallax just felt wasted; I really feel like Sinestro would have made a better villain.

Another thing that annoyed me: They kept explicitly saying "THE YELLOW POWER OF FEAR!" which (and I know this is shallow and childish) sounded really dumb. Just say the power of fear. Is the "yellow" really needed? I mean, the most often criticized element of GL is that his weakness is 'the colour yellow.' They had a real chance to disassociate that a little bit and they didn't.

The thing about GL is that I just feel like superhero films these days should be treated with more weight and meaning. This is a post-Dark Knight/Watchmen world we're living in. Thor at least felt kind of weighty even when it suffered from some of the same problems (tacked on love story, "DESTROY THE EARTH!" which consists of one single city)

Yeah, I'll agree with you on this one. There wasn't enough Kilowog in the movie. What we saw was good, but I'd like to have seen more.

It just feels like most of the extended cast is wasted. The bird guy makes some spiffy rings, Kilowog punches Hal, and Sinestro...stands around looking evil.

[Dominic]

Actually, Earth was never really in danger during Thor, aside from the flashbacks at the beginning. Loki was going to wipe out the frost giants. And, really, Thor should have let him.

Dom
-still laughs about *Thor* being squeamish about genocide.

[Onslaught Six]

I was talking about later when the Destroyer shows up. It's all in that one shitty little town instead of going somewhere, I dunno, interesting.

[Sparky Prime]

That's the big problem with the movie, though--it tells, not shows. We're simply told that these are apparently some of the best Lanterns, but we're never really given any indication that they are because they're complete non-characters. We don't even 'see' them for more than a few seconds--we see a wide shot of them flying towards Parallax, and then they all die. It just rushes through the whole thing without giving any weight to it--it's shallow. The movie expects us to feel scared because a bunch of characters just got killed, but I'm given no reason to care about them in the context of the movie. Kilowog could be killed in the final battle, but he's given next to no development in the film itself that nothing of value would be lost.

I got the impression that scene was more to explain Sinestro's motivations, not to make the audience scared. I mean, for the first half of the movie you see how Sinestro talks about the Corps, how powerful and unbeatable he believes they are. Then they go off to fight Parallax and he watches how quickly four of what he considers the best Lanterns are killed. I believe seeing that shook Sinestro's faith in Willpower being as powerful as he thought it was, as shortly after when the Guardians explain what Parallax is, he's asking for a Yellow power ring.

Then I missed that bit or it was only mentioned the one time. It seemed more like the kid was Hal's son from another marriage.

Movie made it pretty clear to me that was Hal's nephew with Hal's brother chewing him out for his recklessness and everything in that scene...

Like I said, though--we're never really shown 'why' humanity is worth saving. Hal just kind of says "It is! Really, I assure you!" and that's the end of it.

But again, the Guardians weren't swayed by that, so I wouldn't say that was the end of it. It was Hal asking to take a shot at it with out risking any other Lanterns lives that the Guardians ended up agreeing to.

Yeah, you're right, but it's such a throwaway line that it doesn't feel like there's any 'weight' given to the situation.

I don't agree that it was a throwaway line at all. It establishes how humans are viewed by the Corps, and obviously left an impression on Hal.

[Onslaught Six]

That's the big problem with the movie, though--it tells, not shows. We're simply told that these are apparently some of the best Lanterns, but we're never really given any indication that they are because they're complete non-characters. We don't even 'see' them for more than a few seconds--we see a wide shot of them flying towards Parallax, and then they all die. It just rushes through the whole thing without giving any weight to it--it's shallow. The movie expects us to feel scared because a bunch of characters just got killed, but I'm given no reason to care about them in the context of the movie. Kilowog could be killed in the final battle, but he's given next to no development in the film itself that nothing of value would be lost.

I got the impression that scene was more to explain Sinestro's motivations, not to make the audience scared. I mean, for the first half of the movie you see how Sinestro talks about the Corps, how powerful and unbeatable he believes they are. Then they go off to fight Parallax and he watches how quickly four of what he considers the best Lanterns are killed. I believe seeing that shook Sinestro's faith in Willpower being as powerful as he thought it was, as shortly after when the Guardians explain what Parallax is, he's asking for a Yellow power ring.

I guess you're pretty right there, but we're never really shown that those guys are great warriors or anything, like I said--all he does is 'say' that they're all awesome and shit. And everybody, uh, makes a big green spotlight. Beyond that, the only things any GL does are all within that training scene for Hal, or Hal himself doing stuff. Sure, we've read the comics so we "know" that the GLs are actually powerful--but let's take my girlfriend, who doesn't read comics beyond what I hand her and have vaguely told her. She literally asked, after Parallax ate those random GLs, "Wow, Green Lanterns are kind of shitty, huh?"

Movie made it pretty clear to me that was Hal's nephew with Hal's brother chewing him out for his recklessness and everything in that scene...

Again, I must've missed all that--I thought that dude was Hal's ex-wife's new squeeze. And the girl was Hal's ex-wife. (This is just me drawing conclusions, I guess.) It seemed like there just wasn't enough to make it explicit, and it seemed like it was invoking a trope that was a little different from what was going on. I was thinking it was trying to portray Hal as a deadbeat dad situation--kid he barely gets to see due to apparent job responsibilities (or just plain laziness), ex-wife with new boyfriend/husband, you know the deal. Liar, Liar did a similar thing, in fact.

But again, the Guardians weren't swayed by that, so I wouldn't say that was the end of it. It was Hal asking to take a shot at it with out risking any other Lanterns lives that the Guardians ended up agreeing to.

I dunno. If the Guardians had said yes, and Hal failed, what do they really lose? It seems like Parallax's only real motivation is going after Abin Sur, and since he's dead he uses Hal as a surrogate since he's the successor. It feels weak, and Parallax has almost no motivation besides I AM HUNGRY, HUNGRY FOR FEEEEAAAARRR! He's not a cosmic threat, he's a boring non-villain. He's like Unicron in TFTM, whose sole purpose seems to be "I want to eat Cybertron. Why? I don't know either."

Yeah, you're right, but it's such a throwaway line that it doesn't feel like there's any 'weight' given to the situation.

I don't agree that it was a throwaway line at all. It establishes how humans are viewed by the Corps, and obviously left an impression on Hal.

Agree to disagree, here?

[Sparky Prime]

I guess you're pretty right there, but we're never really shown that those guys are great warriors or anything, like I said--all he does is 'say' that they're all awesome and shit. And everybody, uh, makes a big green spotlight. Beyond that, the only things any GL does are all within that training scene for Hal, or Hal himself doing stuff.

The point of the movie is Hal Jordan becoming a Green Lantern, and proving himself to be a great one at that. Not showing us how great every other Green Lantern is. It would diminish Hal's victory as the films hero and main focus if just any Green Lantern were able to defeat the villain.

Sure, we've read the comics so we "know" that the GLs are actually powerful--but let's take my girlfriend, who doesn't read comics beyond what I hand her and have vaguely told her. She literally asked, after Parallax ate those random GLs, "Wow, Green Lanterns are kind of shitty, huh?"

I saw the movie with a friend who knows nothing about Green Lantern. He followed what the movie was going for.

Again, I must've missed all that--I thought that dude was Hal's ex-wife's new squeeze. And the girl was Hal's ex-wife. (This is just me drawing conclusions, I guess.) It seemed like there just wasn't enough to make it explicit, and it seemed like it was invoking a trope that was a little different from what was going on.

I don't see how it wasn't explicit enough when the dialog establishes their family connections. That scene was just there to show Hal's family is worried about him given how reckless he is with his life.

I dunno. If the Guardians had said yes, and Hal failed, what do they really lose? It seems like Parallax's only real motivation is going after Abin Sur, and since he's dead he uses Hal as a surrogate since he's the successor. It feels weak, and Parallax has almost no motivation besides I AM HUNGRY, HUNGRY FOR FEEEEAAAARRR! He's not a cosmic threat, he's a boring non-villain. He's like Unicron in TFTM, whose sole purpose seems to be "I want to eat Cybertron. Why? I don't know either."

They'd still have to find a way to stop Parallax. And I didn't get the impression they were very enthusiastic about Sinestro's plan to use fear to fight fear.

And they explained Parallax was feeding on fear to increase his strength and size, not just for the sake of eating. Why? Because he wanted revenge against the Guardians and Abin Sur for imprisoning him. Then he decided to make a pit stop at Earth on his way to Oa when Hector Hammond inadvertently made him aware of Abin's successor.

Agree to disagree, here?

I suppose.

[Onslaught Six]

I guess you're pretty right there, but we're never really shown that those guys are great warriors or anything, like I said--all he does is 'say' that they're all awesome and shit. And everybody, uh, makes a big green spotlight. Beyond that, the only things any GL does are all within that training scene for Hal, or Hal himself doing stuff.

The point of the movie is Hal Jordan becoming a Green Lantern, and proving himself to be a great one at that. Not showing us how great every other Green Lantern is. It would diminish Hal's victory as the films hero and main focus if just any Green Lantern were able to defeat the villain.

Given that all Hal did was say the oath and punch Parallax into the sun, I'm pretty sure just about any GL could have done that. I really didn't see anything that made him exceptional.

I just rewatched GL: First Flight last night and it's seriously the superior movie. Sinestro does stuff! And feels like an actual villain! In the live-action film, Sinestro really only ever says a couple vague things about how they should be using fear as a weapon. Within the first half hour of First Flight, though, we see Sinestro legitimately being a dick. Sure, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but it's better than the complete non-character he is in the film.

I saw the movie with a friend who knows nothing about Green Lantern. He followed what the movie was going for.

I dunno. I just feel like the movie should have gone to more effort to show these characters as skilled, rather than just saying, "Oh, they're skilled. They're skilled out the ass."

I don't see how it wasn't explicit enough when the dialog establishes their family connections. That scene was just there to show Hal's family is worried about him given how reckless he is with his life.

Apparently the dialogue wasn't enough of a focus to make two adults realize what was going on. I'm just...Saiyan.

[Sparky Prime]

Given that all Hal did was say the oath and punch Parallax into the sun, I'm pretty sure just about any GL could have done that. I really didn't see anything that made him exceptional.

Considering Hal was able to stand his ground and not succumb to his fears against Parallax where no other Lantern shown in the film could, that is what made him exceptional.

I just rewatched GL: First Flight last night and it's seriously the superior movie. Sinestro does stuff! And feels like an actual villain! In the live-action film, Sinestro really only ever says a couple vague things about how they should be using fear as a weapon. Within the first half hour of First Flight, though, we see Sinestro legitimately being a dick. Sure, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but it's better than the complete non-character he is in the film.

I enjoyed First Flight myself, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a superior movie. I didn't think that they adequately explained Sinestro's motivation for wanting the Yellow Element in that movie. It felt to me like they made him a villain just for the sake of making him the villain. While this live action, he isn't supposed to be an actual villain yet. Instead we see how he is intrigued by the power of Fear throughout the film until he comes to believe they should be using it. And there's nothing vague about how he openly tells the Guardians they should fight Fear with Fear when he tells them to make a Yellow power ring. And I do think we got a good idea of Sinestro's character in the film. He could certainly use more development, but he wasn't a 'non-character' either.

I dunno. I just feel like the movie should have gone to more effort to show these characters as skilled, rather than just saying, "Oh, they're skilled. They're skilled out the ass."

I agree it'd have been nice to see some more of the Corps. But again, this is Hal's movie. With his origin story out of the way, they could always show off more of the Corps in sequels.

Apparently the dialogue wasn't enough of a focus to make two adults realize what was going on. I'm just...Saiyan.

In my case it was. I realized who those characters were once Hal's brother mentioned their father. "Waka waka".

[Onslaught Six]

Well, alright, I guess I give up. I still felt parts were underdeveloped and shallow and you clearly don't and I honestly don't feel like debating it anymore so why don't we just drop it?

...Seriously am I the only one who saw First Class?

[Gomess]

...Seriously am I the only one who saw First Class?

Probably gonna see it soon. Review in no time!