The next meeting of the “That Green Lantern Movie Wasn’t So Bad” club could meet in a phone booth with plenty of room to spare.
The Ryan Reynolds film disappointed most superhero fans and left critics scrambling for cruel adjectives. That’s just how we roll.
Despite the middling reception, Warner Bros. swiftly announced a “Green Lantern 2″ will be coming our way. That remains to be seen. The bigger question is whether the film’s home video release could restore some luster to the tarnished property.
“Green Lantern” will hit home video stores Oct. 14 on DVD, Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray editions. The Blu-ray versions will include an extended cut of the film, which could hold the key to the movie’s future.
The theatrical “Lantern” had plenty of flaws, but one of the biggest areas of concern involved inconsistent storytelling. Some scenes didn’t mesh with the rest of the narrative, and audiences were left wondering about a convoluted teaser at the film’s end that attempted to set up the sequel.
Where did that come from?
An extended cut might fill in a few blanks and let the film to flow in a more coherent fashion. It’s true many of the deleted scenes featured on home video releases were snipped for good reason, but sometimes those discarded moments bring depth to films in unexpected ways.
If that’s the case with “Green Lantern,” then perhaps comic book fans will give the movie a second chance. It wouldn’t be the first time a commercial disappointment found new life on home video. Consider the case of “The Boondock Saints,” “Office Space” and “The Big Lebowski,” three films reborn once played in the comfort of our homes.
Besides, that magical green ring can conjure up anything its wearer imagines. And, right now, I’m guessing Reynolds would love to see his superhero franchise get a second opinion from audiences.
(Photo: Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a pilot chosen to become the newest member of an intergalactic police force in “Green Lantern,” coming Oct. 14 to home video. Warner Bros.)
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t see how a longer cut could possibly save this movie, the film was a visual bore, the characters were flat, the dialogue limp…a longer running time can only prolong the pain of watching this dull exercise in mediocrity.
>>dull exercise in mediocrity>>
In other words, “Shit sandwich”?
What is it about “green” superhero movies? First the odious “Green Hornet” and now this.
How about just living in reality and accepting the fact that the Green Lantern may not have been a property that lended itself to the kind of storytelling most accessible to a big screen audience?
I’m a comics fan, but not of the people currently in charge of DC and Marvel. And I wanted to just assure Mr. Toto that I’m not bothered one bit if he was disappointed with the Green Lantern movie this past summer. Part of the reason why is because Warner Bros. and Disney, as the owner of Marvel properties today, seem to care more about the money they can make in movies than in the comic books themselves. If you looked at what they’re doing to their products today, believe me, there’s always a chance you’d be very alienated by what they’re doing. Just take a look at the abominable miniseries DC put out 7 years ago called Identity Crisis, a shockingly misogynist screed that was even filled, disturbingly enough, with blame-the-victim messages and appears to have been written as leftist metaphor for 9-11. Take a look at Avengers: Disassembled, which has many of the same problems. Those are just some of the books they’ve published in that time that drove me away from their output, because they used those to set the course for a lot of the awful “developments” they’ve been publishing since.
Some of the people involved with the Green Lantern movie, like Geoff Johns, did quite a bit to offend and alienate me from DC’s output, and that’s why, in a way, I feel this movie’s fiasco could’ve been a punishment that was long in coming for those disgraceful scoundrels. Johns was writer of The Flash in the past decade, and turned it into such a violent, unpleasant quagmire that I can’t shed any tears if this near-vanity project for him in the GL movie has met defeat.
So like I said, this is just one of the reasons why I’m not the least bit bothered if the GL movie was a failure, nor can I particularly care what most critics think of it either. They’ve never cared squat for the original comics, and seeing how Sinestro is going to take the lead role in the GL book with its relaunch this September instead of Hal Jordan, that’s one more reason why Geoff Johns, Dan DiDio and company should be avoided.