EDITORIAL: Does GREEN LANTERN Actually Deserve Another Movie?
Green Lantern was mostly negatively received among critics and fans alike. So, does the character of Hal Jordan - or any of the other human Lantens - deserve to be brought back to the big screen or are they destined for little more than a supporting role in Justice League? Here's my take.
Green Lantern should have been a great movie. On the surface, it certainly seemed to have all the right ingredients to be a hit, especially with the director who made James Bond cool again at the helm. Throw in an impressive cast which included Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong and Michael Clarke Duncan, and we should have been looking at the start of a new franchise. Sadly, that was not the case. Without going over all of its problems AGAIN, they’re not exactly hard to figure out. In case you need reminding though, the main issues were of course the fact that Green Lantern was full of horrendous performances and had an abysmal script. Some creative decisions – an all CGI costume for the titular character and a surprisingly bland looking Oa for a movie which cost over $200 million – were also baffling, and not even an after-credits scene catered specifically to fans would make the movie any less reviled among them.
Considering that Warner Bros. seemingly looked towards Geoff Johns’ critically acclaimed relaunched Green Lantern comic book for inspiration, it’s crazy that it ended up the way It did. Why did Parallax look like a big brown cloud instead of the terrifying monster from the comics? This is just one of many questions which plague the movie, and it seems unlikely that we will ever learn who exactly was responsible for it all going so wrong. It’s also pretty damn depressing to mull over the fact that had it been a hit (Green Lantern earned a paltry worldwide total of $219 million), this year would have more than likely seen the release of a sequel alongside Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and it’s impossible to imagine that the two wouldn’t have crossed over somehow. Talk about a missed opportunity!
The question now is whether or not Green Lantern deserves another movie. It’s not hard to imagine that Warner Bros. are extremely reluctant to move ahead with either a sequel or a reboot, while audiences would surely have little to no desire to see the character return to the big screen. Right?! Well, Spider-Man 3 was terrible, but people still flocked to see The Amazing Spider-Man last year, even if it was the least successful instalment of Sony’s franchise yet (and it still did well enough for the studio to give the green light to three more movies). However, that’s like comparing apples and oranges and it would be fair to argue that Spidey is just one of those characters - like Batman and Superman - who will always be successful due to the fact they are so very recognisable. So, where does that leave Green Lantern? Even if a Hal Jordan was forgotten and a new Lantern such as Simon Baz or John Stewart was chosen as the lead for a new film, it’s still extremely difficult to imagine that Warner Bros. would feel confident enough in even the greatest of writers or directors to make another movie a success.
It’s hard to imagine that one version of the character won’t be included in the planned Justice League movie, and it’s from here that Warner Bros. have the opportunity to give Green Lantern his own movie. Regardless of which version they go for, if a new actor manages to gain enough popularity in that superhero ensemble, it at least opens the door to them then getting their own spin-off alongside characters like Aquaman and Wonder Woman. It still seems unlikely though! While any Green Lantern has a ton of potential, another movie seems like too much of a gamble. Even after the Hulk’s newfound popularity in The Avengers, Marvel Studios haven’t rushed ahead to producer another solo movie for the Green Goliath (and The Incredible Hulk was far from a flop).
Unfortunately, as much as Hal Jordan – or any of the other human Lanterns – deserve the chance to have the big screen glory we all know they’re capable of achieving, that may have to be left for the Justice League franchise. Alternatively, the character could be brought to the small screen, but there are obvious budgetary issues there which make that extremely unlikely. The fact remains that 2011’s Green Lantern proved to be a failed experiment for Warner Bros. and could be blamed for the fact that none of the huge library of DC superheroes they hold the rights to have been brought to the big screen since (they are instead once again relying solely on the popularity of Superman and Batman). It may now be time to give THEM a chance, and as much as I want to see The Sinestro Corps War or a version of Blackest Night brought to life in live action, we may be forced to ultimately accept that Green Lantern will be little more than a supporting player for the foreseeable future. However, we can only hope that he gets another chance at some point down the line...
What do you guys think?