Before I get started, I'd like to say that I've been a big supporter of the DCEU since pretty well day one.
I love "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman", and while I hated "Suicide Squad" I appreciated certain elements of it.
But the reviews for it's installments thus far can't be ignored. With "Man of Steel", "Batman v Superman" and "Suicide Squad" standing at 55%, 27% and 26% respectively, we can't help but wonder if maybe the DCEU should have started out somewhere different.
In 2011 Warner Brother released their first attempt at starting a DC Comics film universe with
Ryan Reynolds'
"Green Lantern". That movie itself only stands at an unfortunate 26%.
But theres one critical different between "Green Lantern" and the other movies in the DCEU so far. "Green Lantern" is a much lighter film that doesn't take itself as seriously.
Many fans of the DCEU have blindly said that it takes itself more seriously and that its less "kid friendly" or "humorous" than the MCU, and thats where the DCEU's value lies. But the question is, whats wrong with taking yourself a little less seriously and releasing a more lighthearted DC film? It's a lot easier to forgive a movie that isn't amazing, when it doesn't claim to be more than it is.
Sure "Green Lantern" is most definitely not without its faults. The costume was horrible, Parallax was more or less butchered, but then why does this movie get so much more flak than the DCEU movies from DCEU fans?
You can make the same arguments about "Green Lantern" as you can about other DC movies like "BVS".
Ryan Reynolds portrayal of the titular character was arguably great, the movie had a lot of potential moving forward with
Mark Strong's portrayal of Sinestro and while the visuals and story weren't exactly amazing to say the least, the corps and Oa looked great.
Do these arguments sound familiar? Well thats because they're the exact same arguments DCEU fans make about other DC movies. For example "Ben Affleck was a great portrayal of Batman, the story just wasn't great", "Henry Cavill is a great Superman, the writers just don't write him well", "You may hate Zack Snyder's storytelling, but you can't deny that he's a great cinematographer".
But we still look at "Green Lantern" as this black mark on DC's past, when really it wasn't any worse than Warner Brothers latest attempts at portraying the iconic characters of DC.
Personally this may be an unpopular opinion, but is there big reason
Ryan Reynolds's "Green Lantern" shouldn't be in the DCEU?
Reynolds has never been a more bankable actor, and seeing him make witty banter with
Ezra Miller's Flash would probably be pretty great.
Michael Wilkinson, could easily make a badass costume to replace the lacksluster costume, and we'd all get our dream of seeing
Mark Strong once again portray Sinestro, only this time as the leader of the Sinestro Corps. And sure there would be two versions of Amanda Waller in the universe, but there are easy ways to rectify those plot holes. After all recasts can happen.
Anyways we know that this is never going to happen.
Reynolds himself has stated he's done with the character and Warner Brothers has already announced the plan to reboot the universe with a different actor, but its still interesting to think of what could have been.
What do you guys think? Is the DCEU at the point where even the "Green Lantern" movie couldn't ruin it? Would you like to see
Reynolds return to the role? Leave your thoughts and comments bellow, and do try to avoid a flame war.