I want to preface this by saying that, besides the Green Lantern, this editorial is about DC characters. I have my own opinions on Marvel and their movies, but there’s no need to mention them here and now.
I read the site and rarely post, however, the Green Lantern movie has been on my mind since I saw it opening weekend. It was disappointing, yes, but also infinitely frustrating. A little background: My wife and I were stationed away from our families for five and a half years. My three little brothers and my eight year old sister are huge comic book fans, specifically, huge GL fans. When Green Lantern was scheduled to be released June 17th, the weekend after we got back from our tour, it seemed like fate. I bought tickets and we treated that as our homecoming event. I know it’s mostly silly to be upset at the lack of quality in a movie, but to hear the disappointment in my little sister’s voice when she leaned over and said “…that isn’t right” well…it stayed with me. I was disappointed that the story was not as good as it should have been, disappointed that Reynolds never felt like Hal, disappointed that the movie never had the scope of Green Lantern, disappointed with so much more I’d rather not list, and firmly disappointed in the wasted potential in all of these things. I hated that we were lied to from Geoff Johns, whose name we had associated with an awesome interpretation of this universe, that his personal hands were on the script and that the movie would respect the mythology.
It’s very frustrating, certainly, that many comic book movies are treated as cheap cash grabs while not giving us a great version of the stories we love. The problem, in my opinion, is a question of understanding genre (or perhaps not caring that there is a distinction at all). I don’t think movie studios (WB/Legendary both more readily at fault) understand the genre of the books they’re adapting. They simply label these movies as “comic book movies,” and, unfortunately, comic book movies tend to suck.
I think the key to making adaptations of these books better, at least a step up from where they fall in quality now, is for studios to start recognizing the genre that the book falls into before adapting it. Green Lantern is a superhero, sure, but Luke Skywalker is technically a super hero. If GL was a sci-fi fantasy story and not a superhero story, I feel that more attention would have been paid to character and story than what was on screen (read: basic paint the numbers superhero origin).
This is why The Dark Knight has worked so well, playing Batman as a crime drama works better than playing Batman as a superhero. In fact, I remember being excited after The Dark Knight and Watchmen, I thought these adaptations were starting to veer into the direction of better quality, but obviously this has only been true of Batman (so far, Watchmen as a one-shot leaves us with what we got, personally I liked it despite feeling that Snyder lost his nerve towards the ending). It sucks to think that instead of a Greek epic reflecting an Odyssey, Wonder Woman will likely be a superhero movie about a super powerful woman who is reluctant to be the hero we need. Instead of an amazing journey through time bending, light mutating physics and quantum physics, the Flash will likely be a fast guy who is reluctant to be the hero we need.
I believe we will happily suspend our belief and accept anything on screen as long as it’s presented with care and respect for the material. I’m sure even greater requirements of that suspension (Gorilla Grodd comes to mind) would be happily given over if the story is good, with credible characters and threats.