Green Lantern Versus Ellsworth Toohey

lol your point is exactly. Theres a lot of DC fans who want Marvel movies to fail too you see it works both ways. Critics didn't like so what? just [frick]ing live with it.

Mob Mentality. Plain and simple. The movie got more negative reviews than it would have because people heard a few articles about how the movie was bad and people were manipulated into jumping on the band wagon. Brilliant ideal actually, very good way to gain support, but none the less its why the movie will fail if it does.

My teacher has a saying, "A person in smart, people are stupid."
I can agre to that in many cases.

Cool connection. Toohey was a manipulative douche in The Fountainhead and understood the power of gang mentality. Rand was all about the individual and so I understand that the DC and GL fans individually want the film to be good - or better than it was - or the best. It sucks that some in the Marvel camp want the film to fail. What they don't see is that if GL doesn't do well, it hurts the chances of their films being made. If GL doesn't do well, maybe Dr. Strange or Iron Fist will have a harder time being made - especially now that Disney holds the purse-strings and won't understand those properties the way Marvel does.

That said, I don't think it's a Toohey/gang type mentality that's bringing GL down. The film has a lot of problems, and it sucks to say that. I'm more of a Marvel guy (full disclosure), but I want a great GL film. And I want to see The Flash, WW, Legion Of Superheroes, Doom Patrol, Blue Beetle, and so on down the line. But you can't blame the success or failure of GL on critics. There are definitely critics that not only want GL to fail, they want the entire genre to fail. These are the people that see these films as the death of small films, of originality, of storytelling. To a certain extent they're not wrong that big event films have hurt other types of films, but to a large degree, that's just the studio system. For example, a film like Deliverance probably could not be made today, not because of event/superhero films, but because of studio execs and their $#@! notes. Too many cooks in the kitchen and the well-intentioned meal tastes like crap.

While I liked parts of GL, I think it suffered in part from too many cooks in the kitchen. It may also be that Martin Campbell wasn't the right guy to direct. Or that they tried to fit too many things in. Or that they adhered to Johns' plotting too closely. Or that they miscast several of the roles. It's hard to say exactly what went wrong with GL because so much of it doesn't work. At times, it soars, and you sit back and get goosebumps. But more often than not, in my opinion, you're left wanting.

I think part of what happens though is the reverse Toohey. Where some in the DC camp have blind spots. It's like thinking your child is the best when maybe they're not. As a Marvel guy, I remember thinking how good Xmen: The Last Stand was when I came out of the theater. It took some time and a few viewings for me to realize how much it sucked. It had its moments, but more often than not it failed.

The most important thing now is that GL does well enough in the box office to warrant a second film. The second one will be better, count on that. I'm going to see GL in the theater again to support the cause. Marvel or DC it doesn't matter. The true gang mentality here ought to be us nerds ALL sticking together, supporting these films, so that we can get the next one, and then the one after that. They may not all be great, but the more we get, the better the chances are that we'll get a few great ones in there.