“Joyless”
I may possibly have heard this word before. It’s a derivative of “Joy”, which we all know means “a feeling of great comfort or happiness”. And what’s the opposite of a feel-good superhero movie? Well, “joyless” would be a pretty good one.
However, on opening day of Green Lantern, when CBM readers were beginning to tally up the awful critiques of this admittedly-flawed-but-not-even-close-to-sucking movie, all I could notice from the little blips on the front page reviews were the common, herd-like use of this relatively uncommon term; joyless. Take note:
“Martin Campbell has somehow managed to make the origin story the least interesting part of the film. And when that comprises a big chunk of your movie, it results in a pretty joyless experience” – Jason Zingale
Zingale then goes on to blast the film’s use of a repetitive origin story, and knocks Ryan Reynold’s smarmy attitude, using only bits of information that could have been gleaned from the trailer, or a basic scan of the overview.
"Remember when big, summer blockbusters were fun — when they were a light, clever and entertaining escape? That notion apparently eluded the makers of Green Lantern, a joyless amalgamation of expository dialogue and special effects that aren't especially special.'
-Christy Lemire, Associated Press Movie Critic
Lemire then goes on to blast the film’s use of a repetitive origin story, and knocks Ryan Reynold’s smarmy attitude, using only bits of information that could have been gleaned from the trailer, or a basic scan of the overview.
And so it goes On. And on.
The only review I couldn’t find is the very commonly found in search term review of George Ebert underling Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, who only has a single word to describe Green Lantern. What word does he use?
Joyless.
One music reviewer I found actually uses the term “joyless” to describe how reviewer Ignatiy seems to plow through stuff he reviews. From www.hollywood-elsewhere.com;
…”the modern cineaste is expected to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every genre, era and nationality of film. That's why you get the Ignatiy-types joylessly plowing their way through Netflix to catch up on everything…”
Ya know what I find “joyless” - ?
People who shouldn’t be reviewing comic book movies for a living.
Especially ones they haven't seen.