I’m a big Green Lantern fan. From his days on Super Friends to the comics and the Super Powers action figure. Something about the Gil Kane-designed costume, green light constructions and devil-may-care attitude made GL one of the heavy hitters in my book. Tales of the Green Lantern Corps arrived at just the right time for me, showing Hal Jordan as part of a massive interplanetary force yet uniquely fearless and determined to defeat a threat so great that it could rewrite history.
(If you haven’t read it, pick it up)
When he was revived and brought into comic book prominence thanks to the Sinestro Corps War, I was overjoyed.
When a feature film was announced… I was nervous.
As ‘the comic book guy,’ I’m often the point of reference for this kind of thing. After all, that’s why I started this blog as many of the somewhat obscure hobbies (from super hero movies to cartoons and of course Doctor Who) were becoming relevant to the pop culture elite. Almost immediately I was met with the question ‘who’s Green Lantern?’ and my answer seldom made the situation better. ‘A guy with a magic ring fighting villains as part of an alien police force’ didn’t really make GL’s obscurity any easier to get excited about. Romantic/comic actor Ryan Reynolds getting cast as the lead made my case even flimsier.
Developing an unknown superhero for the big screen is not an automatic flop. Look at what Marvel accomplished with Iron Man to see how it’s done. However, Warner Bros. missed the mark with Green Lantern, which is unfortunate for so many reasons. A mixture of super hero and sci-fi, this flick should have enjoyed an almost universal appeal. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, a sequel is still planned so we have that to look forward to.
Finally out on DVD, Green Lantern has been released as an extended cut on Blu-ray.
Tony ‘G-Man’ Guerrero over at Comic Vine News has provided his own verdict… and it’s mixed.
Green Lantern is making its way to Blu-ray and DVD (as well as a 3D home version). Comic fans looked forward to the movie but it wasn’t quite all that we hoped it would be.
What really got me interested in this release was the fact that it includes an extended cut (not available in 3D or on the DVD). The movie was nearly two hours but a couple of my complaints was Hal’s time on Oa and his learning period before facing Hector for the first time felt too brief. It was my hope that the extended portions would address these issues and the idea of seeing more of Oa was exciting.
After watching the extended version, I almost didn’t notice what had been added. The extended version does run about nine minutes longer. It turns out the extra footage pretty much occurs at the very beginning. We see young Hal at home and sneaking off to see his dad’s test flight (and we know how that ends). A little of this footage was seen in flashbacks when Hal’s jet was about to crash. Seeing the full footage was reminiscent to Geoff Johns’ ‘Secret Origin’ issues.
Many comments I’ve seen about the extended version were questions asking if the extra footage makes the movie better. The answer is, not really. It helps to get a better sense of Hal. It helps you understand why he lives his life so recklessly and it was a nice touch seeing that Hal, Carol and even Hector knew each other since they were kids. The extra footage did not fix the timing issues or moments of silliness with Hector or Parallax. It was good to see but it didn’t completely change the movie. After the incident with Hal’s father, it goes to the present and original beginning of the movie.
Despite being an extended cut (only nine minutes), there were still just over seven minutes of other scenes not used. Some of them are not complete with special effects but there was some scenes with them. The strangest one involves Hector Hammond and one of his hamsters. There’s also a different scene with Hal arriving on Oa asking Sinestro for help on Earth against Parallax (it’s weird seeing the two in their filming suits rather than the shiny glowing ones in the movie), Hal talks to Carol about getting to safety before Parallax arrives and a scene with Hal’s brother and nephew preparing to seek shelter.
Another great move was the inclusion of a digital copy Justice League #1. While it might not be the best introduction for non-comic book readers, the fact that it features the first encounter between Batman and Hal Jordan could be enough to get some to seek out the comics. The comic reader operates similarly to comiXology’s reader but doesn’t fully zoom in on individual panels.
But what do think?
Weigh in with your opinion by leaving a comment.
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