Critics Don’t Much Like ‘Green Lantern,’ Just As You’d Expect
With so much talk circulating about the reported $300 million price tag to make and advertise "Green Lantern," Warner Bros. would no doubt like to at least have critics on their side to help promote a movie that stars a lesser-known comic book hero. As one such critic, Variety's Justin Chang, points out, "More than usual for this type of megabudget fare, the studio will rely on favorable reviews and word of mouth to counteract negative buzz that has persisted since the release of the film's first trailer in November." But if the initial reviews are any indication, the studio isn't going to be that lucky.
Chang is most succinct at summing up the early reviewers' feelings: "Starring a ripped, wisecracking Ryan Reynolds as the greenest member of a mighty intergalactic league of superheroes, helmer Martin Campbell's visually lavish sci-fi adventure is a highly unstable alloy of the serious, the goofy and the downright derivative." Actually, he's much kinder about it than others. Writing for The Village Voice, Karina Longworth was so bored she started grasping at whatever entertaining thing she could find, finally settling on Reynolds' chiseled physique. "As he breathes in and out in the skin-tight, digitally enhanced Lantern suit," she writes, "each abdominal muscle seems to pulse independently. It's transfixing -- and the closest Green Lantern gets to character detail."
In case you're convinced that these are just the opinions of high-minded snobs, the more fanboy-friendly critics weren't any kinder. After mentioning how much his two sons are excited for "Green Lantern," HitFix's Drew McWeeny admits that the movie is "pretty much inert, artificial and dead on arrival." But even more troubling for Warners, McWeeny thinks it's too dark for his kids:
The movie in general appears to be written for eight-year-olds, which is appropriate, and a smart move. But Parallax and Hector Hammond, the villains of the film, seem to be in a different film, a much more inappropriate film about a giant weird turd cloud with the head of the Wizard Of Oz that sucks the skeletons out of people before they explode, and his human assistant who grows a disgusting Elephant Man head in scenes where he screams in pain and writhes on the floor like it's a David Cronenberg film.
That could be a major problem. Sure, fine, critics don't like a summer superhero movie: That's not exactly a revelation. But studios really don't like the word getting out that a film might be too scary. That happens and then parents have an excuse not to take their tykes to the film. A bad movie, parents don't have an issue with, but if it's gonna give Tommy nightmares for months, then they're unhappy. It sounds like Warners' nightmares are just beginning.
