Every Monday morning, InsidePulse Movies Czar Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings an irreverent and oftentimes hilarious look at pop culture, politics, sports and whatever else comes to mind. And sometimes he writes about movies.
One of the things that intrigued me last week was tales of the “new” direction of Green Lantern, or to be more proper the sequels to that film. It’s going to be more “edgy” and “dark” than Green Lantern was for the sequel, the convenient excuse for its underperformance at the box office both domestically and internationally. And that’s an understatement, at least based off the $200 million budget and roughly $100 million publicity and advertising budget resulting in the film so far grossing about $150 million between domestic and international box office receipts. Most likely the film will recoup its budgets once it’s on more screens internationally, at least that’s the plan from the studio’s eyes one imagines. It’s easy to see why they want to go more “dark” and “edgy” for a sequel. And the next step is simple:
They’re going to watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight enough times until they can figure out how they can rip off both films wholesale for Green Lantern 2: Because We Need A $200 Million Tax Write Off comes out in 2013.
One ring to rule them all
Everyone wants to go dark now because it worked with two films, not because it worked with a character that works with darker material. They want to imitate Christopher Nolan’s Batman films until they figure out how to do it with a guy in green tights, pure and simple, which is why everyone wants to go “dark” and “edgy” in the genre. Nolan made a ton of money and got accolades of critical and professional respect for both of his Batman films and Hollywood’s always been an industry that duplicates successful work en masse. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and we’re going to get a Green Lantern that’s moody and full of angst in the sequel. And it’s a shame, really. Why?
Because you have the absolute wrong actor as Hal Jordan in Ryan Reynolds, who doesn’t do angst well, and the film needs to go the opposite direction of “dark” and “edgy.”
Change it a Lantern and you’ve got the next poster
I’ve always made it clear that I have no massive well of knowledge regarding comic books and their characters, and will plead ignorance when it comes to them, but the thing that Ryan Reynolds brings to the Green Lantern character is two-fold.
The first is that he looks like a superhero; the guy has the good looks and tremendous physique that comic book heroes are known for. That’s a must have in the genre, as Jack Black isn’t going to be playing Captain Marvel without dropping 80 lbs. and injecting enough steroids to make Tom Hardys’ back-acne look insignificant by comparison. Reynolds looks like a star and has the charisma of a star but has never had the star vehicle to make him a movie star and not just the guy who used to bone Scarlett Johannson. Green Lantern was supposed to be it but has underperformed in significant ways.
The other thing with Ryan Reynolds as an actor is that he’s naturally a funny guy. He started out in sit-coms and has always had the ability to deliver a good line and make it gold. Reynolds has all the tools to be a top line actor but just hasn’t made that final jump so far. And it’s a shame because I’d like to think that Reynolds could’ve brought much more to Green Lantern than he wound up.
A much better way of using Ryan Reynolds
He always looks like he’s having fun when he’s at the top of his game in a comedy. There’s sheer unbridled fun in his eyes at times. And you’d think Green Lantern would’ve taken advantage of that; it was that missing gear I though Reynolds never had when I wrote the review of it. The film never really gives us the thrill of flight that a guy must have when he becomes a test pilot; the film would’ve been different from the entire genre if Hal Jordan is this goofball who has a plethora of one-liners on call and is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. It comes down to Hal Jordan being pushed into a little box labeled “hero” and not allowing him to take some of the tools that make him an intriguing actor to start with.
Reynolds is that guy at a party who’s really good-looking and all the girls swoon over him but no one hates for him it. He’s the cool guy to hang out with who has a dirty joke about a nun with dysentery that kills every audience. When he announced a marriage to Scarlett it wasn’t “is she really going out with him” from everyone. It was “good job, man” because he’s the kind of really good-looking cat you want to succeed. He’s likeable and the type of person you don’t delete from your mobile because you never know when you might need a pick me up. He’s not the moody loner in the corner, looking on with disgust at everyone, and that’s what my guess is how Green Lantern will be “darkened” and “edged up” for the sequel. And it’s a shame.
No reason for this to be here. Just with all this darkness, sometimes you need to break up the monotony
Having that sort of ability to create things with your mind doesn’t seem as much fun for Hal as you’d think it could be; a hero just enthralled and having fun with his powers is something we really haven’t seen. There was a brief moment in the film, too, when you saw a glimpse of that. When Hal first flies on Oa, there’s this look of absolute ecstasy in his eyes as he’s having fun flying without needing a plane. It’s kind of magical, the brief moment, and a film with that Hal Jordan would’ve been a lot better.It’d be like giving a hyperactive toddler an assault rifle; you’re not sure what’s going to happen but you sure as hell know you won’t be able to take your eyes off it.
And you’d think with an actor like Reynolds you’d be able to do that.
Ryan Reynolds with dramatic heft puts him in position to fail and I don’t think there was a good way to get around that. It would take some balls for everyone to make the series much lighter and more fun, to go in a different direction that everyone else is going. But angst is easier because there’s the template available and Hollywood doesn’t have the stones to go in any direction that hasn’t been shown to already be profitable elsewhere. So instead Green Lantern 2 will be all dark and moody, trying to be the sci-fi version of The Dark Knight.
A good villain couldn’t hurt a Green Lantern sequel
It’ll also fail, too, and be the next film after The Amazing Spider-Man that people point to as a failure of the genre to be engaging material that brings in audiences. And I kept thinking about all of this and one thought came to mind: What kind of plot line could we have for Green Lantern 2 that’s “dark” and “edgy” but also maintains the plot integrity of the first while utilizing the talent in that film?
Satisfying those criteria, my guess is that Martin Campbell isn’t going to be brought back for the sequel. There has to be a scapegoat and it won’t be Reynolds; Hollywood is weird this way. By bringing in a new director we can move in a darker direction with the character. Hollywood works that way and as such a new director could bring out the darkness. Throw in some new, “creative” casting in roles and you could do a reboot sequel like The Incredible Hulk and not miss a beat.
Welcome to Kubryk’s Top 10 Ways to Give Green Lantern 2 a Dark Edge
10. Green Lantern 2: Training Day
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Plot: Hal Jordan may have saved the world from the evils of Parallax but his training wasn’t complete. Sinestro (Mark Strong) assigns the rookie Green Lantern to shadow a rogue Green Lantern (Denzel Washington) to learn the ropes in the toughest inner-city environment in the universe: Los Angeles, California.
9. Green Lantern 2: Graphic Head Shot
Director: Martin Scorsese
Plot: Going undercover to infiltrate the evil Yellow Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan is surprised to learn that the Yellow Corps Leader Sinestero (Jack Nicholson) has planted an informant within Hal’s own Green Lantern Corps (Chris Evans). When both men realize the situation, it’s a race to figure out the other’s true identity before their cover is blown and many people die of bullets from pistols at close range.
8. The Green Lantern Falls
Director: Christopher Nolan
Plot: Just like The Dark Knight Rises, but with a guy in green tights instead of black ones.
7. The Lawn People Attack: A Green Lantern film
Director: Clint Eastwood
Plot: Hal Jordan has long since retired his post as a Green Lantern, going into retirement in a quiet suburb. But when Koreans won’t get off his lawn, it’s up to the older hero to find a way to defeat his enemies without his legendary powers.
6. Green Lantern 2: Sinestro’s Family Reunion
Director: Tyler Perry
Plot: While planning his family reunion, pistol-packing grannie Sinestro (Tyler Perry in drag) must contend with other dramas on his plate, including a GLC runaway entrusted to his care and his troubled protégé Hal Jordan. Rick Fox has a cameo as a mustache-twirling villain whose secret power is being crappier at acting than he is at basketball.
5. Green Watch
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Plot: Hal Jordan gets caught up in the battle between the Green Lanterns and Yellow Lanterns that control day and night time.
4. The Man with the Lantern of Green
Director: David Fincher
Plot: Test pilot turned journalist Hal Jordan is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by a young computer hacker (Noomi Rapace).
3. Another Green Lantern
Director: Walter Hill
Plot: Hal Jordan thought he destroyed Parallax. But when he winds up facing expulsion from the Green Lantern Corps on manslaughter charges for something that looks like Parallax destroying a planet, he turns to former jailbird and newly released reformed citizen Sinestro (Eddie Murphy) to help him clear his name and track down the mysterious new monster on the prowl.
2. The Lantern
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Plot: Faded from the limelight by other, better superheroes, Hal Jordan looks to retire from the GLC and find a new life. His quest after the taking off the ring permanently leaves him in a dispiriting struggle with an aging stripper (Kim Kardashian) dealing with similar issues.
1. Green Lantern Returns
Director: Tim Burton
Plot: When a mustache-twirling, corrupt businessman (Johnny Depp) and the grotesque Black Hand (Tyler Perry, again in drag) plot to take control of Earth, only the power of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern can stop them. Meanwhile, Star Sapphire (Blake Lively) gives every 13 year old boy a pant-busting crush.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s DVD – Defiance
A film that came and went from theatres pretty quickly in 2008, released the last week of the year as it was an awards season film that failed to garner any awards of note other than Best Original Score, Defiance is a rare film involving Jews in World War 2 that isn’t a Holocaust film. One of lesser note is Defiance, which is about the Bielski partisans.
Who were they? They were a bunch of Polish Jews who raised an army and fought the Nazis in what are now the Belarusian forests. Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron were the only survivors after their family was killed by Nazis. Taking revenge and putting a target on their hand by the Nazis, the Bielski brothers went from being a small group of outlaws to being a small army. Why?
People came to them in the forests where they hid from the law, wanting to fight against the Nazis instead of facing certain death in the Ghettos.
You’d think the Academy would’ve been all over this. Normally World War 2 films are Oscar bait during this time of year and films involving the Holocaust are like crack to a junkie. And yet this didn’t for some reason. In retrospect it’s easy to see why. It’s in the bad attempt at Polish accents that kills it. I like everyone involved but no one really knows how to pull off a proper Polish accent; instead we’re treated to a hodgepodge of remarkably awfully generic Eastern European accents. You’d think this was a ‘80s action flick instead of a period war piece. But it’s got a great setup that sucks you in, despite the misadventures in accent use.
Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell and Live Schreiber are the three main brothers (with some child actor playing Aron). Craig is Tuvia, the leader of the partisan group through circumstance as opposed to desire. His younger brother Zus (Schreiber) really wants to kill Nazis after the deaths of their family, irritated because Tuvia is the one that ends up summarily executing the officer who killed their family. Asael (Bell) is stuck between them. On the one he wants to go off with Zus, who winds up with the Soviet army for a while. On the other he wants to be close to Tuvia. As the two go on their separate ways, and back together for a variety of missions, the film is about maintaining your humanity when all else is lost.
That’s the theme as the brothers have to maintain their humanity when they’re being hunted like animals. Stuck in the forest, it becomes a fight for survival that’ll change everything they know about one another. It’s a good little film that tells a valuable story about World War 2 that hasn’t been told before.
Recommended.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Bass Ale and community college co-eds with low standards at the Alumni Club
30 Minutes or Less – Jesse Eisenberg is a stoner pizza delivery guy who is forced to rob a bank.
See It – Eisenberg seems to have found a comfortable relationship with Rueben Fleischer. They were great in Zombieland with Eisenberg in a similar role and I can’t see this film being obnoxiously bad. It has enough guys who are excellent in supporting roles but not as good in main roles to make it excellent.
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie – More singing and dancing, apparently.
Skip It – The fact that this is a film shows how far talent has fallen in the music industry.
Final Destination 5 – More teenagers try to cheat death and fail.
Skip It – Here’s a spoiler: they all die. It’s not that I’ve seen the film but it happened in the previous four and I don’t think it’ll change this time.
The Help – Emma Stone writes a book about ‘60s era housekeepers and their dirty laundry.
See It – Emma Stone can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.
Sex and Zen 3D: Extreme Ecstasy – China beats America to it with 3D porn in a theatre. In limited release.
See It – It’s 3D porn … in a movie theatre! I’m not a big porn guy but it’s in 3D PORN in a MOVIE THEATRE. You won’t get this opportunity again … maybe ever.
Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @MMCritic_Kubryk.
