Green Lantern (2011) / YMMV

Awesome Music: Reviews mostly pan the soundtrack, disappointed in James Newton Howard for making little more than uninteresting background music. Still, We're Going to Fly Now is one great cue for the character Green Lantern.
Broken Base:
- Hal's Adaptational Comic Relief, done by the writers to take advantage of Ryan Reynolds's comedic talents. Some fans love it for making a bland character interesting while others think it was a horrible casting choice.
- The Green Lantern costume. Some fans argued that it being a glowing CGI construct made sense since it's supposed to be created by the ring, while others argued that it looked silly and was a needless waste of CGI. This is exacerbated by Green Lantern's classic comic outfit often being held up as one of the best superhero outfit designs of the Silver Age.
Can't Un-Hear It: Fans like to read Kilowog's lines in the voice of Michael Clarke Duncan.
Cliché Storm: Those who dislike the movie consider it to be this; those who do enjoy it, however, consider it to be a decent film that's very campy and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Critical Backlash: If you read some online reviews like at Amazon.com, a lot of people are saying "I liked the movie, I don't get why the critics absolutely hated it..."
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Kilowog and Tomar-Re were liked despite their small role.
- Most people agree that Sinestro looked great and was written and acted perfectly.
Mis-blamed: For a time, this happened to Ryan Reynolds due to the film's lackluster reception, by none other than the Deadpool fandom; after Green Lantern's release, many fanboys began bashing Reynolds for his acting and decrying how he 'ruined Green Lantern' and would most certainly ruin Deadpool, though Ryan Reynolds' acting was one of the few things fans and critics liked in the film. You'd think they wouldn't have needed to worry considering Reynolds had been previously praised for being perfect for Deadpool, but apparently some people had short memories. Fortunately for everyone involved, Reynolds performance in Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 was received with near-universal acclaim, with most fans hoping that Reynolds will continue to play the character until he is no longer physically capable of such.
Moral Event Horizon: When Hector Hammond turns two giant flamethrowers on a US Senator and roasts him alive. To make it worse, the senator is his father.
Nightmare Fuel: Parallax arriving to Earth and consuming the souls of probably thousands of people in Coast City. We get a good look at him doing this to some of his victims runaway, but a later shot shows his tendrils enveloping entire buildings.
Questionable Casting:
- Tim Robbins and Peter Sarsgaard play father and son, respectively. The apparent age difference is minimal (they are 13 years apart in real life) and have no family resemblance.
- Blake Lively being cast as a character who is supposed to be an incredibly adept pilot and vice president of a company; despite being only 24 years old at the time of filming.
Retroactive Recognition: Even though he was well known in his native New Zealand, the actor who played Thomas Kalmaku was Taika Waititi, who would later become known among Americans as the director of Thor: Ragnarok and actor of Korg, which is quite ironic considering how Green Lantern was dueling with Thor.
Rooting for the Empire:
- The hero is a lazy, irresponsible, egotistical jerkass who never really has to work for his powers, and the villain, a smart, responsible, shy man who's been bullied by his father his entire life. Things get ridiculous when you take into account that the hero becomes more responsible and down-to-earth while the villain goes Ax-Crazy and murders his own father.
- Then there's the other guy, the guy meant to be the villain in the sequel that will never be, who is presented as basically being a strong, noble man trying to do what is right, making sure justice is done to the memory of his best friend, and having a crisis of faith in the Corps that he has spent so much of his life serving in.
Signature Scene: Carol figuring out Hal is Green Lantern is the most remembered part of the movie.
So Okay, It's Average: What most fans and the average cinema-goer seemed to think of it. It was seen as the weakest superhero film in the post-Nolan, MCU-Phase 1 era.
Special Effect Failure:
- Noticeable CG is used with the Lantern uniform and constructs.
- All the introductory scenes look ridiculously fake, and there are plenty of times during Hal's training on Oa where it's inescapably obvious that you're watching Ryan Reynolds' head in front of a green screen. Plus, every scene with Sinestro, or any of the aliens actually. Tomar-Re and Parallax look like they stepped out of the video game tie-in.
Tainted by the Preview:
- Many fans were not encouraged by the trailers, partly due to the special effects being underwhelming and also due to the Iron Man vibe.
- This was actually acknowledged by some people in the industry, the first teaser trailer was very underwhelming because they had very few completed special effects to work with. Thus the initial impression made it seem more like a sitcom than a genuine superhero movie. While the later trailers, were much more impressive, it came across as too little too late.
- Probably the biggest problem with the trailers though is just how much they spoiled several plot points, including the fate of one of the villains.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A daredevil test pilot is unexpectedly inducted into a galaxy-wide Space Police force after being given the ring of a fallen officer, and has to solve the mystery of his death while uncovering a conspiracy that could threaten the entire universe. Sounds like The Last Starfighter meets Lethal Weapon. Shame the film does basically nothing with this set-up and spends almost the entire runtime on Earth dealing with a painfully by-the-numbers romance and supervillain origin story.
Uncertain Audience: A common criticism leveled at the film is that it tried to find a middle ground between being targeted towards comics fans and general audiences and ended up pushing both of them away. It's too nerdy for general audiences and not nerdy enough for existing fans.
WTH, Costuming Department?: The CGI Green Lantern uniforms proved to be pretty divisive among fans.

YMMV / Green Lantern (2011)

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