Nordling here.
GREEN LANTERN wasn't exactly a success this summer, either critically or financially. It had a nice opening weekend, as these movies tend to have, but dropped quickly. My problem with the film wasn't with Ryan Reynolds, but with a story that seemed too grounded when it should have taken flight, and embraced the nature of the material. It wanted to be SPIDER-MAN when it should have been FLASH GORDON.
Now, according to the L.A. Times, Jeff Rubinov says that Warner Brothers is going forward with a sequel, despite the film's failure at the box office: “We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience. To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action.”
I don't think the problem was with the tone of GREEN LANTERN. In fact, I think going darker or edgier would be a mistake with this property. Now, if the story lends itself to those tonal aspects naturally, fine, but Earth played too much of a role in the original film and I think a change of scenery for the new film would work wonders. If they barely go to Earth at all I'd be fine with that. Rubinov adds, "We have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth." I'd rather there be no balance at all, and have Hal Jordan pretty much leave Earth entirely. What say you? Do you think the film was not dark enough, or too Earth-bound?
Nordling, out.
