I just want to start off by saying this as loudly and clearly as I can so everyone understands. I do not hate Marvel. In point of fact, I love Marvel almost as much as I do DC. My number one favorite Superhero is Green Lantern… followed closely by Captain America. I love both companies on an almost equal level and would never, in a million years, wish misfortune upon one or the other.
That being said, it’s hard not to be just a little bit jealous and resentful of Marvel right now. Speaking purely as a DC fan (and this is painful to admit so please don’t grind our faces in it, Marvel guys) deep down we know full well we are getting the ever-loving sh** kicked out of us at the box office by the guys across the street. Not just in overall quality, but also in quantity. The fact that Marvel is punching out three times as many CBMs in the past year alone is proof of that. While Marvel fans can absorb a mediocre Xmen film or an average Thor movie because they know they have a shmorgasbord of other options and future developments to lean on/look forward to, DC fans are continually left in the dark when it comes to their own company’s lackluster motivation to “rival” their rivals.
Make no mistake… Green Lantern was the ONLY thing us DC fans had to look forward to this year. It was to be our shining moment. Our laurel to rest on. An assurance that DC may have been late to the party, but was gradually catching up to Marvel. The first sign that DC was willing to go out on a limb for its superhero properties other than Superman and Batman. The fact that it was pretty much all DC had to offer in 2011 made it that much more crucial. That much more important to all of us. Marvel could afford to swing and miss on Thor because they still had another X-Men and, of course, Captain America to fall back on.
Green Lantern needed to be OUTSTANDING to win the year. And, of course… it wasn’t.
Oh, it was still an enjoyable movie from the standpoint that it was fun to watch, it was something different, the acting was decent, and it catered to the pure-blooded fanboy’s basic requirements for a good CBM.
But Green Lantern needed to be more than that. It’s true. No one can deny this. Green Lantern needed to be spectacular in the same way that Star Wars was spectacular. It needed to be DC’s “Iron Man.” It NEEDED to be all these things because if it wasn’t, Warner Brothers was very likely going to retreat back into their comfortable shell of “same-old, same-old,” because that’s how WB got rich… by NOT taking risks; by NOT experimenting with new concepts; by NOT pushing the envelope on ideas that other companies hadn’t done. There’s a reason WB has pushed ONLY Superman and Batman for the past thirty years… Because Superman and Batman are ALL DC HAS that’s guaranteed to be familiar with the vast majority of people and that everyone can identify with.
But here’s the problem… Marvel only had Captain America and Spiderman as their guaranteed moneymakers. But did that stop Marvel? No! Marvel went out and pushed Fantastic Four. They pushed the X-Men. They pushed Iron Man and the Hulk and Thor. And next Summer, they are DAMN SKIPPY gonna push The Avengers, come hell or high water! And why?! Because Marvel is willing to take risks and put themselves out on a limb. And they have the backing of a company now (Disney), that’s willing to shell out the dough and the support Marvel needs to accomplish this mission! Warner Brothers… is not going to do this for DC!!!! And what’s even more galling to me personally (I can’t speak for all of us DC fans), is that DC DOESN’T EVEN SEEM TO WANT TO PUSH THE ENVELOPE THEMSELVES!!!!!!!!!!
You want to know what I thought about Green Lantern? I’ll describe it in a single word: SAFE!
It was a movie one would expect from a studio determined not to rock the boat. Average acting, average special effects, less than average musical score, horrible editing, very well written, and average action scenes. Overall, I’d give Green Lantern maybe a B+.
For any other movie, hell, for any other SUPERHERO movie, that would have been fine to leave the theater with. But here’s why it’s a problem for Green Lantern:
A) Green Lantern is a wholly unique Superhero archetype that literally has no counterpart in any other comic book company! Green Lantern fights crime by wielding a ring that creates solid constructs made from pure energy, generated by nothing more than the nebulous emotion called willpower, and the power of the imagination! Seriously!!! Can you think of any other Superhero in the industry that fights evil with the power of his IMAGINATION?!!!
B) Green Lantern was the first “outside-the-box” film for DC in that it was the first feature-length film not to star Superman or Batman, or anyone connected to the two (and yes, I consider Superwoman connected to Superman). And yes, I know, Watchmen and V for Vendetta were TECHNICALLY DC, but they just as technically WEREN’T and those films should be treated as separate cases.
C) Green Lantern had an opportunity to be DC’s “Spiderman,” in that, back in 2002, Sam Raimi’s version of Spiderman is pretty obviously the point at which Marvel looked at the film industry as a way to further push their product and potentially indoctrinate new fans from the general population. I mean, just look at the before and after of Spiderman. Before Spiderman, Marvel was practically a non-entity in the movie industry. After Spiderman, Marvel EXPLODED into movie theatres with multiple films and versions of most of their major superhero titles. Even if the majority of those films could be generally considered TERRIBLE, the fact that they did it and didn’t get discouraged by failure is a laudable quality for Marvel.
But Spiderman only became the launching point for Marvel’s modern movie industry because it was an EXCELLENT FILM! It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t average. It wasn’t merely good. It was EXCELLENT!! And because it excelled, it made a lot of money. It set records at the box office. And money, more than anything else, is what motivated Marvel to tap into this new market.
Green Lantern needed to be just like this! It needed to be EXCELLENT!! And that’s the problem! Not a single DC fan here who is marginally realistic can look at Green Lantern and say it was an EXCELLENT film! At best it was merely “good.” But in an industry that is increasingly being cornered and monopolized by Marvel, “good” just ain’t good enough! If Green Lantern flops, we all know what’s going to happen. Warner Brothers is going to give up on experimentation and tell DC “look, we gave it a try with Green Lantern, but people just aren’t interested in heroes other than Superman and Batman.”
AND THAT’S F***ING BULLSH**!!!!!! You know it! I know it! We ALL know it!! People would be interested in other superheroes besides Superman and Batman if only DC and WB took the time to create compelling movies portraying these second-tier heroes. We know this because Marvel did the same thing with Iron Man and The Hulk and it worked! But that’s not what the box office will reflect. That’s not what the awards season will reflect. That’s certainly not what the critical reviews and popular ratings reflect! By simply producing a “good” Green Lantern film and not an “excellent” one, DC has FAILED… EPICALLY!!! Frankly it’ll be a f***ing miracle at this point if we ever see The Flash, or Wonder Woman, or Justice League on the big screen, because the film that was supposed to pave the way for those secondary markets did not deliver as promised!
I’m so bitter right now. I’ve never been this horribly let-down by a good movie in my entire life. I’ve been let down plenty by horrible or average movies, but never by a good one. I really have no words to express how bitterly disappointed I am. Maybe it’s because I’ve literally waited my entire life to see Green Lantern in the movie theatre and now it feels like the last twenty years have been a waste. Maybe it’s because I wanted to see DC become a worthy rival to Marvel in Hollywood. Maybe it’s because I wanted to stick it to the d**chebag Marvelites who take personal satisfaction in the misery of DC fans for no other reason than that they’re losers. Maybe it’s a combination of all three. Maybe it’s something else I just can’t quite grasp.
But when my best friend, who is not a comic book fan and probably never will be, walked out of the theater next to me and simply shrugged his shoulders and wobbled his hand in that way one says “meh, it wasn’t terrible” without putting it in words, I was CRUSHED. Because I felt the same way. I couldn’t dispute him. And because, like every other disappointed Green Lantern fan tonight, I needed this to be DC’s big debut…
And it wasn’t……..