Green Lantern – Too much yet too little.

Green Lantern is a summer tent-pole film from Warner Brothers based on DC comics character of the same name. I got a chance to catch an early preview tonight. The film is directed by Martin Campbell who was responsible for successful reboot of James Bond character in Casino Royale. As much as he was successful in rebooting Casino Royale he failed terribly in Green Lantern. To be euphemistic the film is a mess from start to finish. There is so much happening in the film and yet I could not relate to any of the Green Lantern’s cause / crusade even if he wants to save the earth (By that time I just wanted the damn film to finish). The film failed on multiple levels but the weakest link is screenplay. It was terrible for $200 million dollar film. There was so much plot and yet film felt so hollow in emotionality that it just failed to capture my interest. I am not trying to be self-aggrandizing here and talking the talk of a named critic but comic book filmmakers need to put more heart and soul in their films rather than VFX wizardry.

From acting standpoint everybody played their part perfectly (as expected). Although I never really understood why studio always want big name actors for even smaller parts in the comic book films. Ryan Reynolds looked pretty good albeit goofy at times. Somehow whenever I see him I always think of Van Wilder and Harold and Kumar goes to white castle. It was hard for me to think of him as an action hero. Blake Lively looked like as she always do – hot and pretty :). There was no need for Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins to be there in the film. Yet they were there and they played perfectly whatever they were playing in the film.

One of my major gripe with the film is 3D. For some reason the physical structure of characters looked CGI to me in the 3D. It may be a side effect of watching in 3D. Since there were quiet a few scenes in space so I guess studio thought 3D might be the best way to project this film.

Dialogs were way too bad and awful. The screenwriters did pretty bad job in that department. There were way too many plot-holes. As I said earlier too much plot is condensed in a two hour film. Bad story could be problem with a source material. But my personal belief is that superhero “inception” stories should be kept simple and should focus more on character development and less on litany of villains. Once you establish audience’s interest in inception stories the risk of early death of franchise is mitigated. But as often is the case Hollywood decision makers are MBAs and not MFAs.

In very first post of my blog I mentioned my strong dislike for comic book films. After more than a year I think that opinion is even more stronger now. I believe the day is not far when Hollywood will abandon comic book films altogether. At least there is no harm in dreaming.

Final Score: C- (that too because I didn’t pay for the ticket, otherwise D).

Iron Man 2 and the Invasion of Comic book heroes

I love movies. I really do. But the whole comic book craze is just becoming too much. Some may argue that the main objective of a film is entertainment which is undeniably true. The problem is not with Iron Man (1 or 2) but with the aftermath. Trouble is for every Iron Man there will be hundreds of comic book casualties. If you look at what’s coming in the future you’ll know what I mean:

• Jonah Hex
• Avengers
• Green Lantern
• GI Joe 2 (Even though the first one was fucking awful)
• Thor
• Captain America
• Reboot of Spiderman
• Reboot of Fantastic four
• Multiple movies from X-Men universe
• Ghostrider reboot
• …and god knows what else

Big question is what’s wrong with comic book adaptation. Afterall it passes all the necessary checks:

• Girls — check
• Explosions — check
• Exotic Locale — check.
• Bad-ass (yet funny) villains – check
• Oh! PG-13 rating — double check.

How can anybody go wrong with that. Studios happy, stars happy, audience happy and critics? Well, who gives fuck about them (remember Roger Ebert v/s Transformers 2).

 

So why am I sulking?

My wife loved it (OK! That’s not the reason I am sulking).

I think in all these comic book craze we forget one thing which is intelligent story telling. Comic book movies are good but they have some basic flaws:

• Generic storytelling
• Generic character arc
• Run-of-the-mill antagonist

Generic storytelling follows predictable plot points. If screenwriter is deft then s/he will try to squeeze surprises (Dark Knight for example).

 

Comic books are meant for children (duh!). The story needs to be simple but this simplicity doesn’t translate well with mature audience. Problem is if screenwriter deviates too much from the comic storyline then fanboys will cry foul.

As a film lover what I am scared of is that this craze is only going to rise.

I haven’t found a single person who enjoyed “There will be blood” (Not that it’s the greatest movie ever) except film students.

Roman Polanski in his Chinatown interview said “I love anti-climax and I want people to discuss my movies at the dinner table”. Well good luck Mr Polanski I hope that time comes back again.