Over the weekend I got a chance to check out the Blu Ray Combo Pack of Green Lantern (Extended Cut). The Blu ray is packed with extras and provides good value for money to the comic book fan.
I feel like the movie kind of got an unfair review when it was in theatres. It is pretty good. It is not a perfect superhero movie, but it has a cogent story, solid special effects, and Mark Strong as Sinestro. GL purists might find bits to disagree with, but it is always difficult to distil 20 years of comic history into a 2 hour movie. The movie is also way, way better in 2D. The 3D release of the movie was tacked-on, horrific, and did nothing to enhance the experience. I am convinced that part of the poor reviews in the theatre came from forced 3D viewing. Note to studios: stop making 3D movies.
The extended cut adds some nice, but quite unnecessary, footage about Hal’s youth to the front end of the movie. The thing is that all the important parts of the extra scenes are actually shown in flashback later on anyway, so it becomes a bit of an exercise in redundancy. The extra footage is not the reason to give this flick a place on your shelf as there are still plenty of goodies on the disc.
The combo pack gives you the Blu ray, a DVD copy, and a digital copy so you can have one at home to watch, one in the family vehicle, and one on the go on your mobile device. The Blu ray is jam-packed with short documentaries on the making of the film, the special effects, costume design, and you also get to hear Ryan Reynolds talk about being GL. For me the best extra was a 20 minute documentary on the publication history of Green Lantern containing interviews with Geoff Johns, Denny O’Neil, Dan Jurgens, Dan Didio and others. Some very interesting tidbits about why certain editorial choices were made.
A copy of the new JLA #1 can be viewed on the disc and there is a code to download a Sinestro Corp costume for Batman in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City video game for the PS3.
Green Lantern is space opera eye-candy; a fun story to watch with your kids. This wasn’t a grim and gritty adaptation and didn’t need to be. Hal Jordan is a space-cop with holodeck in ring form. Anyone who went to the movie expecting it to be like The Dark Knight was doomed to disappointment.
The Blu Ray Combo pack is a solid deal for any GL fan and a good way to introduce younger readers to the character. If you wrote this film off this summer you may want to give it a second chance at home.
I agree with you about taking the family to see Green Lantern. I am getting tired of movies getting the “Dark Knight” treatment.
Super Hero movies don’t have to be dark and gritty to be good.
The perfect examples of this are Thor, Captain America and Iron Man. Marvel is making movies right. Something for everyone.
If a movie is too dark and gritty my kids may not be interested in it, or I’ll be judged by the people sitting around us for bringing my kids to something inappropriate.
Sure Dark Knight was successful but that isn’t neccesarily a good thing. Batman is dark and gritty. Having a realistic, grim story works for it. But do we need to see Superman or Spider-Man as dark and grim? No. Superman and Spider-Man are colourful stories with fantastic stories. It doesn’t have to be realistic.
I hope there is a sequel to GL, but the future looks bleak for another picture.
I agree with you on the fact that studios need to stop making 3d movies. It’s terrible and sometimes makes the movie less enjoyable (like GL).