Category Archives: What they said…
What they said about…Green Lantern
I haven’t done this feature as often as I would have liked (once!) but on both occassions the film in question has managed to disappoint critics. Will Green Lantern follow the same trajectory as Sucker Punch and crash and burn in cinemas? Probably not, it’s been heavily marketed and that usually means that the opening weekend will be respectable (apparently it’s on track to gross $58 million in the US). The true test will come in the following weeks, if word of mouth is as bad as critics’ take on the film then I can’t see it being one of the top grossers of the summer. Warner Bros will be expecting this one to at least make its budget back (somewhere between $150 to $200 million).
I’ve mentioned Green Lantern a few times and was hoping the Martin Campbell who directed Casino Royale and The Mask of Zorro would turn up. I guess he didn’t. I’ll be going to see it (my friend seems to be excited by it), so I’ll be able to give my own opinion on it soon enough.
Here’s a few quotes from a sample of reviews:
Martin Campbell made Zorro and Bond work as contemporary heroes, but doesn’t quite have the feel for poor old Hal Jordan. Green Lantern is dazzling in pieces, but we’ve seen too many sharper versions of the superhero origin story in the last few years. It’s not Jonah Hex, but the battery runs low too quickly.
Read more at Empire
Muscular, well-cast launch of a proposed new franchise can’t help but replay a lot of familiar notes.
Read more at THR
At this point the best I can hope for is that the movie makes enough to warrant a sequel and somebody else can come in and make a good Green Lantern film using the excellent existing elements.
Read more at BadAss Digest
In a summer stuffed with superheroes, this underwhelming offering will likely leave you jaded. How it could have used some of Thor’s charm and The Green Hornet’s chutzpah.
It’s not entirely Green Lantern’s fault that it’s the third superhero film to hit theaters in the last two months, or the 30th or so in the last decade, but at this point in the genre the same old origin story simply isn’t enough. Instead of being bold with Green Lantern’s out-there source material, Campbell and company have reverted to the tiresome, too-familiar mean.
Read more at Cinema Blend
Campbell’s successful re-booting of the James Bond franchise in Casino Royale may just have been the thing that helped greenlight Hal Jordan and his inter-galactic friends. He brings the same ‘less frills, more thrills’ approach to bear here.
Read more at Den of Geek
There are movies willed to life by the passion of their creators, and there are movies like Green Lantern, which are willed to life strictly by market forces.
Read more at The AV Club
I have no idea how Green Lantern purists will react, but the film as it is remains a weird combination of ghee-whiz kid-friendly superhero antics and truly disturbing horror elements. That the film is not quite the triumph we wanted may be tragic. That the film as it stands works at all may qualify as a miracle.
Read more at Mendelson’s Memo’s
Not quite the mammoth disaster that some are labelling it, nevertheless, Green Lantern is a big disappointment and has to rely constantly on its star to make things work and compensate for a weak script and a director who is clearly ill at ease with CGI. Reynolds should use that magic ring of his to summon up a new agent who is capable of finding him a big-screen role (and potential franchise) worthy of his talents
Read more at HeyUGuys
And I thought the film had a singular identity in a genre flooded with derivation, which is no small feat.
For me, it’s great summer fun.
Read more at InContention
What they said about…Sucker Punch
Sucker Punch comes out in UK theatres this week and as I haven’t been able to snag any preview tickets from any websites online I probably won’t watch it until the weekend or probably even next week. The picture debuted to $19.1 million bow at the US Box Office but what’s more surprising for the Zack Snyder pic is the strong reaction against the film highlighting its lack of cohesion, any sense of investment, character and generally dissolving into a mash of a teenage boys wet dream. The word seems to be an ambitious, visually striking film that fails as a story. I’d hold off from commenting but I’d say I was not expecting this level of vitriol, even for a Snyder film and I’ve never thought that he was an especially talented filmmaker when it come to story (or restraint).
Here’s a some choice quotes from a few reviews:
Brad Brevet – RopeofSilicon
Sucker Punch is Snyder’s barely legal wet dream. It’s a film with the vision of a teen boy excited by the Victoria’s Secret catalog and confused by his burgeoning sexuality.
Read More:http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/movie-review-sucker-punch-2011
Joshua Starnes – ComingSoon.net
Like pornography, “Sucker Punch” is the type of film you fast forward through the boring story parts to get to the good stuff. If that works for you, more power to you. For anyone who needs the vaguest whiff of substance, “Sucker Punch” is not for you.
I walked out of this movie in a state of depression. Depressed that so much technical bravura could be thrown away. Depressed that someone mistook this empty, nihilistic sketch for a substantive and meaningful project. Depressed that I had been bamboozled into paying $10 to be subjected to it. At least, however, I understood the meaning of the title. I had been sucker punched.
After Watchmen, which I’m almost certain was ‘quite good’, there were hopes that he’d matured into a director capable of more than fanboy pandering and macho posturing. Instead, it appears he’s regressed into a twelve year old boy discovering masturbation for the first time. And this twelve year old boy has $82 million and Emily Browning in a schoolgirl costume.
Little more than a sizzle-reel for Zack Snyder’s wettest dreams, what it lacks in consistency it makes up for in chutzpah. Just imagine if it had a decent story…Read more: Sucker Punch review | TotalFilm.com
The movie is like an arrested adolescent’s Google search run amok.
But because they’re figments of a girl’s imagination, nothing is at stake, resulting in minimal suspense or rooting interest.
Ambitious and visually impressive as a pop-video mash-up, but, lacking a strong emotional core, it doesn’t quite cohere as a fully satisfying movie.
