If you’ve followed the career of Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, or you’ve spent more than five minutes watching any of his TV interviews, you’ll know that amongst all of his many, many gags there is one topic he always returns to for a quick joke. That topic is now so common amongst his repertoire, even those who aren’t quite familiar with it, or don’t know how it relates to Reynolds, know it’s a topic he likes to poke fun at.
The subject is of course the 2011 feature film, Green Lantern. Based on the DC Comics character of the same, and directed by Martin Campbell, the film follows the story of Hal Jordan, a pilot who is given an all-powerful extraterrestrial ring and transformed into an intergalactic super hero.
How does this movie connect to Reynolds? Because the popular actor took on the lead role of Jordan in the film, in what was seen at the time as his most prolific role to date.
Prior to the release of Green Lantern, Reynolds had already had a successful career, having led films such as Just Friends (2005), and The Amityville Horror (2005), as well as an appearance as fan-favourite character Wade Wilson/Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), but none of the roles had made him a household name. He was still a few years away from scoring household status, which came with the release of 2016’s Deadpool, so Green Lantern was seen as a big deal for the rising star.
Heck, this was a $200 million Warner Bros. movie, based on a fan-favourite comic book character, which was being released during a huge surge in popularity for comic book movies – things didn’t get much bigger at the time. As far as anyone could tell, if all went well Green Lantern would be Ryan Reynolds’ meal ticket for life.
So, if Green Lantern was a big budget movie, with a built-in fanbase, and it had the potential to be a star vehicle for Ryan Reynolds, why does the actor constantly joke about it? Because the film was a huge flop.
Green Lantern is a continuous source of ridicule for Ryan Reynolds because of how badly the movie performed. Upon release in 2011, Green Lantern was deemed both a critical and commercial failure, and was named as one of the worst movies of the year.
The critical response to Green Lantern was very poor. Professional critics felt the movie was underwhelming and dull, and it did very little to excite or entertain its audience.
Despite having a budget of $200 million, the film didn’t look that good either. Green Lantern was badly lit, making some scenes appear too dark, while the heavy reliance on computer-generated imagery, specifically when it came to alien species and the Green Lantern suits, were not always visually appealing.
The suit ‘worn’ by Ryan Reynolds was particularly bad. The all-CGI suit didn’t sit on his body right and had clearly been added in post production, which created a constant distraction on the big screen.
Suit aside, the casting of Reynolds as Hal Jordan was also cited as being misplaced. While Reynolds did his best in the role, the role itself did nothing for him.
Ryan Reynolds is a comedic actor, yet Green Lantern failed to capitalise on the actor’s comic timing. The film was largely humour-free, any attempts at jokes fell flat, and this made Reynolds’ casting feel odd.
The casting criticism was also something shared by some comic book fans, but the criticism here was for a different reason entirely. The issue for some longtime fans was that Reynolds was cast as the wrong Green Lantern.
In the comics (and as depicted in the movie) there are many characters who bear the name Green Lantern – it is a title given to a collection of heroes who are essentially a space-travelling police force. While Reynolds could work perfectly well as one of the other Lanterns, he didn’t fit the part of Jordan.
Once again, this wasn’t the fault of Ryan Reynolds. Green Lantern featured a decent cast, including a number of familiar faces, and yet everyone’s performance in the movie appeared reserved or completely flat.
Outside of all this, Green Lantern also suffered from an uninspiring story, an uneven tone, and some goofy elements. The story was paper thin, yet at times convoluted, and nothing about the movie suggested any potential sequels would be worth coming back for.
Audiences largely agreed with the critics and many failed to show up to watch the film during its theatrical release. Budgeted at $200 million (which didn’t include marketing costs and other expenses), Green Lantern made around $220 million during its run.
As films are generally expected to make back at least twice the cost of their budget, in order to pay all expenses and put the film into profit, Green Lantern was deemed a box-office bomb. Not only was the film criticised by many who watched it, it also failed to do the numbers, and the combination of the two had an even wider impact.
Prior to its release, Green Lantern was being viewed as potentially the first entry in a DC Comics cinematic universe (one to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Had the film been a huge hit, not only would Green Lantern have spawned a sequel, it would have also paved the way for a whole collection of DC movies starring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, etc.
However, because the film was not well-received, and therefore not strong enough to create the foundations for a whole cinematic universe, Warner Bros. Pictures abandoned those plans. The studio instead pivoted to 2013’s Man of Steel, which became the first entry in the DC Extended Universe, and Green Lantern was cast aside as a stand-alone film with a bad reputation.
It’s fair to say, Green Lantern doesn’t have a great deal going for it, which is why Ryan Reynolds feels the movie is fair game for ridicule. Reynolds is a self-deprecating person, who has no problems talking about his less-than successful work, and as Green Lantern falls into this category he feels it is acceptable to make it a punchline to his jokes.
Fair enough. Few would argue with him.
But would it be fair to say Green Lantern is the worst movie based on a DC Comics character? No – that wouldn’t be a fair statement as there are much worse movies.
Steel (1997), Catwoman (2004), and Jonah Hex (2010) are all worse DC movies than Green Lantern. This doesn’t mean Green Lantern is amazing by comparison, but when put alongside those other DC movies, it’s not quite at the bottom of the list.
The truth is, Green Lantern has now been ridiculed that many times by Reynolds (more than once by the actor in his Deadpool movies), that it will always be seen as a poor film. And of course, it is.
It’s not the worst, but it’s certainly bad. There are few people who will come to its defence.
—
Thank you for stopping by I’ll Get Drive-Thru to read this post about the Batman: The Animated Series. For more posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.
Alex is the editor and writer of I’ll Get Drive-Thru – a blog which specialises in all things related to Batman and DC Comics. After graduating with a degree in film & television studies, Alex studied journalism, before acquiring NCTJ accreditation. Prior to creating I’ll Get Drive-Thru, Alex was a magazine editor, a senior copywriter, and a freelance writer. He is now, and always has been, a Bat-fan!
I'll Get Drive-Thru 
Leave a comment