Where I Lose Even More Faith in the Green Lantern Movie
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (22)
It’s all beginning to congeal. The upcoming Green Lantern movie, as many of you probably already surmised, isn’t going to be a franchise franchise. It’s not going to be Transformers or Batman. It’s going to be more on the level of G.I. Joe — a decent cash machine, but fairly forgettable after opening week.
I thought after his huge success in The Proposal and his turn as Deadpool in X-Men: Origins, that Ryan Reynolds really was going to be the next A-Lister. But I’m beginning to feel like he’s just another Channing Tatum, at least in the eyes of Hollywood execs. It’s why he’s still taking Tom Cruise’s castoffs (Motorcade), reteaming with Anna Faris for another crappy romantic comedy (TMI), and even making a gender-reversal comedy written by one of the worst screenwriters in Hollywood, Alan Loeb. He’s got a more realistic picture of his career than most of us do.
I realize that Green Lantern is getting a solid director in Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), but take away his two Bond flicks, and Campbell is not that big a name, either. He’s a more than competent director, but he has no imprimatur — no style of his own. And the writers they have for Green Lantern? Greg Berlanti and Michael Green.They’re fairly small-time, too, having only written a lot of television in the past (“Smallville,” “Eli Stone,” “Everwood,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” and “Heroes,” between them).
Indeed, while the hype surrounding the project may be overwhelming online — where fanboys and comic-book geeks dominate the conversation, for good or bad — in the real world, this is set to be just another second-class movie for a second-class superhero. Not even Ryan Reynolds can obscure the inherent weakness of the character.
Want even more evidence? Here it is: 22-year-old Blake Lively has been cast as the female lead, as a woman “who who runs her father’s aerospace company and hires cocky test pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds), who later becomes the intergalactic policeman Green Lantern. In the comics, the romance became complicated when an alien race bestowed her the power of a crystal called the Star Sapphire.”
Blake Lively? From “The Gossip Girl”? And she was chosen over Jennifer Garner and Kerri Russell, both of whom I like, but neither of which are considered huge stars in their own right, either. You cast Blake Lively, and you get a Blake Lively kind of movie.
The pot is filling up with second-rate talent, folks. And I wouldn’t expect better than that for the final product.
(Source: THR confirming what was originally reported on Latino Review)
Each Time You Like, Share, Tweet or Stumble a Pajiba Post, An Angel Does the Paul Rudd Dance
← Red Riding Trilogy Trailer | Star Trek Gets a Release Date, X-Men to Begin Filming in 2011 →
Comments
Posted by: anthonyva at January 11, 2010 11:45 AM
OMG, Blake Lively was cast! She's so talented in Gossip Girl, the best show ever...
I can't keep that up. It's a shame that such a talentless actress would be cast over Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner. She probably costs less then the other two. The thing I'm waiting for is a picture of the suit, and for it to have nipples.