Join us for this latest installment of Cape or Cap, where we dive deep into Green Lantern!

This week our final stop on the "Ryan & Hugh Road Trip" brings us to the DC universe as we explore Green Lantern—a film that introduces Hal Jordan to the live action world and Ryan Reynolds in a film that would be postered through the halls of time as one of the worst superhero films of all time; we’ll break down the plot, dissect the characters, and answer your burning questions:

• Is this good storytelling?
• How does it compare to other films, comics, and larger narratives?
• What was happening behind the scenes during the creation of this production and after its release?
• And as always, is this a "cape" or a "cap"?

01:05:24 Cape or Cap Verdict

Referenced Materials:

• Showcase #22 by John Broome and Gil Kane

Hosts: Chamar Griffith and Andrew Tejada

Producers: Chamar Griffith and Andrew Tejada

Support Cape or Cap by donating once today or monthly. Follow the show on social media @capeorcap and share your thoughts with us through a direct message or email at capeorcappod@gmail.com.

Like and Subscribe to our YouTube page, and listen to the rest of the episodes wherever you get your podcasts!

And wait. Tried to say, you said 114 minutes, mine was

124 minutes. Why was mine longer? Did? Did I watch the

Director's Cut?

Hi, I'm Shamar Griffith and I'm Andrew Tejada. We're going

through superhero productions to let you know if they're still

fun or the hype around it was dumb on Cape or cap a Black Nerd

superhero podcast. You

welcome to this week's installment of Cape or

cat a Black Nerd superhero podcast. My name is Shamar

Griffith, codename comic Shands and I am Andrew Tejada, codename

Arete. Andrew and I have known each other since 1996 that was

the year Bob Bergen voiced Marvin the Martian in Space Jam,

because he was both aliens and Looney Tunes. He was, you know,

the middle ground between them. And Bob Bergen would go on to

voice baby Hercules, baby Tarzan, baby Quasimodo and also

no face from Spirited Away. What he was like, let me change up my

my portfolio real quick. And instead of voicing all these

baby characters, let me go into something that was just like,

honestly to this day, no face from spirit. The way still

creeps me out. Oh yeah, yeah. And I also do want to mention

Bob Bergen, of course, has done a lot more since then, he's been

in like every Star Wars game, but those were the one that's

just a funny run to me, so I just had to point it out. No, it

makes sense, especially, you know, we're talking about alien

life forms, and some of these actors tended to have some very

childlike responses in their dialog, because today's episode,

we are covering the DC movie that is probably known as the

third worst DC movie ever created. I'm I'm putting

Catwoman in that list putting steel because even though they

didn't have the DC moniker or anything like that. They were DC

films. And the the Trinity that would pull that all together is

2011 Green Lantern, yes, at a run time of 114 minutes, this PG

13 film would continue to cause trauma amongst comic book fans.

For now 13 years, people are still unsure about where to put

this. There was even at one point, I believe that Ryan

Reynolds did a rewatch of it, if I'm not mistaken, and wait,

tried to say it, you said 114 minutes? Mine was 124 minutes.

Why was mine longer did did I watch the director's cut

yourself to that? Oh my gosh. I'm sorry for the extra 10

minutes that you had to the ordeal. Oh, that explains it,

why it never ended. It's the darkest version of that lamb

chops. Well, I mean, it might give us a hint already of where

we're leaning, but we're going to definitely talk about, talk

about this film directed by Martin Campbell, who, I gotta

say, going through the list of the people who were involved in

this film has been mind blowing. So Martin Campbell directed this

film, and he also directed films such as James Bond's Casino

Royale, oh, and James Bond's GoldenEye. My goodness, what?

Where, where? Where did you go? As well as the mask of Zorro and

the sequel, Legend of Zorro, straight bangers all across the

place. Um, also, this film had not one, not two, because

whenever we do superhero films. I noticed that we've had the duo

of direct of writers as screenplay writers today, we

have four. We got Greg Berlanti and Mark Guggenheim, who

basically just ran DC productions for the majority of

2010 we got Michael Green, who is known for doing work on Logan

alien. Alien Covenant, Blade Runner, 2049, and Murder on the

Orient Express, those are all really good movies, right? And

then we have Michael Goldenberg, which I'm assuming caused a lot

of back and forth, of like, who are we talking to in the writers

room, with all these people starting with their name, with

M? Um, we got Michael Goldenberg, who wrote contact. I

have, I have, I have beef with contact before we talk about, I

know people regarded as a pretty okay film, a good film. I

actually have beef with it. Um, I just did not like how it went.

But fortunately, Michael Goldenberg would eventually

become the one right, the would eventually write the one Harry

Potter film that wasn't written by Steve Clovis, and that is

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I don't like that

one. This might explain some things for you, alright, so the

Green Lantern. Eventually, we've known it through time to be one

to watch movies. It got 25% on its Rotten Tomatoes score. It

currently has that right now, and 45% on the audience score.

I'm not sure if that was the number back in the day, but I'm

pretty sure that it was probably on par based off the reviews

that had gotten and the people that were involved on this cast

list is, of course, we have the star of the film, Hal Jordan,

Green Lantern, played by Ryan Reynolds. This was his like,

basically introduction to the superhero storytelling of

things. Taiko ytt, still shocked that he's in this film. Will

play his friend, Tom. You gotta start somewhere. This movie,

though, does have, I will say that this movie in particular,

does have a close place in my heart, because it was the movie

that my my before she was wife and girlfriend, what we what my

wife and I saw together for the first time. And apparently this

is also the movie that is where Ryan Reynolds will meet his

wife, where he will meet Blake Lively, who is playing Carol

Ferris so see, y'all, there's a little diamond in the in this

very, very coarse, very rough, rough that we have of a film.

Next up we got Stanley Tucci, I'm assuming the clone. We got

Mark Strong, who has done some great work. Don't like Don't

mind me. He is playing the character Sinestro. Peter

Sarsgaard is playing the character Hector Hammond, who

goes through quite a change through this film. Thankfully

for this next person is only one of him this time, as we have

tomorrow, Morrison, who is playing Abin Sur tomorrow.

Morrison, who is no will go on to play Boba Fett Mike, next up

the late Michael Clark Duncan is voicing kilowatt. I have some

thoughts about Lex Luthor. I mean Clancy Brown would be

voicing parallax. And somehow, in the most surprising get in

this film, I actually forgot she was in this. Angela Bassett, is

Amanda Waller, sorry, Dr. Amanda Waller, yeah, with there's, I

can't even open that can of worms. We have to get to it

later, otherwise we won't even leave the intro. All right, so

let's do this quick, because with that, let's see if this

film should escape our sight and start our cape or cap review of

Green Lantern. So in the sign of every good movie, you get

narration on a dark screen. Let's go baby. Let's go

exposition Central. So there's some a long story about how the

Green Lantern Corps was formed. If you somehow have managed to

get this far and not heard of the Green Lantern Corps. It is

powered by willpower. Every they have rings that channel

willpower that they have to recharge every once in a while,

and they go around the the universe. They're basically

space cops. They go, they go, using their Green Lantern rings

to bring justice around the universe. We get all of that. I

hope people who were unfamiliar with it before got that. So we

find out that there's a Green Lantern named abbonsor who was

against was fighting this other Greenland Green Lantern Guardian

called parallax. Parallax, instead of willpower, he wanted

to harness fear. So abnor was like, no. Thank you sir, and

locked parallax in a deep hole that nobody could emerge from,

except if three alien dudes just come by and parallax kills them,

and then he can instantly get free. Yeah. So while we're

sitting here watching a redone version of Power Rangers, mine

more from Power Rangers to be yes, oh, Rita on my Rita timing,

yes, um, we do see, though, that parallax escapes by absorbing

the fear. This will be later explained, but we're assuming

this being said, that he absorbs the fear of these individuals

upon seeing him. And we jump now to a six month time jump where

evanser is speaking with Sinestro, hologram of Sinestro.

Who tells them the fate of a few planets that have been lost due

to parallax presence. No one really knows, as really parallax

is doing this. They just know that, like, each planet has been

left basically decimated and filled with this, some sort of

like yellow energy. So Abin, sir, once he closes off the

call, this is when he starts hearing the voice of parallax

calling out to him, who immediately finds and attacks

him. Um, this causes ABBs, plane or ship to start careening

towards the next inhabitable planet, sorry, the next

habitable planet that that he has on his radar, because it's

time for him to choose the new bearer of his power rank. So

obviously, because it's our superhero storytelling, we hop

up on Earth where we're introduced to the most Johnny

Storm version of Hal Jordan I think I've ever seen in my

entire life. Now this is where the movie would have gone if it

was the regular cut, but in the Director's Cut, oh boy, after

that opening scene and before abbsor is attacked by parallax,

we get a 1993 flashback. That's right, we go back to 1993 and

see how a young Hal Jordan watched his dad prepare for a

test flight, which sounds really dangerous. He instead of going

to school, how young Hal, like he's eight or nine, runs all the

way to an airfield, watches his dad get in a plane that he's

really confident about. As soon as the plane moves, I kid you

not. It explodes. Okay? It explodes. There must have been

some sabotage. It crashes. It looks like his dad's gonna be

fine. Al runs to try to see his dad. His dad stands up, flashes

him a thumbs up, and then explodes. So this is what you

get in the director's version. And um, now we cut to present

day. Then we cut to present day with AB and sore. And then after

all of that, we get the next scene of the movie, which is

arguably this movie's fourth opening, where we introduce Hal

Jordan. I'm sorry, I just have to go back on that one second.

You mean to tell me, in the Director's Cut, they did a time

jump and then to the flashback, yes, yes, they did. Yes they

did. Is this movie directed by the flash? What? Yes it if you

watch the director's cut, it feels like you watch a monolog

exposition, a random cut to 1993 childhood, another scene in

space that is sometime after the first scene. You have to do the

mental math to figure out when that scene is even happening.

And then you get introduced to Hal Jordan. So, I mean, you're

the obviously the finished cut sounds a lot smoother, but yeah,

no, no, there was an extra 10 minutes on how Jordan's

childhood.

This explains why there were four writers on this opening.

Um, but yeah, we opened up to how Jordan be introduced. Um,

it's clear that it's the night after a long game of UNO that

he's played with somebody that is there. So he realizes how

late he is for work, so he drives over in my cut. I'm just

assuming. There's like, a couple of things where he's just like,

he's driving around. There's like he he almost causes

accidents. He blames this on other people. And then

eventually he pops up at work, at Ferris air, where they're

planning to do some kind of test on this new set of planes,

because he is a test fighter pilot, is it or a test pilot?

Yeah, and it's sorry real quick, it's worth mentioning. He almost

causes a car crash because he's trying to wrap a present while

driving at 88 newspaper in newspaper, we'll come back to

it. But I just needed to throw that out there, because I that

comes back. Um, so we see him now in the locker room. He's

trying to change into his flight suit. Um, he's having now a

conversation with Carol Ferris, who's introduced. This is the

first time I think I've ever seen Blake Lively, not blonde,

so it was very shocking for me. He's reprimanding him for

showing up late. There's a little bit of banter, because

he's obviously playing the guy who's too cool for school. So

now they hop on over to them flying in their fighter jets.

I'm assuming that the jets that they were fighting against are

unmanned, like they're trying to test out some kind of

technology. Um, honestly, if you don't want to bother yourself

watching this one, watch stealth. It's not as great of

the film, but there was like, Jessica Beale and I think Jamie

Foxx, yeah. Top Gun. Watch Top Gun. Yeah, so as they're flying

around, we do learn that houses type of guy who apparently would

be willing to sacrifice his, his, his like the person he's

flying with. There's also some subtle, subtle nods to the comic

book stuff, because for Carol, she the plane that her called

sign is sapphire, which will be like, eventually will be her

name, which becomes more villainous. So as they're flying

around and how, decides to sacrifice, Blake Lively's

character here, not really sacrifice, but really just like,

there's like a electronic kind of signal, kind of like laser

tag. So she gets tagged. He pushes the limits of his plane

in order to push the limits of the unmanned fighter jets, and

this causes all the planes to start falling back down to the

ground. He's able to shoot down both of the planes, but he's

unable to pull his own plane out of careening towards the ground.

Now in my cud, this is when I got the flashback of his father

dying. And I was like, okay, I can see it making sense. But I

yeah, I would hate to wake up to my to it from a dream where my

father dies constantly. Yeah, the director actually this is

where something I'll let in a little early, but the director

actually was really pissed that they did this during the scene.

He actually did not want the flashback in there, because he

preferred the full scene. All right. What triggers this

flashback is unclear, because his ship was in working order

for the most part. So it's unclear what triggers the

flashback exactly, but what I can say is Iron Man already did

it anyway. Yes, Hal Ajax, the same scene. Guys, the same

scene. Halogex at the last minute, and despite him beating

the drones because he crashed the plane to do so because he

couldn't pull out of the maneuver that disrupted the

planes. Not only is he fired, but everybody in the company is

fired. What I need to speak to HR, because that is the most

terrible way of handling layoffs. Yeah, and things that

you're embezzling. People just wait and and things are piling

up for him, because Carol screams at him when she mentions

when he was like, mate, why are you doing a desk job? She gets

mad about that and saying, you know, I don't have to be a

pilot. This never circles back. It never comes back, by the way.

Um, I forgot that even happened. Um, also his, uh, one of his co

workers said, Hey, man, you cost us all our jobs somehow. So I'm

gonna, we're gonna get you, I want you back. And even when he

goes home the local news, who apparently has nothing better to

do than a report on this government test slash, contract

sale, all his brothers call him out for being too reckless, like

their father. And after, after all of this, at least he has a

moment to give a present to his nephew, the one he wrapped in

newspaper. And I would love to point out at this point there

was absolutely no reason he couldn't have waited to map this

present. Why he the location he went to while he was wrapping

the present was hours before this. He had hours of time to

wrap this. Why did he wrap it in the car? It makes no sense.

Also, like the when he took the plane out of the newspaper

wrapping, it was not the same shape. It was. It was definitely

more square, like and then when he takes it out, it literally is

just this model fighter jet, and there's, like, no angles to this

newspaper rapping. Also, I love how, like, none of the brothers

actually have a name. Just you don't even know that they're

brothers until he walks up into the kids rooms, just like, Hey,

your uncle is here. And it was like, Oh, I thought this was

just some random kids birthday party that you just decided to

go to. And it was like, let me just bring a present. And he

has, like, four brothers, right? Too many for a movie, guys in

real life. Go ahead, I have it as many brothers as you want.

But like, not, there were also too many of them in the house.

Like, I haven't seen that many brothers. It's like, Cheaper by

the Dozen. It's a lot. So there's this little heart to

heart that they have, um, the scene be ends as soon as it

begins. Honestly it, if you forget about it, it's totally

fine, because I feel like this movie also forgot about it. So

as he's heading back towards the car, because somehow this party

is just done, he gets snatched up by this glowing green energy.

And in the earlier scene, we do see that avenster had crash

landed on Earth. He's in this bay. He sends the energy from

his ring to go and find the next bearer. Honestly, this scene did

upset me about avenster like sending out the energy to send

up for the next bear. Because every single time we cut back to

him, it's that scene, and it's like, okay, we get it, but like,

what does it mean? Tell us. What does it mean to choose the next

bearer. I've been dying for like, 24 hours. It was like

watching an anime like. So as this glowing green energy takes

how it brings him all the way to the bay, where he comes across

the ship that avenster is in. So here is where we get our fourth

opening to the movie, where admins are tries to warn. How

about everything, about parallax and the threat he'll face, but

most importantly, he gives him the Green Lantern ring and a

very basic tutorial on how to use it. Um, how? Not really

wanting any of this smoke. And calls, calls his friend Mike for

a ride as the government shows up to take the alien. Um, before

anything interesting happens. There. We cut back to OA, the

planet of the Green Lanterns, and we have a long scene with

Sinestro, where he's, yeah, he's insisted with Stanley Tucci,

right? You he's, he's giving a and look, I want to say this

Mark Strong, Sinestro is probably the best performance in

this movie, consistently. Um, he really does understand the

character, because Sinestro is saying, like, parallax is out

here killing our people, and we're not doing anything about

it. And he's trying to get to these guardians, like, look, I

want to fight, but I'm not going to do it, unless you sign off on

it. And he eventually is able to push the core the Guardians, to

say, Look, I'll go myself with a select few if we die. That's

fine, but you have to give me a shot. And here's the point where

I'm like, why aren't you the main character of this movie?

Because this is really compelling. Yeah. I loved every

scene with Sinestro, because it again the same thing. Like he

really, like, you said, he really got the character he was.

I felt very motivated to like every time he spoke, I was like,

Yeah, let's, let's roll for war. And unfortunately, you know, I

feel like this movie should have spent more time on this than

trying to focus on, well, I guess, like Hal Jordan trying to

learn how to wrap a gift while driving 80 miles per hour and

trying to audition for fast and furious. I don't know, Christmas

edition or something, so I don't know, but as we have that moment

we close out.

We head on back to Earth, where Dr Hector Hammond, he is at home

just chilling. He gets a knock on his door, and there are two

guys dressed in suits, obviously, because this is a

alien type movie. We're assuming that they're some sort of like

government officials. They tell him that he needs to come with

them. He thinks it's a joke. We immediately just cut to him

being in a car with a bag over his head, being taken off as

he's brought to another location, unknown where this

location is. It just looks like an old warehouse, but then when

they guide them through, it turns out to be this, like

secret facility run by the government. And here is when we

get to meet Angela Bassett. It is Amanda Waller. Now look

people on paper. This casting absolutely slaps like facts.

Angela Bassett has the chops to play Amanda Waller properly.

Unfortunately, whoever writers were in the room for this final

version, this is not Amanda Waller. She her her

ruthlessness, her brutality, her do anything for the for the sake

of the her greater good. It's not here. All we have here is a

government liaison spouting exposition this. She is too

nice, she is too courteous, and there's just nothing she she

absolutely doesn't give us anything. And again, Angela

Bassett is incredible. She gave everything she could, but there

is just no life in this Amanda Waller at all. This is the worst

Amanda Waller to exist in the multiverse, again, not again,

not because of Angela Bassett. Angela Bassett is a we love.

Angela Basset here. She's a freaking saint that. But you're

right. She needed. More from this dialog, more from this

scene, and instead she was written as just basically like

government official number 37 Yeah, it's weird. Speaking of

the exposition, we learned that the government was able to

collect the body of appen sur so now Hector Hammond is

responsible for basically doing the, I'm assuming, the Alien

Autopsy. They never really call it out, but he is doing the

autopsy on admin service body. At the same time we see how

trying to get the lantern to work. There's a very lengthy

kind of joke scenario, because I think it's just because the

2000s because of Tobey Maguire, Spider Man, they just decided

to, like, let's just dial into this, like, comical takes on

things that are, are like superhero fans know, but are

going to love the fact that they're like, not just known

like spider man doing the fly, go, web go, and not being able

to do the actual hand signature. They basically recreate it here

with Hal as he is pledging allegiance to the to the lantern

um that has crash landed and gave him this ring that is

basically almost what he says in this thing. And speaking of

Spider Man, another movie, superhero movie, this blatantly

rips off during Hector's autopsy of AB and sore he just

accidentally touches a part of the alien that has a trace of

parallax. Fear. I hate this, because this could have happened

to anybody. This was there's nothing special that he did, or

illegal that he did to earn to warrant this. But he gets

infected, and he he gets sweaty. He's at home at night,

transforming. His body is transforming, which is just such

a blatant ripoff of 2002 Spider Man this exact sequence. And it

was so clear they were trying to do a parallel of how, like Green

Goblin and Spider Man transformed at the same time,

Hector and Hal transformed at the same time. But the problem

is in that, in Spider Man, one chose to do this. So somebody

chose it. One was an accident. And here it's kind of both an

accident. Yes, how was chosen, but very lightly. And there's

another big thing where I have to ask, why is Hal trying to do

the oath at all? What? What reason does he have to do it? He

doesn't have a reason. He could literally have thrown this whole

lantern in the ring into the back of his closet and called it

a day like it, there's, there is a mention speaking Aspire man of

honor and responsibility, a line that Alvin sir tells him that,

like this is what it has. And there's this just running joke

from um, from Tom, Tom's character just being like, oh,

responsibility. I guess responsibility must mean asshole

on a different planet or something like that. And it's

like, okay, one rude. But also, why does Hal want this

responsibility he is now, on many occasions, shown that he

rather fly by the seat of his pants than be actually serious

about anything like he does seem to want to want to push people

to make sure that they're actually accepting what they

truly want in life. Like how the dialog between him and Carol,

when he's like, you don't want this desk job, it's aggressive,

but like, he could see like, what he's trying to get to, but

it's not the most ideal way to say it. So I agree. Like,

there's no reason for him to be like, I want to become a Green

Lantern. I want to become like the purple, green alien that

that did this, even though I have no idea what he is, what he

can do to me. What does taking on this responsibility could do

to my life, or even now, just looking because of the fact they

did the the duality of it, if I touch the thing, will I get

infected with some kind of alien virus that will lead to my

death, or this, this figuration in the near future? There's no

reason for him to do it. Yeah. And this kind of meandering

things continues because as just as he does figure out the the

lantern oath and gets powered up. Carol just shows up and

says, Hey, actually, we that contract thing worked out. We're

gonna be fine, actually. And it was like, why did that get

resolved off screen, and they do some banter about the romance

that is pretty much copy paste from any superhero romance

you've ever seen, and I this scene is so hilarious to be

because as soon as Carol mentions fear, as soon as she

mentions therapy, this man walks out of the bar and leaves her.

He doesn't chase after him either. He just freak. And

leaves as soon as he hear men would rather leave their the

most hot girl they've ever met in their life than to think

about therapy like it is true. Um, and he immediately gets

jumped by his co workers, and he puts on a decent fight, but

eventually he gets back into a corner and accidentally uses his

ring to punch them all with the big green fist. And the guy he

punched through the wall, that brick wall, is dead. Oh, is

dead. He's 100% dead. Yep, yep. Adding that to the Green

Lantern, l count, bringing it back. So as this happens, Hal is

freaking out, and then immediately he gets engulfed in

the same green energy again, and then teleported and transported

to space, I'm assuming, because he killed someone, he has to

file a report with his superiors. So they were like,

this is going to be an in person HR meeting. So we hop on over,

and it's treated like any kind of alien abduction movie where

he's knocked out. He's unconscious. Somehow they took

off his clothes, leaving him in just very white tight underwear,

and then he starts experiencing some electrical shocks that go

through his body that then leads into him, just getting his suit.

And this is the suit that everyone has beef with, because

it was all CGI it, almost looking at it and really trying

to say, I was like, yeah, it is a little weird. I don't know.

Maybe it's because we just been spoiled by, like, actual costume

designers creating these suits nowadays. But like, when you

think about, like, this movie coming out after Batman Begins,

and I also believe After Dark Knight, or even after, um, I

want to say, after Iron Man, yeah, it's just shocking to see

that, like, they decided to go the full CGI on a suit that's

pretty simple to make, if I do so say, if I do say so myself,

like, literally, green body suit that you could buy at any Party

City. You can either spray paint or stitch on the black lining

and add the logo, you're good, and then add in the CGI elements

afterwards.

Yeah, I mean, Wayne T Knight gave, I believe that. And I'm

sorry if I butchered the actor's name, but he was showing his

sample Jon Stewart for Zack Snyder Justice League. I believe

that was him. And that suit looked great, yeah, and that

was, that was a great suit, yeah? And that was completely

practical. And I know we've come, to be fair, we have come

far in 10 years in terms of suit technology, but I think we still

could have gotten something decent back then, um, and also,

like, how painful the suit bounding process is, because I

don't, is it ever, has it ever been caused pain to put on a

Green Lantern suit? No, I don't thought about just like from

Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm is legit on fire every time he

suits up. This man is okay. This guy agreed it hurts. So after he

gets dressed in the most painful suit up sequence you've seen

since Blue Beetle, I will. I'm gonna give this movie two points

of credit. All right, I give it two points of credit. He's

talking to tomare, who, you know, looks like a fish and,

well, I mean, okay, quick deduction. He has barely any

reaction to a humanoid fish talking person. It's kind of

just like, oh, you're a fish. No, bro, no, you have to react

bigger than that. Um, but tomare mentions that they have not

bonded. This is the first time in their history where humans

bonded with the ring. So that opens up some possibilities.

And, you know, fun, unique challenges. And he also informs

how they can fly. And a lot of superhero movies nowadays

underestimate this scene. But how does enjoy flight? He enjoys

having his powers, he has a good time. This is, this is a scene

that, even in good superhero movies, is all they they skip.

They skip that moment of pure joy when they really embrace

what they can do for themselves in the world. And I will give

them credit for having this. Um, before cutting to the real main

character, Sinestro. Yeah, we see that Sinestro is amongst the

entire Green Lantern Corps here on OA, giving his Braveheart

speech, telling Raleigh and the truth, telling them that we are

about to head into war to defeat parallax, because he has taken

not only members. Of our core. But he's also taken planets and

the lives of many people, the lives that we were hired to

defend. And there's, at one moment, there is a there's a

snide comic that he makes about Alvin SIRs ring going to a new

person. It's not really caught by Hal, but it is caught by

basically every single Korean Lantern Corps member. So he's

not really sure what's really going on. But people decide, all

right, we're gonna head on to war, but how's not ready yet.

This is another point of contention for a lot of people

have watched this movie, is how's training. So we get

introduced now to kill a walk. And I gotta say, love Michael

Clark Duncan that decided to choose him for the voice, I hate

to design killag In this where's your neck, bro, where's your

neck, right? Also, killer walk always had like these, like,

huge teeth, like, in this movie, he's more like a pig versus the

boar that I wanted to see from him, like, so I was a little

upset that they kind of just made him more of a character of

like, oh, because you look like a pig, obviously you stink,

obviously you don't really know what you're doing. And it's only

through like light levels of training that Hal experiences

that, like a Green Lantern, has to go through a lot, such as

being able to pull himself away from the gravitational pull of

the sun, learning to use his constructs in a way that allows

him to, one, make them sturdy, but two, to defend himself when

he might be taken advantage of at any point. And this is he

does get one win, one win amongst, I think, four beat

downs that kilowatt provides. But upon that win, he does get a

big bit of a big head, which is completely addressed by, once

again, the main character of our film here, Sinestro, who's like,

okay, cool, you got one, but let's see how you could continue

on. And now it's more of a battle between alien versus

human, with everyone believing, once again, that humans can't

really do anything, and they this should not get the Green

Lantern ring at all. Yeah, and this is a, this is a fine scene,

I would say. You know, Sinestro beats him down so much and just

embarrasses him in front of, well, I guess just two people,

not really a crowd, which would have been nice to parallel if,

again, he embarrasses himself in front of a crowd instead of just

like two people. And how, how, gives up, right here, he just

gives up, takes off the ring, which you think would disqualify

him instantly for this, but no, it's good. It's fine. So back

with Hector, who, I guess is the villain. Hector starts gaining

the ability to read thoughts, and when he hears, while he's

teaching a class, one of his students calls him a loser,

which I mean, is like, I don't even there's, there's multiple

times where people call Hector a loser in this movie, and to this

point in the movie, later on, he does some stuff, but to this

point in the movie, I don't really get why. Yeah, he's just

a smart guy at teams that you know just has a steady career

and really enjoy. He seems to really enjoy teaching. Yeah, his

class seems to be really engaged too. Yeah, it's like, the things

you notice when you grow up, you're like, actually, it seems

like he's got a pension. He's got a huge apartment, like, I

don't really see before this point. Why he's so bitter. And

it gets even worse when he meets his dad, where his dad is like,

yeah, I let you see that alien because of nepotism. And for

some reason, there's a weird thing where Hector is mad that

his dad gave him advantage, but also mad that his dad thinks

he's a loser. And I'm like, what you have to pick a lane with

these characters. If it's, does his dad think he's a loser, and

he was like, this, what you needed son, or does his dad

thinks he's weird and that, or even respects him as a

scientist, right? That would have been more appropriate. It's

like, yeah, you could do your weird alien thing you're always

talking about, yeah? Like it the the alignment was just wild. And

then we cut hard, cut to the lantern fighting parallax?

Sinestro pulls up with his core. They're fighting parallax, and

it instantly goes bad. But the crazy thing about the scene

that's a flashback. In the middle of the scene, it cuts the

voiceover narration of Sinestro narrating that this has already

happened in the past, would you do this?

Oh my gosh. What is tide and the cherry on the top of the cake on

this. Uh, this confusing scene is that the Guardians reveal

that. This is where the Guardians tell Sinestro that

parallax was once a Green Lantern who got corrupted by the

power of fear and became what they are. Now he is getting all

the info on this huge betrayal of the main character, of the

main villain and HAL is nowhere to be seen. Hal never learned,

to my knowledge, Hal never learns this that he was a

corrupted Green Lantern that gave in the fear. So why is this

being told to Sinestro? If he was the main character, I forgot

all the stuff with Hal is side character stuff um so, as

Sinestro insists, convinces the core to make a yellow ring. We

cut back to just a party that was never set up or introduced

and has as many black jazz musicians as lala land. I lot,

yeah, thankfully, he does get credited in the movie, though,

not said in the actual film. Is just at the in the end credits.

That's, that's what. Anyway, at this party, this is now where we

see every single character in our film that resides on Earth,

coming together, Hector and how and Carol. Carol, apparently

they all have some kind of connection. So while Hal and

Carol continue to work along the same path, it seems as if Hector

had known them for when they were younger or more, so just

maybe a couple of years back. And he does seem to kind of like

pine after Carol, because he's kind of, like talking with her

in this kind of like, Hey, I'm trying to show you that I'm cool

by, like, tipping my head to the side kind of thing whenever I

make a comment. But during their time of like talking together,

he gets a little drunk and starts mentioning stuff about

the alien, which he was told by Dr Amanda Waller not to reveal,

and also by his father not to reveal, because it's supposed to

be top secret. And his father overhears it, goes over to try

to stop him, and when he does so, he's like, all right, I'm

done with this party for the evening his father. I mean, I

don't know why his father just decided to leave after seeing

his son. Yeah. Also, why was the helicopter in the middle of the

party? Like, what? That's not safe, guys. And the reason why

it's not safe isn't because of, not because of any reason you

could think of. It's because Hector Hammond uses his psychic

abilities, his newfound psychic abilities, to break off one of

the spouts from the from the beer dispensers, to knock it

into the rear propeller of the helicopter causing the whole

thing to frantically careen all around everyone. I am surprised

that no one died the way that it was basically hitting the ground

on every move. I mean, we're gonna, we're gonna get into mass

death later. Uh, trust me, we will, um, but here is where,

kind of out of nowhere, because we remember, this is a Green

Lantern movie. Um, how caring Sinestro though. No, that's a

yellow lantern. Um, how comes in and saves the day. And the one

of the biggest knocks against this movie is that the

constructs are kind of lame, and I want 1,000% agree and also add

that they're actually really dangerous. Because early in the

movie, when Hal was training with Sinestro, he uses a machine

gun turret, which, to his knowledge, would kill Sinestro.

I mean, he's murdered before, but so I guess it lines in his

character here to save the helicopter. He creates a race

track, which was foreshadowed when he went to his nephew's

room and saw a racetrack, like a Hot Wheels racetrack, but the

way that the helicopter, like goes around and everything, and

it's like, I know you're trying to slow its momentum down, but

you know what heart wheels racetracks typically do when

they get to the bottom, go really freaking fast, bro.

They're definitely gonna have whiplash and die. And as further

proof, the copter almost hits Carol anyway. So wow, wow, wow,

to quote pitch meeting on that one, and the movie, even as

Hector further morphs into a more hideous form, Mike comes

in, uh, how's best friend? Mike comes in and even criticizes the

decision, is this friend? Wait. Sorry. Is this friend named Mike

or Tom? I was calling him Tom. Uh, it probably is. Tom, I'm, I

look the director's cut that 10 minutes has it may it's probably

Tom, it I, I also would be surprising the Director's Cut

his full name isn't like Tom, Mike, or Mike Tom or something,

yeah. I mean, his role in the movie is right now, because

after insisting on seeing the Green Lantern suit in person for

absolutely no reason, and I want to emphasize for absolutely no

reason, he's like, Well, you're in the suit. Why don't you go

get the girl? It was never even really specified that, like HAL

wanted to be with Carol, like they have spent the entire film

being at each other's throats because of things like, yes,

they had that like one moment in the bar, but again, he left when

he was told that he should go and do therapy, which is a

normal thing to tell someone so how in the suit flies over, he

tries to put on his Best, deepened voice so that he isn't

picked up on by Carol. Um, but the more that Carol kind of

looks at him and is talking with him and getting real close to

him, he's thinking that they're going to embrace and kiss and,

you know, do the thing where it's like the hero does get the

girl, she immediately pulls back because she recognizes that is

how immediately, and then he just decides, Well, might as

well just reveal it all, because, again, they grew up

together, and they just basically spends the rest of

this movie, the rest of this scene with kind of a dopey, kind

of look on his face. Was like, Ah, you got me. Oh, I guess the

mask didn't really work? Like they told me it was going to

work on Ola, yeah. I mean, okay, it is legitimately one of the

best line of the movie is, do you think I wouldn't recognize

you because I can't see your cheekbones? That's good. That's

good. Um, also the fact that she was like, I also have seen you

naked, and I was like, that's also fair, given the fact that

basically the suit is on his naked body, just like,

unnecessarily tight for CGI, right? Um, so here's where they

have a heart to heart, where he's saying, like, yeah, just

got all these awesome powers that I've used literally one

time. And I think I'm gonna quit actually. And this conversation,

again, is baffling, because he keeps saying, like, yeah, don't

you know, I always mess up, bro, whatever you did in the plane,

scored a contract and led to that fancy party. You're

obviously a successful pilot. You're obviously playing uno

with women every other day. You got a Green Lantern ring and

alien powers that you've had for a day, and you're not the best

at them, sure, but to say you keep messing up is absolutely

wild. It's like if Spider Man two, he was like, I keep making

money. That doesn't track to anything we've seen bro that

this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. This conversation

doesn't make any sense. But speaking spider man alone about

not making money, okay, I feel it. I feel it. Um, but speaking

of things that don't make sense, we cut back to Hector, who has

now morphed really out of control, and his dad is like,

please, son, I want to get you some help. Not ironically, not

he he's actually legitimately wants his son to get some help.

And for some reason, Hector, who now has the ability to read

thoughts by touch, even though he could just read thoughts

normally, yeah, um, touches Amanda Waller, and she has a

flashback of some traumatic event in her past that is

flashing by so quickly I cannot even speculate what happened in

the flashback. I don't know what tragedy is in her past. From

that that's her. That's her comic origin. So they wanted to

remind us they're like, yo. This is actually Amanda Waller, by

presenting that she once had a loving family that was

unfortunately all unfortunately, all experienced traumatic

deaths, and she decided to join the government in order to

rectify the laws that would allow for these things to

happen. So we basically get a full flashback of Amanda Wallace

comic book origin story, just to remind us that Angela Bassett is

Amanda Waller, great, um, great, because she becomes a vital part

of the movie for the next five minutes.

I Yes. So when he does this, seeing her memories, this is

when they decide that he needs to be incapacitated. So they do

give him some kind of injection to knock him out, because they

do realize they tell. Him that upon further inspection of the

alien body, they found that there were actually two beings

in that body, and they believe that he was infected by one, so

try to place him on the quarantine. Meanwhile, Hal just

heads back to the location where Aven Sir, where he found Aven

sir. And just like contemplates tomar Rey's words, I honestly

feel like they just introduced tomar re in this film just to

provide some exposition and like the voice of reason for him, or

something like his like Jiminy Cricket, which was weird. He

just gets up and leave, but then we just hop back over to Hector,

who's now in restraints, and he's just like, all right, I'm

gonna use my telekinetic abilities to break out of

everything here, and then somehow hard cut to not only

him, but just like using his abilities to, just like, to flow

everyone out there and press them against surfaces, to try to

crush their bodies. But then how Jordan Greenland as Green

Lantern just arrives, no, no reason for him to know exactly

this is where the facility was, no reason to know that Cameron

was the one that was infected by the parallax or anything he

again at this point, he doesn't really have an understanding of

who parallax is, except for the fact that the Green Lanterns

went to go handle it on A planet far, away a long, long time ago.

Yeah, this is and it also like Hector broke out. But they

weren't like threatening to kill him. They weren't threatening to

dissect him. They were just like, Yo, we want to help you.

But anyway, um, there is literally maybe one power

exchange between Hector and Hal before they knock themselves out

and end up on the floor like the battle is extremely short, and

Hector lamenting the fact that he's such a failure, which,

again, I don't see, doesn't trek at all for his character,

successful career. And I think they try to make it about his

appearance, but yes, that's your appearance now. But prior to

that, you're just a normal dude, bro. You lacked a little Riz,

but, and you were sniffing people, which was weird, but,

um, he was, um, that was it. But as he's lamenting how much of a

failure he is, he he burns his father to death. Also in the

middle of this, Amanda Waller falls, but Green Lantern saves

her, puts her on a wave, and she leaves the movie. Because that's

it. That's it for Amanda Waller for this movie. This, find out

kind of weird after watching Wakanda forever, though. It's

just like this, this, oh, acid, just exit films in water, like I

we're gonna go through a month of Angela bass and see get a

taste out of this. Um, so how to fight back touches the ring to

Hector's head, which, for some reason, he thought would work,

and because he does this, parallax is alerted to Earth,

and parallax says, I'll come to earth and kill everybody. Um,

so, yeah, this is a powerful lesson, don't touch people.

Yeah, honestly, um. And right after this, we cut back to how

who, apparently now, with the ring, touch, has learned

everything about parallax and everything. And this

conversation is, they're like, why are you giving up? Hal and

he's like, Well, Green Lanterns are supposed to be fearless. And

then Carol asks, but why I get it? But why? Why are you giving

up? Because I'm afraid I can spend the next 3000 hours

dragging this entire dialog, but I will just completely say thank

you movie for giving me the definitions and the antonyms and

the synonyms of fearless and afraid, and try to turn it into

a poignant speech about why a hero couldn't measure up to the

task, followed By the inspiration they will get from

their friend telling them to just get ready for the big

fight, because there, even though he's afraid, he should

embody the thing that his father apparently a thing that we've

never come across, that his father might have also been

afraid, But what he was using to get through every day was

courage. And at this point, I was just like, are you all just

trying to throw in every single color of the Lantern Corps in

here and the meaning behind the colors, to try to get us to be

like purple? And it doesn't work. It's not as this is not

strong dialog, especially because the friend Tom or or

Mike, it is totally absent from it the entire time. This is

again, where the movie is so confused at what is trying to

teach us. Because I being very generous, I think the movie was

supposed to say that how, when, how, watched his father die in

that explosion. That is only in the Director's Cut, he saw a man

that even in the face of death, he was that man was smiling

right before he died. So maybe in his head how was supposed to

be, like my dad was fearless. And then throughout the movie,

we'd see him do all these crazy, risky things, insisting he was

fearless and denying that fear, maybe that could have been the

track and that could have been interesting. But the problem is,

he is clearly afraid. He clearly states he's afraid multiple

times before this, and we are unable to determine if he's

reckless and truly like suppressing the fear deep down,

or if he's fearful but does reckless things sometime, I

can't tell you which one he is, because the movie never decided

making his arc impossible to track. It's not possible. You

can see where it ends. The ending arc is very clear. But

how he got here? I don't know. I want to tell you, I really do,

but I can't, because this movie has made it impossible, and it's

it's time, and we also get here. Finally, Sinestro and Hal see

each other after like an hour of movie time. Um, yeah, because I

did track, because I was just like I do. I did remember,

because I did see Disney theaters, I did remember that

the movie was supposed to end soon, and we now have like 30

minutes of film left, including credits. So this was surprising

that we had to wait this long for this re this reconnection

for them, yeah, and how just argues to the Green Lantern

guardians, Hey, um, I know you're about to because Sinestro

actually is fighting for Earth. He's like, they're like, Oh,

we're actually going to let parallax just roll over Earth

while we prepare the fear ring. And sinnesh was kind of

conflicted, but he's like, all right, if that's what we have to

do to save the universe, I'll go with you guys. And Hal rolls in

and says, Please give earth a shot. And they're like, no. So

how's like, I guess I'm going to go back to Earth and do it

myself. And they're like, Okay, so just to if you're keeping

score, at home, there is no reason for him to go, because

nothing changes as a result of him going at all like nothing.

Movie is different. If he had just the yellow lantern ring,

it's it. And guess what, when he comes back, Carol's Carol's been

kidnapped. They don't show how that happened. Okay, I was

hoping it was, I was hoping it was in the director's code,

because that was my biggest question. It was just like, did

Tom Mike just leave her and he tried to fight back? Where is

he? Did he lose his life against parallax or Hector, because

she's just floating in air with somehow he was able to get more

of the the yellow energy or infection that was inside

absurd, to try to inject her, to turn her into like him. And has

HAL is trying to fight him and tell him, don't do that. Don't

do that. Like you're gonna like, think better. He's just like,

Oh, are you only saying this? Because if she looked like me,

you wouldn't love her anymore. And then, I mean, remember, I

gotta be honest, dude, the way you are current before you were

good currently, it's not, you know, something is going wrong

with you, like, right now, clearly, like, you're, you're,

you're continually morphing. So honestly, I think he'd be in his

rights to be like, Let me think about it, like something is

like, this is not a good argument. I know what they're

trying to do. I think what they're trying to do is be like,

if you're not conventionally attractive, which, I mean, in

this movie, is ridiculous. Everybody's looks fine that you

don't get attention from women, which is a real INCEL like

message to me, putting your movie. But again, the the

problem with this plot line is, prior to this, no one commented

on his looks, because you can argue it's all in his head.

That's fine. But no, not a single person's rejected him for

being ugly or unattractive. He was always rejected in his mind

for being a loser. So why are you introducing this plot where

he cares about appearance? He doesn't. He never has, until

this point, has

It's weird, it's weird. But Hal tries to convince him he was

like but you can be like me through the power of Dr zismo,

not Dr zismore. But rather, he offers his Green Lantern ring

and says that I can give you the power that I have. And I was

like, pretty sure that Green Lantern rings can't change your

appearance except just giving you CGI bad CGI suits. But he

accepts it, and as he takes on the energy he is. Is able to

stand up from his chair, or float from his chair, which I

was thinking was like, couldn't have just done that with his

teleconnect abilities already. But he's he is able to create a

blast of energy from the ring, which he then tries to send

towards how but it stopped suddenly, and he tells him like,

Ha tricked you. You actually have to be chosen. And he takes

back the ring. The ring also sends the blast back to Hector,

flying him back. And because he's knocked out a little bit,

it causes Carol to fall because it breaks the psychic hold

that's on her. Hal catches her. Just doesn't even use the ring.

He just, actually just runs over and catches her as she's

falling, the serum cracks on the floor, and then all of a sudden,

parallax just shows up and kills Hector. Yep, that's it. He's

gone, like all that. Yeah, yep, he's gone. That build up. So

Carol gets a moment where she, while HAL is struggling with

parallax, why parallax doesn't kill her? I truly don't

understand. He can clearly kill multiple people at the same

time, and how at the at that very moment, was depowered. It

shouldn't anyway, um, so she uses a jet to distract parallax.

So how can regain his ring? Parallax goes outside of the

building to chase Hal and kills a lot of people. A lot of people

die just casually, just a lot they imply that school kids on a

bus probably didn't make it, which is one of the darkest

things I've seen in a live action DC movie. And I I've

watched Joker multiple times. And this is also where you

realize that his friend, Tom Mike, he is not here. It's not

in the climax. What superhero movie Have you watched where

their best friend or the goofy sidekick is driven the man in

the chair? Yeah, the man in chairs just shunted out of the

movie that early. Like, what? Even Ned goes the distance in

most Spider Man movies, like, what is going on here, but after

a lot of people die, Hal is able to push parallax into space by

saying the oath where now he can enact his master plan for the

greatest battle in Super Huber history, or whatever. Yes, so,

so remember that time when Hal learned about the gravitational

pull of of like bodily planets and all that? So he decides,

basically to steal the end sequence of the Mighty Morphin

Power Rangers movie and bring parallax as close to the sun as

possible. Um, the sun starts pulling on parallax. Every

single time that parallax tries to use his energy, it ends up

getting absorbed or brought back by the Sun due to gravity. I do

not think that's how energy works. No, I'm no rocket

scientist, but I feel like that's a no. HAL is able to

create two fighter jets as constructs to use them to pull

to keep pulling him away from the gravitational pull of the

sun, and the more that HAL is able to keep this fight going.

We do see that he uses the same punch that he used them when he

killed the guy by sending him through the brick wall to send

parallax into the sun. This, I think this is probably the time

when they're trying to show that, like, how did have enough

willpower? Because I think this is the it was really subtle, and

I wish they actually kind of dived into a little bit more,

but it seemed as if back when he was saving the party, when he

created the racetrack, but then saw that Carol was in danger, so

try to create a shield over her. He couldn't create two

constructs at the same time, but here it is, he did, and it will

be nice if they actually said that instead, we do see, though,

that like, because of this overuse of energy, he falls

unconscious. He starts careening towards the sun, and by a

miracle, well, even though there's an entire Green Lantern

Corps, he is saved by this three people that we got a chance to

see the most work with, Sinestro, kilowatt and tomare,

who basically just construct ELTs and drag him back away from

the gravitational pull up the sun, which is crazy feats for

this guy to defeat, like the head honcho villain of the

universe. First day. Yeah, Killa hog, he's like, do I know how to

train him? Bro, five seconds. You trained him for five

seconds. Um, like, Goku has trained for longer, and he

struggled against some god like deities, right? Um, there's

really nothing else that happens in this movie of note. Um

Greenland House says, I'll go find more evil someday, and

then, then Sinestro finds it, pulls up, puts on the fear ring.

That's it. Nothing else. There's no other resolutions with any of

the other characters. Amanda Waller doesn't come back. Mike

Tom doesn't come back. This is over. The movie's over now. All

alright. So that wraps up. 2000 elevens, Green Lantern. What are

you constructing with your power of will for this movie? Is this

movie made? You're making? Are you making a cape, or are you

making a cap? You know, I know it sounds like this is the best

movie we've seen on the podcast, bar none, um, but this is

actually, actually going to be a cap, and it's not for the

reasons you expect when you think about this movie. It's not

because of the bad CGI, it's not because of the lame fight

scenes, though those things help. It's just the simple fact

that the main character of this movie is pushed along a track

and really has no control, fate or sway in the plot in any

significant way. Scenes roll into each other without any

rhyme or reason, and it i i haven't watched the director's

cut. I can't say they cut out footage that made it make sense.

This movie is just a mess, and there's really not much else to

say. Like, no, no, I know there's nothing else I can

really say about it. What about you? Oh, yeah, this is a

certified cap for me, even after all this time. I do remember

when Ryan Reynolds kind of did the rewatch. It was like, it's

not that bad. And like, you know, in some cases I would

agree with him. Like, you know, if your movie is supposed to be

about how Sinestro is the most well written, compelling

character, and yes, it's not that bad, um, but everything

else is just wow. Like, the the pacing seems so off, like, by

the time that you're in the last like 45 minutes of the film,

which is basically half the film, it just feels like you're

just powering through on a lot of stuff. And it's it happens

all super fast. The character motivations are basically

absent. Like i I have no idea what purpose Tom was supposed to

serve, or Tom Mike, right? Is he a man in the chair? He wasn't.

He was in the chair for like, five seconds. And also, why was

he not upset about losing his job? Also, when Hal did the

thing, like, there's no like, you have this whole like story

as crafted about how and Carol knew each other and how, even

there's at some point where Hector, you know, have fallen in

love with Carol since the first time he met her, even though

this never told when that was but Tom Mike is just basically,

like, here, like, he just, we don't know when he was hired.

Why is it that he's friends with Hal even though he spends most

of his time like, saying that, like, responsible Dude, you're

an asshole. And it was like, okay, cool. Like, I have friends

that joke around like that. But, like, it also seems like he was

very serious about that. Like, it's not him calling out how for

something wrong that he's doing, knowing that he could do better.

It just seems like he just genuinely hates this dude. Yeah,

yeah. Hector's whole motivation for destroying the world is he's

just not getting any it felt like a random pivot towards the

second half in the film, when, as you mentioned, like he is

created out to be this character that does have a lot together

for him. And I will just say to the main reason why this is a

cap for me is in the superhero movie that you have a moment to

talk about how the hero is stepping up to the challenge

when he feels that he has lost the faith within himself, and

the dialog is literally, I'm not fearless and being responded

with, well, why aren't you? It's not, it's not like it's a state

of mind. There's there's action. So I agree, if it was like more

scenes in which they showed like why he felt he was afraid, it

would have made more sense, because he kept saying it and

told I believed him, but it never really came across that

way. He failed upwards every single time. And calling it fail

is a stretch, but between watching the Director's Cut and

just the 13 years that have passed since this film has come

out. Have you found anything that could explain well, why is

it that Tom Michaels even in this

Yes, on this edition of loose threads, it is. This is a rare

overlap where the loose threads is my RT alteration. Um, because

I did, I did the research for loose threads after writing down

my RT alteration, and I was shocked that they were one in

the same. So the original version of this movie did not

have Hal Jordan. When Warner Brothers first green lit this

movie, they were going to it was going to be called Green

Lantern, Birth of a hero. It was green. It in 2007 and this movie

would have starred actor Corey Reynolds. He's mainly known for

closer fame as Jon Stewart, and he was also writing it, and it

was going to be a trilogy. And the idea was they would

introduce Jon Stewart first, and then how would be introduced in

the second movie as a way to expand the universe. So they

were going to build it off of Jon Stewart, which solves pretty

much all of the problems of this movie. So I would that would be

my main arte alteration, um, because I think, you know, in in

movie history, we have times where the second versions of

characters are used because they're just the more compelling

versions. For example, Scott Lang is Ant Man, the thief who

can shrink and get into everything, is just more

interesting than another scientist in the current Marvel

structure. So here, this is a fantastic example of, you know

how Jordan is a great hero, and I'm not denying he's iconic. But

if you want a really a Green Lantern story that pun intended

shines, you go to Jon Stewart, someone who had to overcome fear

as a soldier. And in certain versions of the story, he's gone

back to a place where being put in those situations has given

him PTSD, and he has a legitimate reason that is right

in front of us why he struggles with fear and but still does it

anyway. We already see that in his previous life, and it makes

sense for him to take on a new life where he gets to do that

once more on a larger scale. So unfortunately, the script was at

the finish line. Warner Brothers liked it, and then they tossed

it out, and they said, Greg Berlanti, Mark Guggenheim,

Michael Green, get on here and write a brand new script while

they were tossing out the other script. So that's mainly why all

these cooks in the kitchen, from my understanding, they didn't

take anything from Corey Reynolds version of Green

Lantern. But what I can say is that during the development

process, some names considered for Green Lantern, and they're

going to get less likely as like Sam Bradley Cooper, okay, Justin

Timberlake, ooh. Jared, Leto and Jack Black.

I'm so glad that Jack Black chose Kung Fu Panda over this.

And to conclude, loose threads, the trailer to this the original

trailer to this movie was so poorly received that they

dropped the marketing campaign and promoted the 2011 Green

Lantern movie instead, damn. So this was just a crap shoot from

the very beginning. Yep, they were like, You know what, the

animated movie's pretty decent, right? We could, we could push

forward with that? Because this one, 220 box office on a $200

million budget. So huge, huge, huge bomb. Does any of this bomb

have any roots in the comics besides the name Green Lantern?

I will say probably about five minutes of this film, maybe even

less. So, yes, there is obviously, this is an origin

story of an iconic character, Hal Jordan's version of the

Green Lantern. So I'm going to be real quick with this, because

this movie is just like, basically just like, Hey, these

are all characters that you could play around with, just

throw them into the sandbox and create something. This is

basically how it felt, like this movie was being treated based

off the the history of Green Lantern. Because it's not like,

even pulling from, like, the origin story of Hal Jordan as

much, mainly because when Hal Jordan was first introduced in

comics, that was back in 1959 his origin story is featured in

showcase number 22 created by John Broome and Gil Kane, and in

that story is literally called SOS Green Lantern. It's Hal

meeting Aven sir. When Abin Sur crash lands on Earth. He's given

the ring, to be honest, the explanation about how the ring

works and what Hal needs to do to get it to work is way longer

in the comics than it is in this movie. I'm wondering why that

was the case, but I mean, choices were made, and he just

immediately, just jumps into being a superhero. Knows how to

use the ring almost immediately, and he never actually has to

experience the same level of work that he had to do in this

movie, like there's no Hector Hammond at all in his origin

story. In fact, Hector Hammond doesn't get introduced into.

Comics until two years later, once again created by the same

creators in Greenland, turned number five, and in that story,

he's written as a petty criminal who actually comes across a

meteorite that gives him this this look and his abilities, and

is said to be the same meteorite that is given to that is used to

give Gorilla Grodd his his scent, his like super

intelligence as well. Okay, stay away from that meteorite, I

guess. Yeah, just don't touch things that fall from the sky,

people. And I think the other big thing, I couldn't really

find anything about Tom Mike, but we also know for Carol, she

was also introduced in this showcase number 22 I would say

she's probably the most like her character in this film, because

she does end up running Ferris air, and it is kind of an origin

story for her, about like how she's learning to become the CEO

and take the reins. And even in that point, at the end of it's

it's part now of this Compendium that's put together to

reintroduce Green Lantern later on for fans. But in that

original story, she decides that she doesn't want a relationship

with Hal because she wants to focus on her career. And she's

like, I need at least, like, two years. And I was like, that's a

very specific amount of time, but if it's like, fiscal years

and all that, you know, you want to improve your marriage and

whatnot, totally fine. And then the other person that does come

into play or being or thing that comes into play is parallax.

Mike, yeah, again, I cannot find anything. At a later point, I'll

try to see if I could find something. But parallax is

nothing like he is in the movie. In the movie, they kind of

created him as like a Galactus kind of figure in a way that

just doesn't eat planets, but just eats people's fears and

just leaves their carcasses behind, which gives me a whole

that's a whole other conversation for another thing,

because I did not know that by taking the fear out your body, I

would just be left as a husk. That is, that's new. But

parallax has two origins in comics. One is just the name,

and it's the super villain name that how Jordan adopts, when His

stories were being written by Daryl banks and Ron Mars, that

turned him into the Green Lantern that was killing other

Green Lanterns, and decided to take their rings so that he

could compete with JLo for the number of rings collected in one

period of time.

And then in 2004 is when we get Green Lantern rebirth. This is

when Jeff John's he basically revolutionizes DC for quite some

time in the early 2000s to now, would work with Ethan Van Sciver

to turn parallax into the entity that is plow that is, that's the

embodiment of fear, and is the power source of the yellow

lantern rings. And this was all just to retcon it so that Hal

wasn't a person that a Green Lantern that turned evil. So

they were trying to give back Hal the ring, the Green Lantern

ring, and by showing that he didn't just turn evil. He

actually was possessed by this being, very similarly to what we

saw in the Green Lantern. Beware, my power tomorrow. Verse

film. So those are that's like a pretty new introduction to kind

of like who parallax is. Again, nothing like we saw in the film.

A lot of these characters have very different origin stories

and different things that play out for them. Hal never even had

to compete against such a big threat until much later on, like

really, into later latter 2000s is when he's, like, competing

against parallax and other cosmic entities like that. For

the most part, all of his adventures have been scientists

who wants to use rocket and weapons technology to take over

the world, and he's just realizing they all have some

kind of connection to Ferris air. Oh, well, it's nice when

your villains have a theme. Yeah. So that's really the story

of how it's a pretty short story is not as compelling as we've

talked about for like Jon Stewart. But the crazy thing

about showcase number 22 is that it's often seen as like the

beginning of this new era of DC Comics, because with the first

set of comics to come out back in the 30s and 40s as well. So

we did have a Green Lantern back then. This was Alan Scott. We

also had a flash that wasn't Barry Allen, it was Jay Garrick.

Superman was around, Batman was around. Still Clark Kent and

Bruce Wayne, respectively. But eventually, as their stories

would progress, they were written originally during times

of war, so it was easy. Easy to draft these stories, because not

that many, I would just assume, not that many people were just

paying attention, because it's like we're dealing with a whole

World War. So the stories can be pretty simplistic. A lot of it

was just crime stuff, Thriller stuff, kind of little, little

tidbits of like, just maybe magic or anything like that. But

then, at the direction of the new head of DC, at that time,

they decided to bring forth the Silver Age comics, and instead

of it being Let's Reboot the stories of like Alan Scott and

Jay Garrick. Let's create new characters under the moniker of

these older characters and involve some sci fi element to

them. So Green Lantern was the second one flash would be

considered the first character to be reintroduced into the

world to DC, under this super under this like more sci fi

element. And then Green Lantern will be introduced into this

whole concept of like space and like basically interstellar

travel and this larger sense of, there's a world and

civilizations that are out there that isn't our own. So they got

really into that idea. We actually wouldn't even really

meet this whole sense of this whole conceptualized idea of the

Green Lantern Corps until much later. I would actually say that

Jeff Johns is more so responsible for this, like,

creation of like, what it actually looks like. Because

most of the stories that do get told about the Green Lantern

Corps is just like, hey, there's another one out there. Like,

when John Broome and Gil Kane started taking the reins of

writing Green Lantern. After the success from showcase number 22

they started introducing characters like tomar Rey, and

then eventually we'll get like Sinestro and kill awog, who will

be introduced, showing that, like the Green Lanterns aren't

just Hal Jordan is this much larger world. And it helped

because even by a time when comic sales were declining,

because everybody was just like, we're kind of tired of putting

our heroes through these like crime, horror and romance

stories. Now it's like, cool. There's like a world out there

that we don't really know about, a space that we don't really

know about, that these heroes are venturing into. And it

probably also helped that, like given at this time in the 50s to

the 60s, everything was about space travel. So they're like,

what is out there? What wonders can we see? And it gave these

comic book creators a chance to just create a world and

characters and beings that, like people probably just fantasize

what these aliens will look like, and now they're seeing us

like, okay, here are some things of what to keep in mind for when

you do see an alien. So with Green Lantern, he does

revolutionize the idea of comics, and I would say the

world of comics, and I'm assuming that maybe this is

something that we're trying to do with this Ryan Reynolds movie

as well, because looking at the timeline of what everything

happens specifically about DC, we do have the Dark Knight that

comes out, I think about 2007 or so eight. 2008 by that time, DC

had not had any other real movies going on. There was

Batman Begins. But prior to that, it was Catwoman, which

was, you know, a failure. Prior to that steel, again, a failure.

So now you have the only character in superhero

storytelling from the DC side is someone who is involved directly

in this crime and horror, that element that the comics from the

past, they felt, where people were moving away from, and it's

possible the same thing was happening here, where it's like,

you see other people, other organizations are building out

these like sci fi stories, 2000 the year 2000 kind of, like,

changed everything of what we understood about technology. So

now that we had all this new technology to mess around with,

they were like, All right, let's probably experiment again with

the Sci Fi element. And that's why we probably got this version

of Green Lantern to be focused in on space travel, be focusing

on cool looking ships, alien life forms larger than life,

devastating entities, because it was trying to do what this comic

did, and bring people back into the superhero storytelling. And

that's my TED talk on comics and why I think Green Lantern tried

to do something more, but unfortunately, we didn't have

the willpower to stick around to recognize its efforts, even if I

might just be putting in 10 on one. So Ryan Reynolds. If you

agree with this, or would like to agree with it, please let us

know. Give us a call. Get away for stepple, out of your pool of

cash from Wolverine and Deadpool for a second. And, you know,

give us a shout. Um, all right. So I mean, before we close, I

have to always make sure that we given the fact that we've talked

about the Green Lantern. Um, I gotta ask who's still your your

top Green Lantern choice in this moment. Oh, to play, yeah. Oh,

you know, it's an easy layup. I mean, it's, it's an unfair but,

I mean, come on, let's just Michael. Michael B Jordan, go

ahead. All right, go over there. Do you do a Green Lantern real

quick. He's played a soldier multiple times. He has the

presence. He knows he he understands a good comic book

movie and a not so good one. So just, just, just let him cook

this doesn't cook his Green Lantern. And alternatively,

Aldous Hodge, we can forget you a hawk, man. It's fine. It's

fine. I don't even remember. You just go do it. Not the rock, not

the rock. Oh, not the rock. We can't bring him. There any DC

movies, not John. Um, well, my choice would have been al

discharge, and I do like Michael B Jordan. I have been thinking

about, though, for kilowatt, um, and I am forgetting his name

right now, off the tip of my tongue, but it is, have you ever

seen the show sweet tooth? Yes, yes. The guy who plays Tommy

jeopard Big Man, I would love for him to have a shot as

kilowatt. I know exactly you're talking about. Yeah, I I will

put it in the show notes as this is my unofficial, official fan

casting of that character, because as we get closer to 2025

we do know that DC is going to go through a major revolution on

the storytelling that's there. We already know that the end of

2024, we're already going to get creature Commandos, and they're

already casted. Guy, Gardner, as you know, will be reprising his

Green Lantern will be Nathan Fillion, so he's no longer Hal

Jordan is that's going to be a shocking twist for everybody,

but I'm excited to see what he's going to do. But we do know that

they are creating that Green Lantern series. It has been

officially greenlit. So I'm looking forward to whoever they

cast in that television series, and I'm hoping that does well

and it even matches up with the Corey Reynolds version that you

were talking about, because I do know they were trying to treat

it as more for buddy cop, and it would make so much sense if they

were able to expand that story out. Yeah, you

pitched space cops. Let's see some space cop stuff for once.

Let's see it. Yes, if we can do Starship Troopers, we can do

space cops, Green Lantern style. Okay, people, all right. So that

wraps up our episode. We have reached our final stop here on

the Ryan and Hugh road trip. Thank you all so much for

joining us for this capercap edition, as we got a chance to

really learn and see what these characters were like as they

grew through time, and especially these actors.

Because, you know, bringing to life what was Deadpool and

Wolverine took a lot of work. It took almost our entire superhero

movie watching experience to see those characters come to life on

the big screen. So very happy that they were able to do that

after this arduous journey that they had to go through. We are

definitely going to be bringing some more content to you soon.

Just keep an eye out for our social medias, for updates on

episodes that you can find across Apple, Spotify, YouTube

and many other platforms. If you like what you heard, be sure to

support us with a one time gift on buy me a coffee or monthly on

Patreon. Take care of yourselves and remember that once again,

don't let people touch your face. Apparently, they can find

out everything about you, like they're a scammer trying to find

out your like, I don't know like you're you're just getting nor

insecurity for your face, really, is what I'm saying.

Yeah. And if you are trying to win over your romantic interest

you've had your entire life, don't start by sniffing them,

because that's not, that's the end, right there. Just don't,

don't start with that. That's just, please don't do that.

Respect personal space. Thanks again for listening. If you

liked what you heard, press that follow button and share us with

a friend, and don't forget, you can always see more updates and

content on our social media accounts, just by searching at

Cape or cap you.