At a certain point around the summer of 2010, I had a lot of people tell me I had an uncanny resemblance to Ryan Reynolds. At the time, people couldn’t quite remember his name. He was “that guy from The Proposal” or “That guy from Just Friends”. “That guy from Van Wilder” and so on. It started to build to a point that I just bought into it, recognizing the slow pattern that would emerge with every mention: the slight confusion, the smile of recognition, the discerning how just to bring it up to me, either as a question or an assertive comment. Sometimes I had to be reminded it’s not a bad thing to be compared to an actor you and many others like. It could be worse! You could remind people of a serial killer!
When I moved to Austin, Ryan’s career was in a weird spot. He had just come off the cosmic misfire of Green Lantern, followed by The Change-Up, Safe House, R.I.P.D., and voice work in Turbo and The Croods (if these movies barely sound familiar to you, well, that’s my point). In fact, my favorite work of his was probably his least-seen, as a very loopy, troubled dude in The Voices. You could say he was repaying his dues. Finding his way back into a steady career, grinding away in Mississippi Grind and other smaller fare. Even with all that, the easy joke always came back to Green Lantern. It took me a while, but I later realized all those second glances I got in Austin weren’t just maybe because they thought I was Ryan Reynolds. They may have also been looks of pity, as if they saw me and said “Wow. Look how far the guy has fallen.”
These days, Ryan’s in a much better place. He’s got a legit franchise with Deadpool (even if Disney threatens to neuter it), as well as this year’s 6 Underground and Free Guy. He’s doing pretty well for himself. So as I chose to cut off my HBO Now subscription and looked for some movies to check out before it expired, I saw Green Lantern just sitting there, begging to finally be watched. It felt like destiny. Like a rite of passage. A necessary look in my personal and film-loving mirror.
The biggest surprise is that the film is not nearly as bad as its reputation. I’d certainly rewatch this over many other DCEU offerings such as Batman v Superman or Justice League or Suicide Squad. But while it’s clearly an origin story, it’s not the one you think. The one all of us fortunate viewers thought we saw is the origin of Hal Jordan. What we really should have seen is the origin story of Hollywood’s coolest couple and the Kiwi filmmaker that would rise above it all.
WE FOUND LOVE IN A HOPELESS PLACE
In the midst of all the exposition Green Lantern throws at you, there’s a pretty clear concept: green light is powered by will(power), and yellow light by fear. Warner Brothers, eager for a new franchise, clearly greenlit Hal Jordan’s solo movie as its own Iron Man, an origin story about a cocky-but-soon-to-be-humbled character that would lead us into the Justice League, DC’s version of the Avengers. But while it was a green light that got it all started, it’s an abundance of yellow light shining on every decision after. Every decision is made out of fear.
There’s hiring a director who runs an efficient, studio-friendly set, but has never dealt with CGI of this magnitude. There’s wearing a greenscreen suit throughout filming so you can make changes later if people don’t like the superhero suit you came up with. There’s hiring the guy who wrestled the longest Harry Potter installment into a film to rewrite the work of 3 highly-talented, comic-book-knowledgeable writers. And then there’s the really fun one: throwing in a muddy CGI villain that looks like a giant shart (with horrifying eyes and a mouth) because you’re worried the sensible villain you have isn’t enough. I could go on. Movies are exceptionally hard to make. And I have no doubt everyone gave it their best shot. But sometimes these things fail because fear is guiding everything and crowding out any kind of voice.
Sometimes people who survive near-death experiences together feel incredibly close to each other. Sometimes even close enough to start dating and, I don’t know, later get married and have three adorable girls.
You can see Reynolds and Lively doing their best to bring this film to life. But they’re burdened with too much. Bad wigs. A weird mask. Bizarrely muted colors. Studio interference. A director who hated the choice for his leading character. It’s a lot. And yet! You can see that spark between Reynolds and Lively. You can tell they probably ad-libbed a few lines, and they were honestly the best ones. You can tell they probably took solace in each other’s new friendship while they watched a giant big-budget movie implode by death of a thousand bad decisions.
Let’s do some gossip math! Filming started in July of 2010. At the time, Lively was dating a Gossip Girl co-star and Reynolds was married to Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johnannson. They wouldn’t officially connect until the following year. Shortly after they finished filming, Blake Lively and Penn Badgley split up that September. It seemed pretty amicable. Her and Badge stayed friends! A couple months later in December, Ryan and Scarlett announced their divorce. Six months later, in June 2011 – Blake was rumored to be dating Leo (not exactly an ego boost for Ryan). But by October 2011, Ryan and Blake had started dating. By September 2012, they got married! Perhaps they saw the disappointing box office returns for Green Lantern and felt drawn to each other. For consolation. For friendship. For reigniting that Green Lantern spark. Sometimes the best relationships are forged in the fires of greenscreen hell.
And sometimes in that greenscreen hell, the next studio voices are forged.
KIWI SURPRISE
Green Lantern is, as far as I can tell, writer/director/actor Taika Waititi’s first American film appearance. Hopefully it was enough to finance his next few projects. I wouldn’t be surprised to find the uncomfortable work situation was an inspiration for his 2014 breakout hit, What We Do in the Shadows. After all, Hollywood is known to gently suck the life out of you. Sometimes for money; sometimes just to let the old, white whales live a little longer. Beyond that, Taika admitted in recent years that his time on the Green Lantern gave him a lot of experience in seeing how a big-budget film can be run. He expressed admiration for director Campbell’s efficiency on set. He probably also saw the perils of relying so heavily on CGI and how running out of money on a $200 million film can lead to even more baffling decisions.
I’d like to think the seeds were planted here for Waititi to make a pretty smooth transition from his New Zealand indie roots (Boy, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) to big-budget studio filmmaking with Marvel’s Thor: Ragnorak. It was so successful a marriage with Marvel that he’ll be returning for 2021’s Thor: Love and Thunder. He’s also been able to get to work with Reynold’s ex-wife in her Oscar-nominated turn in Jojo Rabbit, and Elisabeth Moss, Armie Hammer, and Michael Fassbender in his next film, 2020’s Next Goal Wins.
FROM YELLOW TO GREEN
The good news is that people can change. And sometimes studios do start to get the message. After a series of underwhelming DCEU movies, Warner Brothers seemed to finally be okay with letting their movies do their own non-serial work and let their freak flag fly a bit. Aquaman was its own bit of brainless, joyful fun. Wonder Woman 1984 looks to be letting Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot embrace what people loved about the first Wonder Woman movie and injecting it with even more flair and personality. Birds of Prey did right by its star and producer Margot Robbie, hiring a female writer and director, allowing for a movie with so much energy and spunk without ever being demeaning to its characters. Further, Warner is letting a new Batman fly again under the direction of Matt Reeves, hot off the last couple of highly underrated Planet of the Apes movies.
So really, everyone is doing great. Lively and Reynolds are having a blast with each other on social media while their family continues to grow and blossom. Taika’s career is hitting new heights after the success of Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Ragnorak, opening up opportunities clearly deserving of his skill and talent. And Warner Brothers, nearly ten years after the film that nearly destroyed its hoped-for franchise, seems to finally be coming around to making movies audiences actually want to see. It took a while, but sometimes you just need a Green Lantern to light the way.
