Because Green Lantern didn’t make any money and WB didn’t want to spend any more advertising on it, you probably didn’t know that it was released last Friday on DVD and Blu-ray. Being a fan of the comic and the film, I did know about it and am very pleased with the result.
Green Lantern is not the best comic book adaptation, but I can say that the extended cut benefits greatly from the 9 minutes added to it. For those of you that have seen the film, you will not get any more Green Lantern stuff in the extended cut, but you will get some pretty important backstory that I felt gave the film more heart as well as established all the main characters better. You know how in the movie you see scenes where apparently Hector, Hal and Carol all knew each other as kids? Well in here you see that. You know how in the movie you are supposed to believe that Hal idolized his father growing up? Well in this cut you see that as well.
I have no idea why the film makers would take out these crucial character introductions, I assume they just took out all the exposition so that they could get to Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern faster. The problem with the theatrical cut is that you get Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern faster, but you don’t care about his character and know little about him when he puts on the ring, so you lose any of the humanity from Hal. In the theatrical cut, you know he is a brash test pilot who doesn’t look before he leaps, but in this extended cut, you know why he is the way he is and he comes off as more sympathetic. Removing this from the theatrical cut was a big misstep.
Now lets talk about the extra features, most notably the Maximum Movie Mode! This is one of those picture in picture features that plays in the foreground as the film plays. What is great about this version is it is basically a camera crew following Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment & Current GL Mastermind) as he acts as your tour guide through the entire production of the Green Lantern film. He interviews art directors, costume designers, special effects supervisors, actors and more! Any diehard fan of Green Lantern knows that Geoff Johns may very well be THE biggest fan of the Green Lantern on the planet and this Maximum Movie mode shows that off perfectly. Watching the look on Goeff Johns’ face as all of the creative team talks about Green Lantern with such respect is worth watching this feature alone. Any fan would love to have access to what Geoff Johns had during the making of the film and it is a joy to go with him on this journey.
The very best part of the Maximum Movie Mode is watching Johns talking to Mark Strong as he is sitting in a makeup chair. Here you have the biggest Green Lantern fan on the planet talking to a well respected actor, who is in complete Sinestro makeup talking seriously about the Green Lantern mythos. Even though he doesn’t say it, you can tell that Geoff Johns is thinking, “Pinch me, I am dreaming”. It is really great for any GL fan.
In addition to the feature length Maximum Movie Mode, you get about an hour and a half of Green Lantern featurettes. Even though there are two Green Lantern animated films (Green Lantern:First Flight/Green Lantern:Emerald Knights) there was never really a proper documentary about Green Lantern comics. There is a great documentary on here that tackles the different eras of Green Lantern in comic books. From the Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow run all the way to Geoff Johns’ Blackest Night, this is a great documentary that gives the uninitiated GL fan a basic breakdown of the history of Hal Jordan.
There are also several documentaries on the making of the film that are all wonderful. What is best about all of these featurettes is the fact that they are all in HD. In addition to the featurettes you get some cool deleted scenes from the movie as well as a ten minute preview of the Green Lantern Animated Series that comes out on 11/11/11 on Cartoon Network!
Everything about this set is great! From the extended cut to the features, I am sure that it will please all fans of the Green Lantern film and books. I hope that all the efforts that everyone made to get Green Lantern to the big screen will get the chance to make a sequel.
Extended Cut: ★ ★ ★ ★½
Special Features: ★ ★ ★ ★
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Tags: Bluray, Geoff Johns, Green Lantern, Mark Strong, Review, Ryan Reynolds, Sinestro
