It is not that Michael Goldenberg and Martin Campbell aren’t proficient creatives in their very own proper, it is that Warner Bros. employed the incorrect people to supervise a superhero film. Studio decision-making drowned out any enthusiasm that the unique staff delivered to the venture, and the dearth of ardour is clear within the closing reduce. The cartoonish CG fits that the Inexperienced Lantern Corps members put on really feel like Warner Bros. throwing cash on the wall and seeing what sticks, which is precisely what the state of affairs was like in response to Ryan Reynolds. He informed Variety:
“There was simply too many individuals spending an excessive amount of cash and when there was an issue somewhat than say, ‘Okay, let’s cease spending on particular results and let’s take into consideration character. How will we exchange this huge spectacle factor — that is not working in any respect — with one thing that is character primarily based?’ and that simply by no means — the considering was by no means there to try this. And to their credit score, it is a very old-fashioned manner of taking a look at issues. It is simply ‘Let’s simply preserve spending our manner by means of this.’ And that was — it did not work.”
“Inexperienced Lantern” was a casualty of wanton studio spending, an overcompensation for missing a completely developed imaginative and prescient. Warner Bros. suffered for its personal errors, losing an estimated $75 million when the movie solely raked in $220 million on the field workplace in opposition to a $200 million funds (and that does not even embrace all of the promotional tie-ins). Satirically, a superhero whose powers are primarily based on will and braveness was the sufferer of a studio enjoying it a lot too secure.