Ryan Reynolds Was Right: Green Lantern's Costume Is Perfect (And It Should Return)
Over the years, Ryan Reynolds and the entire "Green Lantern" movie have taken a lot of punches, with most fans agreeing that it's the bottom of the barrel regarding superhero movies. It even made the director swear off comic book movies. However, most of the vitriol stems from the titular hero's costume, which was infamously entirely CGI, but was that such a bad idea?
While many think that the "Green Lantern" costume shouldn't have been greenlit, we offer a different opinion: the concept was perfect, but the execution was lacking. In the movie, Hal Jordan's (Reynolds) suit is meant to be made out of energy, not cloth, meaning CGI would've always been necessary to bring it to life. Furthermore, an energy suit should look otherworldly, given that he receives it from the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps. If Hal sported a costume that looked like it came from Earth, it wouldn't make much sense regarding the cosmic nature of the character and the other Green Lanterns.
Even Reynolds has defended the CGI costume, despite endlessly poking fun at it in his "Deadpool" movies. "It has to be virtual rather than spandex," he told Empire. "This is a suit from an alien planet. It's not 'The Dark Knight.' The suit is powered specifically on his will, his emotion, his creativity, and his imagination."
Future Green Lantern movies should use CGI costumes
With the Green Lantern Corps eventually returning to the screen under James Gunn and his new DC Universe, they can right the wrongs of the Ryan Reynolds-led movie. The concept of a CGI suit should stay, but this time, let's finish it before releasing it to the public.
During an appearance on the podcast "Red Carpet Rookies," "Green Lantern" costume designer Ngila Dickson suggested that future superhero movies should continue exploring CGI costumes, saying that the studio dropped the ball on the visual effects after they came up with great ideas for Hal Jordan's suit. "I really think we should [explore CGI costumes]," she said. "Because if [Green Lantern] had been in the hands of what was originally intended, an absolute A1 top VFX house, I think it would have been an entirely different ballgame." While "Green Lantern" may be a smudge on her resume, Dickson was also the costume designer for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, so she knows a thing or two about successful design.
It's been over a decade since "Green Lantern" was released, and movie-making technology has advanced tremendously. If future projects were to have another CGI costume, it would be, like Dickson said, a different ballgame. In a way, Reynolds' "Green Lantern" was ahead of its time, and while the movie still has plenty of other issues, the concept of a CGI suit for an intergalactic crime fighter is something future projects should explore.