10 Terrific Scenes From Otherwise Terrible Comic Book Movies
6. Hal Jordan Travels To Oa (Green Lantern)
Warner Bros.
Green Lantern, more-so than Batman & Robin, probably takes the cake for being the worst comic book film ever made.
You see, Batman & Robin - for all its faults - at least had the revitalising quality of an in-prime Arnold Schwarzenegger. 2011's Green Lantern, on the other hand, has nothing. Ryan Reynolds was tremendously miscast in the role of Hal Jordan, the villain looked like it belonged in a Domestos advert and Oa, the hub of the entire Green Lantern mythos from the comics, featured for about five minutes.
Like, you have a vehicle for one of the most cosmic-looking aspects of the DC Universe, and what do you do? Set all of the film on Earth. Further to the film's tragedy is that it completely glosses over the one scene that would've made it worth watching - the one where Hal actually gets to visit the Lantern home world.
Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan and Mark Strong are all wasted because of the decision, and the DCEU (as it then sort-of existed) ceased to be. No wonder it's the butt of so many Deadpool jokes...
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
