GREEN LANTERN Director Martin Campbell Reflects on Film’s Shortcomings and Biggest Regrets

Director Martin Campbell has never been one to shy away from the reality of Green Lantern’s legacy. In a recent interview with ComicBook, Campbell opened up about his experience making the 2011 film, discussing what went wrong, what he would change, and how he feels about Green Lantern still being the punchline of superhero movie jokes all these years later.

While Green Lantern was a high-profile attempt to launch a new DC franchise, it ultimately failed to win over critics and audiences. While Campbell acknowledges the film’s struggles he still enjoyed working with Ryan Reynolds.

Campbell said: “Look, Ryan’s terrific. We actually had a very good time making the movie. It was a tough one to make, and he and Blake Lively were great to work with.

“He’s always such a witty guy, you know — I think I said this to another writer — I wish he’d written the script! I think he would have done a great job.”

Given Reynolds' comedic timing and fun wit, it's easy to imagine a version of Green Lantern infused with his signature humor, perhaps closer to what he later brought to Deadpool.

One of Campbell’s biggest regrets was how the film handled its villains, Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) and the cosmic entity Parallax. In hindsight, he believes the two should have been more closely intertwined.

He explained: “You sort of somehow want that character to be related to the villain of the piece, you know. They should all interconnect somehow, and it didn’t in the script, but all the characters are very present in the comics—Sinestro, Kilowog, all the… But, at the end of the day, it failed, which I was very sad about, but there you go. That’s life.”

While the movie set up Hammond as a compelling, human antagonist with a tragic arc, Parallax, who was the real big bad, was essentially, as Campbell put it, “a cloud with a face on it, right?”

The film hinted at a connection between the two, as Hector gained his powers from Parallax’s energy through an autopsy on Abin Sur’s corpse, but the relationship was never fully realized. Instead of developing into a major threat, Hammond was unceremoniously discarded when Parallax drained his life force.

Despite Green Lantern’s mediocrity, Campbell isn’t bitter about how it’s looked at today. He’s seen all of Reynolds’ jokes about the film in Deadpool and doesn’t take them personally.

At this point, Green Lantern has become kind of a cautionary tale in the superhero movie genre, a reminder of what happens when a big-budget comic book adaptation lacks a clear vision. A lesson a lot of studios still have yet learn.