Unironically DEFENDING The CGI Of Green Lantern

👉👉 If you are interested in creating these VFX at home - check out DoubleJump Academy.
They have both free and paid workshops to elevate your skills and help bring your vision to life:

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite having a budget comparable to many other visually appealing films of its era, the suit in 2011’s “Green Lantern” is widely regarded as one of the worst examples of CGI in cinematic history. It’s so bad that even the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, takes every opportunity to mock the floating, CG-rendered head.

But is this criticism fair? Wobbly heads on a CG body were a persistent issue until the time-travel suits in “Avengers: Endgame.” Looking back at “Green Lantern” now, it’s nowhere near as bad as some recent examples we’ve seen. Moreover, “Green Lantern” had to maintain this effect throughout the entire film, whereas other examples couldn’t even manage it for a single shot!

In this video, I’ll be the first person in history to defend the CGI of “Green Lantern.” I’ll break down why this effect is so challenging and explore why the filmmakers decided to give their main character a fully CGI body for the entire film, rather than opting for spandex like other movies. We’ll also play devil’s advocate and consider how this single choice may have derailed various aspects of the film’s production, resulting in the somewhat peculiar final product.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Intro
1:22 - Why Was The Suit CGI Anyway?
3:13 - Why Did They Think This Would Work?
3:45 - Soooo What Went Wrong?
5:04 - It's Gets Worse...
6:50 - Brilliant
8:31 - Getting The Neck To Work
10:18 - It's Gets EVEN Worse...
11:28 - Defending the Suit
12:52 - The Constructs
14:11 - The Lantern Corps
15:14 - Outro And Thanks
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow me on any of these for more VFX Videos :)

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More VFX analysis here!:

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES:

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#greenlantern #vfx #deadpool #ryanreynolds #filmmaking

[CGWHY]

This is the first video I’ve ever been really nervous to post because it’s my first time addressing some “bad” CGI - Although, I’ve tried to be really fair to it.

I also really enjoyed the second half of this video where we discussed all the pros of a CGI suit because those certainly have been overlooked for many years - Especially all of the Lantern Corps stuff. I think that was really impressive and for sure deserves more credit.

But yea, how do you guys feel about this suit? Did this video change your opinion on it at all? Or is it still bad 😂

[Ladondorf]

Another huge problem is that the suit is supposed to be glowing but there's no green light reflecting on his face or his surroundings. That's why his head and body don't look connected.

[charlespuruncajas]

When you see the CGI quality of The Flash and most MCU Phase 4 and 5 projects... you must give a pardon to Green Lantern

[tpyntavyk]

I'll just come out and say it: this movie's problem is not the CGI, it's the story itself.

[rocksreviewsreactions]

I kid you not, I could never see the problem with the Green Lantern suit. Sure, it can look weird at times, but it never bothered me that much. It's crazy though how it looks a lot better than CGI in some modern films.🤔

[DanteYewToob]

Funny thing about the iron man “floating head” is that I actually saw a cosplayer on Reddit who talked about how people kept saying she photoshopped her face onto armor…
She kept insisting her and her bf made the armor, 3D printed and custom fitted and everything… the issue is that the metallic paint of the full body armor without the helmet creates an odd effect where the armor and head appear to be lit completely differently. Thats what makes it look fake, is the mismatched lighting. She literally had the Iron Man effect in real legit armor anyway!
The people in the Reddit thread were talking about how the CG artists probably used light simulation and made the suit look real, but not right. There’s a difference. Sometimes CGI has to fudge things because our eye is so used to a certain look, like Hollywoo explosions and stuff.. so instead of making it “look right” they made it “look real” but the problem is that in that specific situation, “real” looks fake because of a trick of the light! Haha
So this girl made a few posts showing the armor being made, and how they took the photos and inside with harsh lighting it looks fine… outside in softer daylight it immediately started looking like a fake floating head stuck on armor. But a cool thing was that by removing one sleeve of armor, the effect goes away.. it gave our brain another reference for human skin and shadows and lighting and it seemed much less fake!

Our brains are so weird… light is so weird. It’s so complicated and small things can mess with our perception of what’s real, or what looks “wrong” to us even if we can’t explain what or why it feels wrong…

[YasonYou]

That bit about that alien flying as if he was swimming while Reynold's character flies rigidly like a jet blew my mind. What an amazing detail!

[brettseegmiller]

It definitely wasn't a CGI issue, it was a story and art direction issue

[RichardServello]

Constructs were really interesting. There were SO MANY that none were art directed before they got to comp. We would get EVERY energy pass they came up with and everyone would look dev a single construct, then the best design would win. My look of the brick wall was used in the training scene. Might not seem like much, BUT it was the only non-glossy construct so it was fun to create something that still fit in the world but was technically different.

[twopintsofmilk]

People give it a lot of crap but it's literally the greatest live action Green Lantern movie ever made.

[Meowtro]

Shoulda had a real suit for reference that was painted over with whatever CGI they needed.

[jeshuruncarlos]

With Ryan Reynolds trying to make every possible joke with Green Lantern and the General Public hating on the movie, I'll say this: This movie was the only movie we had at home on DVD and we used to watch this movie over and over again. I just liked the movie and I loved to watch the action scenes over and over

[VogtTD]

The idea that it was the worst cg ever is absurd. The suit itself looked amazing, even if it didn’t blend perfectly with Ryan’s head. If the film had been better, nobody would have cared about the imperfect cg.

[yakomachaco]

A big thing in Wonderlands favor is the stylization, which is purposefully uncanny, where green lantern is supposed to be set in the “real world”

[olabassey]

i worked as a 3d animator when i was younger, never thought the cg was bad

[RichardServello]

Very surprised to see so many of my shots in this review. That's rare when someone does a deep dive into one of my shows.

[Ventralzr]

For years I believed I was the only soul that didn't hate this movie. Yes, it had a bad script and the CGI was noticeable, but I always praised their character design and world building. One of the scenes that stuck in my head since I watched it, was when we got to see all the lanterns and see the alien design with their unique suit/armors. But outside from Hal Jordan and Parallax, the concept and consistency with the lanterns was truly enjoyable for me and I respect the ambition and their efforts.

TBH I think this movie became one of those memes that everyone knows they must trash on it because it's fun.

[RetroX]

I never Hated Green Lantern Movie... better CGI than The Flash movie...

[erkscollectibles]

This movie isn't among the best superhero movies of all time, but it certainly isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I think it's fun.

[dunsparcedm]

As a result of watching this video, I had a dream last night where Ryan Reynalds became my roommate and I was hanging out with him for a few weeks and the entire time he was kinda rude and didn’t like me but he was also really insecure about being in green lantern so I spent the time trying to convince him that green lantern wasn’t actually THAT bad of a movie and he shouldn’t be so hard on himself especially when the problems with the movie weren’t his fault. Over the time he grew to be a bit kinder to me and to himself