‘Green Lantern’ Director Reveals Why the Movie Flopped: "Our Bad Guy Was Just a Cloud With a Face on It"

Another reason is that it just came out too late. Put the film up against the mid 2000s Fantastic Four and it probably would have been seen as "fine" and possibly even got a sequel (like the Fantastic Four film did).

By 2011 we already had Iron Man 1 & 2, Hulk and a recent Thor film. Sure Hulk and Thor were weaker, but Captain America would come out a month later and tease The Avengers.

You needed a STRONG showing to compete with that, and Green Lantern was a 2011 film made for 2005.

DC then struggled to play catch up and never even looked at Green Lantern until the game was already over.

I could have told him that 14 years ago when i refused to watch his obviously bad movie.

One of many problems. I’m optimistic next film or tv show for the property will be a marked improvement though.

He didn't earn his powers...

Edit: Also, there were no stakes in the "showing the hero being good before his powers" scene because it was a sales-pitch...