‘Green Lantern’ Director Martin Campbell on Why the Superhero Film Flopped: ‘Our Bad Guy Was Just a Cloud With a Face on It’

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist As the director of “Green Lantern,” Martin Campbell was far from the first, and certainly not the last filmmaker to deliver a stinker of a DC superhero film.

But 14 years after its release, Campbell is unafraid to be honest about its shortcomings — especially the ones he takes personal responsibility for.

Speaking to Variety during a recent press day for his upcoming thriller “Cleaner,” Campbell says the experience of making the film left him with a very specific level of interest in making superhero films: “None whatsoever.” Reflecting on its commercial underperformance (it grossed $237 million against a reported $200 million budget), he blames his unfamiliarity, and consequently, lack of enthusiasm with the genre. “It didn’t do business, I think, for a number of reasons, but the reason I did it was simply I’d never done one before,” he says. “I think quite honestly, if you’re going to do a superhero movie, you have to be in that world a little bit, you know what I mean?

You have to be excited by it. You have to have a background where you are part of that world and you’ve been involved in that thing.