Green Lantern Review

Green Lantern Review
By Jose Plot:

A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.

Main Cast:

Ryan Reynolds (Hal Jordan), Peter Armguard (hector Hammond), Mark Strong (Sinestro), Temuera Morrison (Abin Sur), Blake Lively (Carol Ferris), Michael Clark Duncan (Kilowog voice), Clancy Brown (Parallax voice), Geoffrey Rush (Tomar-Re voice), Angela Bassett (Dr. Amanda Waller)

Review:

So finally DC Comics and Warner Bros release a comic movie that is not Batman or Superman. A big gamble for them considering the lack of trust on their comic properties. Which you can’t blame them when Jonah Hex, and Catwoman were bombs and Superman Returns did not do as well as they had hoped. They picked one of DC Comics biggest books (not named Batman or Superman) Green Lantern. I am a big fan of the comics and all of it’s rich and brightly detailed story. And I will try to separate my comic geek from the movie geek. But it will be hard to do when Green Lantern didn’t light up the box office or my interest.

I will come out with it now, but Green Lantern wasn’t the movie it could have been. There were some bright spots along with many dull spots. And the overall feel for me was that they tired too hard to make a romance movie and when they realized that this was supposed to be a comic book movie they rushed to fix the problem. This is the problem between DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Marvel has books dealing with real world issues and situations. Their heroes and villains are everyday people sometimes that gain or have powers. They are relatable to a certain degree. And that is why their movies work. DC on the other hand have gods and aliens and it is rarely relatable to the normal person. Now my argument could be crap but this is how I feel why the movie did not work out as well. Instead of this fighter pilot getting the ring to become a space cop powered by his imagination and will power turned into a romantic movie about a pilot getting a ring and then getting the girl and then oh look bad guy.

Reynolds did a decent job as Hal Jordan and a Green Lantern. I just didn’t think he should have been Hal. Blake Lively did nothing for me. I actually did not like her at all in this. Every time she was on, and she was on a lot, it didn’t work for me. Although I seriously liked Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond. He did a really great job and I liked the look they gave him for his character. I mean it would have been really hard to have a huge and I mean huge headed character floating around. Then Mark Strong did a good job as Sinestro. But then that brings me to the Green Lanterns themselves and the costumes.

The costume for Green Lantern/Reynolds was CGI. At first I had a problem with it but then it grew on me rather fast because it made sense. The costume is a construct itself. A protective uniform that conforms to the body type of the ring wearer. So it being an organic and body forming thing was a great idea and looked great. Kilowog looked and sounded great, Tomar-Re looked good and the overall look an feel of the other lanterns we were shown all looked great. The green energy constructs all were great. They felt solid and not cheesy at all.

But the bad thing is we didn’t get enough. We just got glimpses and a few shots and a bit of training. All broken scenes. Nothing lasted long enough for me to say wow this is money well spent, look it is that Green Lantern, and oh look it is that one. I wanted more of Oa and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. Especially with the amount of money they spent making this movie. Parallax on the other hand worked for me. Because, I am not sure everyone caught it, but it was said that a Guardian was corrupted by the Fear power turning him into Parallax. Good looking and scary. It worked for me. I just didn’t agree in how it was destroyed. All this time planets were killed and many lanterns as well and Hal, all by himself, was able to stop it? Really? I just sat through the movie and saw it destroy and kill people and planets and then one person stops it and kills Parallax in a couple of minutes. If you only didn’t spend a long ass time with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Final Thoughts:

Green Lantern had it’s faults, which I wrote about above. But for being the only DC Comic movie out that doesn’t have Batman and Superman in it, they did a decent job. My inner comic nerd liked it and enjoyed the movie regardless of the many faults. I just wished they toned down all the romantic scenes and gave more Green Lantern. I really liked seeing my favorite characters brought to life on the big screen even if it was brief. Will we see the already planned second and third parts? I am not sure, but considering we had a during credits scene of Sinestro putting the yellow ring on and gaining the yellow power of Fear (along with his signature yellow costume) I sure hope we get an action packed sequel pitting the Green Lanterns against Sinestro and his Yellow Lanterns.
Meanwhile I will stick with my Green Lantern comics.

Ratings: 3 out of 5