REVIEW: GREEN LANTERN
Last Updated on Friday, 01 July 2011 21:01 Friday, 01 July 2011 20:58
Put aside the Marvel and we have DC's big hit of the summer... Green Lantern. Or at least, we thought it would be a big hit but from what Facebook statuses of the geek community seem to reveal, “hit or miss” would be a more realistic entitlement.
To those who do not know the base story, Green Lantern is all about rings of power which harness energy from different colors of the light spectrum, green being will. A Corps of ring wielders exist and they serve as the guardians of the universe, which is cut up into a couple of thousand sectors. Think Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings, as one guy at my comic book store once put it when explaining it to me many months ago. Or at least that's what it translates to in the comics, the movie is more of a “let's save the damsel in distress” deal where CGI and fancy effects were given plenty of attention while the plot was seriously compromised. More After The Jump......
This film is all about how Hal Jordan, a human played by Ryan Renolds, gets his ring of power from Abin Sur, a “dying purple alien” and how Hal comes to be known as the Green Lantern. While Ryan Renolds was not a bad casting choice, the script yielded to a character that seemed more of a Kyle Rayner Green Lantern along with a hint of Guy Gardner. Simply put, Hal's blatant cockiness was replaced by a lot of insecurity and whining and while such attributes have their place in an origin story, they were overabundant and prevented Hal Jordan from being who Hal Jordan needed to be.
Alas, it only gets worse from here. Although she was fabulous in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Blake Lively comes off than little more than a pretty girl in her role as Carol Ferris, daughter of the president of Ferris Aircraft. While her codename of “Sapphire” during simulations was a brilliant tribute to her Star Sapphire identity that is revealed later on in the comics, she spends most of the movie showcasing a wardrobe that belongs better on Gossip Girl. However, it is the script to be blamed as there is no room for character development on her behalf.
That being said, the way Oa was portrayed as well as well-known characters by franchise fans such as Tomar Re, Kilowag and Sinestro was very much accurate and the film's special effects were simply fabulous. With the exception of a particular scene after the credits which I hope is shed more light in a sequel, all of the “bad” scenes really happen on Earth. Introducing Parallax in the first film of a franchise was a little too much and his defeat seemed forced and irrational as well. The first half of the movie was actually enjoyable, particularly Hal's training with Kilowag but once he returns to Earth and the government begins to analyze Abin Sur's DNA, things start to plummet downhill. Including mad scientist creepiness that plenty of geek girls have stumbled upon at conventions and how it suddenly evolved to swallow an abnormally large portion of the film's plot.
Was it necessarily bad? No, not really. There are plenty of fans who liked the movie. However, given Marvel's successes with Thor and X-Men: First Class, this is the “red headed stepchild” of superhero movies as far as this summer is concerned. See it if you must because you are dying of curiosity, but if you can pass then don't waste your time on it and save up the ticket for Captain America instead.
Rating: C+
