Review: 2.5 out of 5.
Now, to be honest, I was not into the character of Green Lantern. In fact I never got into DC characters besides Bat-Man and Superman. From trailers online, I figured this should be good, but I tried to sink everything I could get, therefore, on the day I made the most of it by eating a buffet. Plus it was for my birthday so I wasn't taking any chances. For some reason, I decided to give it a shot and before I knew it, I ordered my ticket as I had a few laughs then jumped in the hot seat. Apparently, this was very well anticipated but I blocked out any negative snaps at it and made a conclusion myself. The result, pretty disappointing, but can be quite feasible to those like me who did not invest in the character but went there for a barrel of fun. Sorry geeks, all you out there are gonna be crying your eyes out but not in awe but from having your childhood ripped away from you.
This pile of Flubber, Green Lantern, is the superhero film based on DC comics that was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. The film is directed by Martin Campbell and a collected number of writers by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg. It was released in the UK in June 22nd 2011 and distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. Don't ask me why there's so many scriptwriters? Two of which, have written comics for big publishers. If you are not aware of the character, there are many Green Lanterns who hold the power of will - in retrospect to do anything as long as the bearer doesn't feel fear - through an incredulous ring. In this case, Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), a test pilot for airlines at Ferris Aircraft. Jordan is chosen to be a Green Lantern by the ring after he visited his predecessor, extraterrestrial, Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), of Sector 2814. Jordan must learn to past his jerkiness ways and leave all of his doubts and insecurities in order to face an ever present and intergalactic threat that could destroy entire worlds including Earth.
Good:
As much as the delivery was rubbish, the visuals in 3D were good but not the best. For once I want a film that stands out in 3D. For me, at this point, its either 2D or nothing. Ryan Reynolds was a good choice for the lead, but to be honest, I could not see anyone who could play Jordan. His smug, comedic, arrogant fly boy persona was done to a small degree cool to me. The problem is simple; I could not take him seriously. What I liked about this film is it used a thematic subject matter that is predominant within the entire walls of the movie, which are both fear and willpower. Unlike Bat-Man, Green Lantern does not use fear to overcome his foes as an advantage. Instead, he must use it to deal with the fear within himself. Jordan has been afraid most of his life, ever since his father, Martin Jordan (Jon Tenney) passed away in a plane crash. That is what stood out for me as humans are often terrified by things which they can't understand. Anything seen as breaking the realms of physics is a threat and must be under strict order.
The powers are great, but the visual effects are another story. I will talk about that later, now lets go through story-line; in the first 15 minutes or so pretty action packed. The being known as Parallax (Clancy Brown) is set free by siphoning fear and the life force of unfortunate victims of a crash site on the planet Ryut. Later, Abin Sur is mortally wounded by the creature in Sector 2814 and he crash landed on Earth. That sequence was put together, well but up to the point when Hal Jordan is recruited and he transported in a ball of energy to given the power ring and battery. He spoke the oath "In brightest day, In blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight, Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power! Green Lantern's light". After the 30 minutes closed the beginning, with the wary and confused Jordan sort condolence with Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), a fellow pilot. He got caught in a bar fight and his powers revealed itself. Meanwhile, Dr. Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), is summoned by his father Senator Robert Hammond (Tim Robbins) in a secret project to perform an autopsy on Abin Sur. Hector is mutated by a piece of Parallax then granted psychic abilities.
During the middle part of this plot, this is where things started to go downhill. The scenes with a training session on planet Oa between Jordan, Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush), Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Sinestro (Mark Strong) were interesting, laughable and swell, especially sword-fighting using constructs. Despite this it was like irritant fly boy got a big wound, now he flies home to his mother. Jordan did just that, except the visit to clear Mum part over his own pride not being dignified after the battle. I expected a quick resolute of this, luckily he had a best friend back at Ferris Aircraft, Thomas Kalmaku (Taika Waititi), an engineer on the airlines who at least taught him how to be a "space cop" as he broke to Carol. Not much action had broke until the mysterious attack at the helicopter event. The overall premise had a brilliant concept.
Bad:
Let me start with the basics, Green Lantern had an exceptional premise for this kind of movie. I admired the character of the hero but there are instances where he was quite annoying, I mean he is a smart Alec plus a bastard. He was played a bit poorly but Reynolds is alright in some other situations. The script was terrible, one liners did not sink in well for some of the character's dialogue at their crack at in-jokes with the entire middle that had fell very flat. It made me feel that all four of the writers might of took a puff every now and then during lunch. Personally, I blame Geoff Johns, only kidding. Well someone needs a scapegoat, don't we all? The direction was pretty less warming but you could see poor Martin didn't have much to work with. So did the actors, which is not fair on them.
Another thing is visual effects of the ring's animation and energy projections were tacky. Some of them remind me of the Ki effects from one of the worst movies of 2009, Dragon Ball Evolution. We are talking about will power, get it straight people! That kind of might is infinite. Its not stunning enough and feel more like Eye-Toy flare ups. To top it off, the hero had not developed at all, okay he learnt key lessons but that was all. Even the super-villain, Dr. Hector Hammond did not accomplish much accept having successfully maimed his Dad over senseless resentment. Neither sides of the same coin had much to fulfill. It just felt empty, bitter and dreary.
Overall:
I would say to everyone, you most likely would be frankly disheartened. Go out and have a good time but make the most of it whenever you can at the rental store whether you are a comic fan or not. Visuals was quite satisfactory with music so trite you might think it was from a John Williams Superman score. Acting performances were better in the supporting cast than a few of the major casts, blamed with an out of place script and less than ideal SFX. Though nice vision, ideas, designs and sets. I got to say thank you to its promotion, very well done for an settled evening.
- Written by Kbon
