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5.3
/ 10
5 votes
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Superhero movies are coming out in bundles as of late. You barely saw films like these on the big screen during the eighties or nineties because the genre was relegated to television. It wasn't until Christopher Nolan took the helm of Batman did comic book adaptations gain a foothold as bona fide blockbusters. The latest spandex flick is DC comics Green Lantern. The movie was reported to have cost 200 million being one of the most expensive adaptions. Critics have been bashing this movie with a rotten tomato percentage of 27 and even fans aren't giving this much thought. Well, it was a Thursday night and I had nothing better to do, so I checked it out.
Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan who is a test pilot who doesn't feel he is doing anything right in this world. This changes when the injured alien Abun Sir (Temuera Morrison) instructs his ring to choose a new carrier and happens to grab Hal. The ring transports Hal into space to train with the other green lanterns. The lanterns are protectors of the universe who use the power of will to fight any evil force that threatens it. Well, it turns out an evil force known as Parallax (Clancy Brown) wants to destroy the lanterns home-world Oa and earth. It doesn't help that Hal's old friend Hector (Peter Sarsgaard) has a link with Parallax and has kidnapped his love interest Carol (Blake Lively). Now he has to save the universe and Carol while battling his fear that the ring chose the wrong person.
The story was a bit of a mess. They were trying to put so much into 114 minutes that scenes were just flying by, so the pacing was a bit off. They were moving back and forth through the story and not really explaining things well while leaving holes in the plot. They would present a problem and not give enough background for it.
The acting from Reynolds was a bit mixed for me because I feel he is a typecast actor. For most of his movies he is the charming, funny guy, quick with a one liner, and it doesn't change for this movie. I'm not sure on how Hal was in the comics and while Reynolds didn't do a horrible job, I just wasn't expecting this. Blake Lively didn't really do anything bad or good because she played the typical love interest behind the action. Peter Sarsgaard as one of the villains did an excellent job as a power-hungry psychopath. In fact, I was really disappointed on how little screen time he received in the movie as I thought he deserved more for his performance. Everyone else in the movie did their parts well leaving me satisfied enough to not have a negative input on them.
When you see the CGI in the film you can tell they spent 200 million on this. I kind of wish I saw it in 3D because Green Lantern seems like it would be great on it. There are so many scenes where something could pop out right at you and I'm sure they spent a good part of their budget on this. However, it is a shame that they spent so much of it on the graphics when they have done with some less-greedy producers.
Overall: I never read the Green Lantern comics because he never seemed like the superhero I would like, so I can't make too many judgments on the lore or characters. I'm going to assume with all the negative feedback from critics and fans that they didn't do too well with keeping things close to the comics. However, from the average moviegoer's point of view, this film was decent. There were a hand full of problems, but I was entertained for the most part. I will say if you plan on seeing this to do so in 3D. I think my score may have been higher if I had. 5/10.
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#1:
AttnDefDis
- added 07/06/2011, 08:14 PM
While I agree that superhero movies have been
filmed in throngs lately, the original Batman and
Superman franchises were blockbusters in their
day. Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise
certainly did not start this flood. In fact, most
people would put that on the huge success of Iron
Man and its sequel.
Nice review. This
looked average or below. What with the fairly
lame cast and over abundance of CGI. I'd be
interested to hear what a hardcore fan of the
comics has to say about the storyline. I always
liked the Green Lantern in the cartoons, but I
don't know his original origins.
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#2:
BuryMeAlive
- added 07/07/2011, 07:52 AM
Actually the comicbook movies trend started with
X-Men.
@AttnDefDis, "Iron
Man" are you serious? Before that movie we
got Blade, X-Men, Daredevil, Hellboy, Hulk, Sin
City, 300, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The
Punisher, V For Vendetta, Spider-Man, Fantastic
Four, 30 Days Of Night, Constantine, Ghost
Rider...
Since "Iron Man" we got:
Green Lantern, Watchmen, Kick-Ass, Thor, Captain
America...
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#3:
Bill Wolford
- added 07/07/2011, 06:02 PM
don't forget the superhero serials, cartoons
& TV shows of the 40's & 50's. the heroes
have been in some kind of film media almost since
the start of superhero comics themselves.
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#4:
AttnDefDis
- added 07/07/2011, 07:46 PM
@BuryMeAlive, I didn't say I agreed with it. I
said most people would chalk it up to Iron Man
(based on what I've read about the box office
sales and what not). Besides, I don't remember an
absolute barrage of superhero movies in theaters
like what we've had as of late. Plus, most of the
latest crop have been Marvel characters (Punisher,
Thor, X-Men, Captain America, Ghost Rider, The
Avengers, Spider-Man, etc.) Just like, Iron Man.
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#5:
Edd
- added 07/09/2011, 01:03 AM
This stays pretty true to the source material. I
think one reason it got such bad reviews is that
the origin story is much harder to tell than other
superhero films.
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