Green Lantern

Posted by benjamin on June 27, 2011

This was it. Green Lantern was my movie of the summer. It was to be the big screen adaptation of one of my favorite comic book superheroes. Even when the first trailer was released and genuinely a letdown across the internet and world, I tried to hold out hope. Then when subsequent images or video was released, my hope started to grow stronger. Well, I guess my hope was sticking around just too long.

My two greatest fears for this movie revolved around Ryan Reynolds playing the lead and the seemingly overuse of CGI to create the DC world of the Green Lantern. The good news is that those two fears were conquered and each was better than expected. Ryan Reynolds played Ryan Reynolds as only he could but it worked for Hal Jordan. He’s never going to win an academy award, but he carries charisma that makes it easy for many to watch him (mainly the ladies I guess but that’s not charisma).

For the CGI, it definitely seemed overused, but for a movie that is centered partly in outer space and with a superhero that can create anything imaginable through his ring, the use of CGI and a large amount of it was a must. The CGI team definitely put in overtime to clean up many of the early shots that looked cheap and fake. They weren’t able to make it all perfect, but the work performed on each of the constructs (the creations from the Green Lantern’s ring) was beautiful. Each one of them was exactly how I could picture it would be in real life after reading the comics for so many years. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat anticipating each new creation. My personal favorite has to be the race car.

Now for the bad news, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, the script, the pace, and probably a few other things I’ve tried not to remember. Don’t get me wrong. This movie is not as bad as the internet is trying to make it out to be. Worse than X-Men 3 and Wolverine? Ouch, I’m not buying that one. This movie won’t win any awards, but at least it is watchable.

The largest issue here is the script based predominately on a great comic story, “Secret Origins”. Martin Campbell, who has produced films such as Goldeneye and Casino Royale, wasn’t able to build on the poor basis that was present. Mark Strong was brilliantly cast as Sinestro but was given absolutely nothing to do. Peter Sarsgaard was given the creepy role of Hector Hammond but produced an over-the-top presentation of the character that made his use more laughable than needed. Green Lantern is a character and world that is essentially a space opera in the realm of Star Wars and Star Trek. However, the makers of this movie insisted on keeping Hal grounded on Earth. Not sure why this decision was made as every person in attendance will tell you that their favorite parts of the film were Hal’s training sessions on Oa.

Overall, I was hoping for something better, but I only received something mediocre at best. Thankfully it will make enough money to possibly warrant a sequel, but here’s hoping that the second learns from the many mistakes of the first. I wished and hoped for another comic book property given the royal treatment like The Dark Knight was. No superhero movie will be The Dark Knight so maybe it is best to stop looking and just enjoy to be along for the rides. Next up, Captain America: The First Avenger.

The Verdict:

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