Green Lantern Movie Review

by Dr. C-LOS

Marvel has had a lot of success with their movie franchises, even with their lesser known properties. DC, however, has been content to use only their big two, Superman and Batman. That was true until now. Green Lantern, one of DC's biggest properties in comics today, finally hits the big screen. But does the film live up to the potential that the graphic novel iterations seem to imply?

For those not in the know, Green Lantern follows Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), an ace test pilot with the ability to overcome great fear. This ability is recognized by a dying alien and thus bestows onto Jordan a ring that is controlled by the green power of will. This ring can manifest green-colored constructs, limited only by the user's willpower and creativity.

Green Lantern's ring in action.

Jordan then joins an intergalactic group of aliens also chosen to be ring bearers. This group is called the Green Lantern Corps. Their biggest threat is an entity known as Parallax, a parasitic monster that feeds on the yellow power of fear.

This might sound a bit cheesy but this is based on a comic book after all. Green Lantern doesn't take itself too seriously except when needed, and has quite a sense of humor. My favorite gag being when Reynolds does his best impression of Christian Bale as Batman.

"Carol, I have a confession. I'm a green space cop."
"...................
Be serious Hal."

Overall, Reynolds does a great job as Hal Jordan though he may come off a bit more goofy than his comic book counterpart. Blake Lively, however, was not a great choice as fellow pilot Carol Ferris, but at least she is nice to look at. The best performances are by Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond and Mark Strong as Sinestro. Unfortunately, Tim Robbins was chosen as Hammond's father, which is unbelievable considering how close in age they look. Angela Bassett as Amanda Waller was a great choice but her scenes are short-lived. And Sinestro is underutilized, along with other interesting Green Lantern Corps members. Furthermore, some characters could have been better fleshed out, leading to a feeling that the story is being rushed through so they can just get to the sequel. 

As for the special effects, they were very well done and are one of the film's best assets. Thankfully, the film was shot in 3D as opposed to being converted. It really shows as the 3D effects look great. The planet Oa, where the Green Lantern Corps reside, looks marvelous. It is too bad then that we don't see much of it or its inhabitants.

Wish we could have seen more of this.

One of Green Lantern's biggest downfalls, however, is that the story has way too much going on. There just isn't enough time to cover Jordan's background. We learn enough about his father to care, but there is more behind the relationship between Jordan and Carol Ferris. There just wasn't enough time to explore that relationship within the film. Furthermore, Sinestro could have been fleshed out a lot better. Showing his dark side develop would have made a great story arc. The story is there but it's only touched upon enough to make way for a sequel. And the film goes just a little longer than it had to. It's not that I got bored from it being too long, it's just that they tried to cram too much into it. If they had focused on just one villain, and hadn't been so adamant about getting everything out of the way for the sequel, the story could have been tighter and more enjoyable.

Despite the flaws, Green Lantern still ends up being very entertaining. The special effects, action, and sense of humor add up to a very good, though not great film. Green Lantern doesn't quite live up to the lofty goals of Dark Knight or Iron Man 1, but it ends up about on par with Thor or better. It might help to be a Green Lantern comics fan so you can understand a lot of the smaller details, but it does not hurt the film otherwise. And now that they have the origin out of the way, I can see the sequel being much more focused, and having more time to tell a better story. In the meantime, Green Lantern is an enjoyable but bumpy ride.