Cast: B
Plot: C
Special Effects/Stunts: A-
Similarity to Comic: A
Director: Martin Campbell
Comic Company: DC
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard
Rating: PG-13
See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page
This is an example of how the Superman franchise should have gone about making their movies. By that I mean they should have waited until technology could keep up with the demands of their character and then start making movies, not the other way around. This movie was exciting, and they played it by the book (literally).
The Good: The special effects were pretty darn good. I was skeptical about the Green Lantern's suit being completely CGI, but they really did a good job with it, there were only a few instances where it didn't look perfect. On that note, the Green Lantern is the perfect superhero to do something like that with, given his powers and the fact that the ring is what produces his suit. Not only was the suit done well, but the special effects throughout the entire movie are well done, I particularly liked what they did with the rest of the Lantern Corps and the various aliens within.
The one thing this plot did well is it really explained the science fiction parts of the story line and powers of the Lantern Corps as well as their origin. A movie like this really needs that, seeing as most moviegoers aren't as knowledgeable about the Green Lantern as they are with heroes like Batman or Spider-Man. This movie was also very similar to Thor in that they basically portrayed two worlds, and blended them smoothly using a good mix of humor, and no real cross contamination of the worlds until the climax of the movie. Blake Lively did well in this role, maybe I've watched too much Gossip Girl but I always expect her to be one sided and I've been pleasantly surprised as of late. Peter SarsGaard was amazing and I also really liked Michael Clarke Duncan and Geoffrey Rush as the main alien friends Hal meets.
The Bad: Ryan Reynolds (or as my girlfriend refers to him, Ryan 'Hotnolds') kind of let me down. Something was just off the entire movie and I couldn't place it until the very end, but it was him. He just didn't have the right personality at all to play the character of the Green Lantern. He kept trying to be too funny. Not every line is a punch line, Ryan, I'd be more impressed if you cried. Also, Tim Robbins wasn't the best choice for the senator, he also seemed like he was trying to make everything too funny.
So the plot sucked, and it sucked for many reasons. First off, this film had no real theme, it didn't make me think deeply at all, or make me think about anything for that matter. It was too much of what I call a 'cookie cutter' movie, which means it didn't do anything in the plot that deviates from a typical superhero movie. Man gets powers-man fights evil man-man saves world-man gets girl, there's just nothing interesting there and most of those points almost seemed forced in this movie. The climax was also very anti-climactic; you'd think one man fighting fear incarnate would make for a pretty epic fight scene especially with the good effects in this movie, but no. And for a movie with two super villains they didn't tie the two together very well.
The Interesting: Next time I'm fighting a cloud form of fear, I'll be sure to simply push it into the sun, that seemed to take care of everything. You know for a being that envelopes entire planets and eats everything there I found it a little hard to swallow that the gravity from the sun was enough to pull it in but not the Green Lantern. I also didn't like how one being was enough to chase fear incarnate away from it's planetary lunch, you'd think it'd have better things to do.
Sinestro. This character confused me the entire movie. He's all red, and mean, and his name sounds very much like the word 'sinister', but he's a good guy? That's got to be some kind of typo in the script or something. Have the writers of The Green Lantern ever even read a comic book? That's like rule number one, never make a good guy look evil.
Conclusion: This movie was the superhero movie equivalent to Avatar. It had great special effects but not an original storyline. It was a great way to introduce the Green Lantern to the mainstream public without confusing everyone, and isn't a bad movie if you just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy some mindless entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment