Green Lantern Review (2011): Green Enough To Go Watch

by King Hazard on @YellMagazine06/24/2011

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Yell! Magazine review:

DC Comics’ Green Lantern attempts to shine bright and escape from its shelved existence. Helping to achieve this goal is Ryan Reynolds, who fits the role perfectly with his wit and charm plying the hero, Hal Jordan.

The movie starts with a quick exposition, the history of the ring and the Green Lantern Corps. Parallax is an entity of fear, the greatest threat to the green lanterns gaining his powers from the yellow energy of fear. He was imprisoned by one of their greatest heroes, but Parallax escapes and we are taken six months into the future. Parallax has killed a few lanterns and injured the one who defeated him, Abin Sur. As a result, Abin makes for Earth to pass on his ring to the new chosen bearer.

The story of our hero starts off when Hal Jordan, after a somewhat pretend dogfight against two unbeatable jet drones and some back story of daddy issues, is suddenly encased in green energy and taken to Abin Sur’s crash site, where he receives Abin’s ring. Though, the story starts off with some action, which is always a good thing, the rest of the movie felt like a jumble of back story and explanation all crammed in. Hal is whisked away from Earth and taken to planet OA for basic training (he also discovers that he is the first human to join the corps.). Hal learns about the green energy of will and how he can forge anything into existence, limited only by his imagination.

After a nice beating from Sinestro, played by Mark Strong, our hero keeps complaining how he is the wrong guy and how he is scared. He believes the ring has chosen the wrong guy, because the chosen should be without fear.

If the movie could have focused on one villain, it would have been better grounded. However, that’s not the case and we have a potential villain, Sinestro, who shows his dislike for Hal. We have a recruit of Parallax; scientist Hector Hammond, who becomes an evil psychic; and we have Parallax himself.

For a time, it seems that Hammond will take the big role as the primary bad guy, showing a bit of his daddy issues and an interest for Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), an interest that Hal shares. This buildup is destroyed because Hammond is just a pawn for Parallax.

As for the love interest of our hero, the story tries to build on Hal and Carol Ferris’ affections, but even this could have used more backbone. This may be due to the lack of good characterization. The cramming of story to give us the big picture and idea of the world of the lanterns left us with two dimensional characters. It was hard to have any feelings for any of them as the story just moved too quickly.

The CGI in Green Lantern could have been better, but it fit with the rest of the feel of the story. It served to push on to viewers the effect it needed, which was entertainment.

The ending and defeat of the main villain should have been much more difficult, as the battle’s climax left somethign to be desired. It seemed too easy, compared to how much more powerful Parallax was said to be.

The entertainment was well enough to keep a good hold, but enthralling or exciting it was not. Still, it served its purpose for a night out at the movies and one can leave the theater with feelings of having an enjoyable experience.