Green Lanterns...um...lite?

"In Brightest Day..."

Oh, Green Lantern.

I know that I am going to be pretty harsh on the movie soon, and for the most part it's warranted. However, I still enjoyed the movie, dispite a lot of its flaws.

So what's good?

Let me get this out right now: Ryan Reynolds does a very good job as Hal Jordan. He takes the character that he is given, and really helps push it to that level that it really shines in the movie itself.

Mark Strong's Sinestro, who is given very little to do, is great. The chracter design, the acting, the way he takes control of the scenes he is in is great. His talk of having no fear and showing how to use the ring to his standards is really well handled. You can just feel him looking through and judging Hal, without even changing his expression. Without a word, he says loads. So good.

I liked Parallax, even thought it wasn't developed too well. The design was interesting, and the backstory was cool. Too bad I didn't get much else. (as an observation, had Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer done something similar to this character design, that movie would not have sucked quite as much as it did. That little change could have easily made the movie, at least, tolerable.)

The Guardians are pretty cool, but they don't do much in the comics, and they don't do much here. Still, their design is pretty neat, and the way they are presented is very epic, so it's got that going for it.

Some of the Corp character designs are pretty awesome as well. I love seeing what people come up with when they are being creative.

The voice acting, and subsequent CGI work, for Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush) and Kilowog (Micheal Clark Duncan) is very good. I like these character designs. Sure they were animated, but they still were cool to watch. No Jar-Jar here. I hope that there is more of them in the following films.

The use of humor is handled very well. After all, there is a lot of darkness here, so it really helps that they were able to work in some laughs for the audience. Most of it is at the expense of Hal, but that's alright.

When Hal uses the ring, especially later on, it's pretty darn cool. His suit in action is not bad.

The quick end sequence! Bring on the sequel! 

"In Blackest Night..."

But let's take a step back just a bit. I have never been a Green Lantern fan. I just haven't had the time to invest in this character as much as I should have. Sure, he's got a great and involving history, but what superhero doesn't? However, thanks to my few encounters and my son's knowledge of the characters, I have learned much along the way. I know what the Green Lantern can do. I know who the Green Lantern Corp are. I know who Sinestro is. I know the guardians, Amon Sur, the ring's yellow issue, and most of the oath.

So knowing what I knew, I stepped into this movie with limited knowledge and medium expectations. I am glad to report, my expecations were met.

But, I do have to report that the Green Lantern movie is so-so.

I consider it like a chocolate bunny. You know it looks good on the outside, you want to eat it chewing up all of that chocolate goodness. Yet the moment you bite into it you realize it's hollow, and that dissapointment that you suddenly feel sums up the Green Lantern.

Now, to be fair to the movie, this is an orgin story. It is here to set up a few important characters, storylines, rules, etc. The imporance of a first story is that we learn who these people were/are and get acclimated to thier idenity. It is important that the audience buys this concept. If there is no feeling of connection, then there is nothing for the audience to do except watch a pretty lightshow for 105 minutes.

So here we are given Hal, an apparent rebel-ish character who is a great pilot for jets and pushes the limits of what he should or should not do. He is given a mission to outrun some new jets, and he does that, at the cost of a jet and his reputaion. He is left wondering what to do next, when he meets Amon Sur, who was on the run from an entity called Parallax. Hal is then picked by the ring to become the new protector the sector in which earth lies within.  From there he must discover what is needed and who he needs to be to weald the ring. Also, there is a trip to Oa to be trained. Then there's Hammond who is infected by Parallax and starts going crazy. Then all hell breaks loose. There's more, but it's mostly spoilery stuff.

 Like I said. Ryan does what he can with what he has to work with. There is a lot here, it's just not presented well. In fact, there is tons introduced that never get resolved. His family, his weaknesses, recharging the ring, and how do people react to this new superhero in town? These things are glossed over real quick, leaving holes that aren't filled in the slightest.

The rest of the cast doesn't fair too well, either.

Blake Lively, as Carol Ferris,  for instance, is the normal "I have a personality. Honest, I do!" female character. She seems like she should be stronger than she is, but isn't given a ton of growth to justify that and so just sort of blends into the background until needed.

Peter Sarsgaard is Hector Hammond a villian, I think, of sorts. He's given plenty to do. But nothing substantial. He has issues, some of which are raised. I guess he feeds on fear, but that isn't really addressed. He may be psychic, but that isn't addressed. He might be uber-smart, but that isn't addressed. So many questions, so little given.

Did you know that Tim Robbins is in the movie? Well, you do now. He plays Senator Hammond, father of Hector. He is there to be the judging father. Now, the interesting thing about Tim and Peter is that there characters are pretty much useless, Tim's very much so. What ever was supposed to happen between these characters, what ever growth that was supposed to happen, doesn't. It's weird and it's bad.

Speaking of weird, Angela Bassett shows up as Dr. Amanda Waller, and she does feel like she captured that character pretty good. A strong woman in charge of a secret government project that--whoa, wait, Angela. Angela! Where'd you go? She was just here. I swear that I saw her just a few minutes ago. She wasn't doing much, but she was here. Oh well, she's gone now.

There is CGI EVERYWHERE. The suit is CGI, and it's very well done, for the most part. The planet Oa and its inhabitants are very well done, for the most part. But some of the running around learning sequences, I just don't know when the movie stopped and the video game begins.

For an origin story, it's pretty weak. I remember when origin stories were worked into a full and complete film. You got your introduction, your story, your villian, the challenge, the climax, and the end. Even if they knew it was going to be a franchise, they didn't expect the next movie to do a lot of the work for them (I refer to Richard Donnor's Superman and Tim Burton's Batman as examples).  GL is not like that. It spends so much time introducing us to Hal, to the world he occupies, to bits and pieces of the Corp, and to Hammond and his subplot, that it becomes obvious as the movie heads into the final act, that we are going to have to get a sequel to get any more development of the ring, its power, and the Corp. The final scene of the movie confirms this.

The editing feels weird. I swear that as I was sitting there, I could see a bit of film that should have gone somewhere else. This scene felt like it belonged here, and that scene belonged there. For whatever reasons, I am guessing pacing, there are several scenes that just don't fit right, and that is way too odivous.

"No evil shall escape my sight..."

You know what really is dissapointing? The score by James Newton Howard. It is so muddled, so...blah. There is hardly any themes and those that there are aren't very strong and memoriable. I miss the days when we used to get giant exciting scores filled with Pow! Zip! Zap! like John Williams' Superman, or Danny Elfman's Batman. The kind of score that, as you were walking out, it still resonated in your head. That's what's missing from the Score. A theme, a focus, a feeling of truimph. There are some good things here, but nothing that has me jumping to get the score.

"Let those who worship evil's might..."

So many critics have bashed this movie, and while I can see where many of them are coming from, it's really not that bad. Seriously. It's no Dark Knight, or Iron Man, or Superman, or Thor, or even X-Men: First Class. It is rough around the edges and many things need to change for the next film, but it is still no Daredevil (PG-13 cut), Ghost Rider (Oy!), Fantastic Four (Corman's), Fantastic Four (The one with Jessica Alba, oy!), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Still has Jessica Alba, which tops the why this movie sucks list), X-Men: The Last Stand (You like your mutants with cheese, or extra cheesy?), X-Men: Wolverine (or the mutant fashion show, now you see them, now you don't), or Elektra (Seriously, somebody said OK to this screenplay?). In other words, there are much worse Superhero movies out there. MUCH worse.

As far as expectations go, don't go in with high hopes. If you do you are setting yourself up for a fall. Go in with mild expectations, knowing that there are going to be flaws in the movie, and just sit back and enjoy it. After all, this is no The Last Airbender, and that alone is worth getting up and celebrating.

"Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"




--MGS