So today, I finally went out and saw Green Lantern. And I have to say it was worth watching. It was by no means perfect, but certainly not terrible by any means.
So here's how I'll break it down...
A. Characters: Hal Jordan as played by Ryan Reynolds was good. Reynolds does a good job of portraying a guy who due to his father's death, never really grew up, and is afraid to accept any from of responsibility in his life. We see Hal in this movie go through a character arc, which despite being rushed a bit does it's job. And by the film's we see why the ring chose Hal Jordan; because he can overcome fear, whereas Hal thought that the ring mistakenly believed him to be fearless. Mark Strong as Sinestro was definitely good casting, yet the character has very little screen time. He only shows up to make speeches and to test the ability of Hal. In the comics, Sinestro accompanied Hal on his early exploits like a partner in order to train and mentor him. Here he only shares 4 scenes with Hal, and in only 3 do the 2 acknowledge each other. Perhaps though, the biggest mistake, with Sinestro, was having him put on the yellow ring at the film's end. In the comics, Sinestro was banned from the corps for using fear tactics, which made him become a villain, and even later on, he would put on a yellow ring and lead a group of yellow lanterns known as the Sinestro Corps. In the movie, we only see suggesting a yellow ring be forged, and then him holding it, about to put it on, before Hal stops him. But when we see him put the ring on and his suit turn yellow after the credits, it is to set up him up as a villain for the sequel, yet we never see him do anything that would suggest a transition towards the dark side in the film. Hopefully, we will see him acting a bit more evil in the sequel, and then becoming a full fledged villain. Also underused are Michael Clarke Duncan as Kilowag and Geoffrey Rush as Tomar Re. Duncan does well in his brief scene traing Hal, and we get to hear him call a poozer, but that is about it. Rush is also captures the gentle scholarly demeanor of Tomar Re, but he is only in a few scenes and has very few lines. Blake Lively did better than I thought she would as Carol Ferris. She does a good job of being some to push Hal towards greatness, and she looks great as a brunette. Peter Sargsgard was ok as Hector Hammond. He does a good job of playing someone who is shy, quirky, introverted, and sometimes creepy. But his character arc is very rushed. He is not even on screen for more than a minute, before he is wisked away by government operatives to examine the body of Abin Sur, where he is infected by Paralax. I'm not even going to go into what I thought of Paralax, because I have not read enough of the comics to know his true origins. Jay Sanders(who a friend from my job knows personally) as Carl Ferris and Tim Robbins as the elder senator Hammond, both do what is expected of each of their roles. Robbin's character especially fuels Hector Hammond's dedscent into villainy.
B. The Special Effects/ 3D: The 3D was good and nver felt intrusive at all. And I really enjoyed seeing the Green Lanterns on OA, which was beatifully rendered by the way and I wish we could see more of it. All of the suits and contructs looked really good. I liked the idea of the suit being organic and fused to it's wearer and powered by will. Having the suit be powerd by will also helps to fit in with the direction of the film, which is about using will power to overcome fear.
C. The Story/ Length: At 1 hour and 45 minutes, Green Lantern is way too short. There really is no excuse to not these kinds of movies to be less than 2hours. 2 hours and 15 or 30 minutes would have given the plot more time to develop adequately, and feel less rushed. The pacing in the 1st half of the film is troublesome. Hal is only on screen for 10 mnutes it seems before being wisked away by Green energy to encounter Abin Sur and claim his ring. I understand that the big appeal is seeing him in the suit, fighting as Green Lantern, but still give us time to see his life and events that lead up to that. When he finally arrives on OA for training, it feels very rushed. He gets a quick tour from Tomar Re, watches a speech by Sinestro, then gets some quick combat training from Kilowag and Sinestro, before feeling overwhelmed and quitting temporarily. This all sseemed like 15 minutes, and I really wanted more. Fortunately, the 2nd act flows much better. Here, we see Hal on Earth using his new found powers to save Senator Hammond and Carol Ferris from a helicpter crash, and then in 2 fights with Hector Hammond, and byu the time, Paralax shows up, he is ready to accept responsbility and embrace his job as a Green Lantern.
D. Where do we go from here?: A common complaint I have seen among fans and that I agree with is the lack of outer space action. Well with the origin out of the way, I say that the sequel should try to remdey his problem and give us stories about Hal and a few other corps members taking on intergalactic threats like Sinestro forming is own corps. I would also love to see Atrocitus show up as a Red Lantern, and eventually the other colored corps showing up. Seeing Carol become a Star Saphire would be cool too. Also Guy Gardner and maybe Jon Stewart becoming human Green Lantern Recruits would be cool. Kyle Rainer should be saved for later in the franchise.
So how does Green Lantern hold up? It was fun. Seriosly, if your a fan, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. The critics may have been right on some things, but they were defintely way too harsh on others. I'm sure a director's cut with more footage will help smooth out some issues though.
8 out of 10