Now You Will Receive Us (Initial thoughts about the Film)
As a Green Lantern fan… I have been equal parts worried and excited about this film! Many things have played into that mix.
As anyone who reads Green Lantern knows… His adventures tend to be, well, OVERLY epic. That isn’t always a good thing. Overly epic sometimes means and entire living planet (Mogo) that is a Green Lantern will join a fight. That is OVERLY epic. The problems the Green Lanterns face are always TOO BIG. In most films you will hear: “Oh no, (insert villain here) is going to destroy the city!” whereas with the Lantern Corp you are more likely to hear; “Oh no, (insert villain here) is going to destroy the entire MULTIverse!”
That kind of epicness doesn’t really translate well to film.
So, you take that and mix it with all of the bad reviews coming out the last few days and even MY fanjoy was starting to waver.
I was pleasantly surprised. With that being said this IS a CBM Assassins review so we will drop the film to its knees, say a prayer and look at those good qualities as well as some of the film’s failures before we decide to pull the trigger.
Veritas (How TRUE are they to the original Characters?)
The characters were solid. Some liberties were taken but it never (in my mind) crossed the line from Green Lantern to Hollywood. The biggest divergence from the source material was when the Guardians just agreed to make a Yellow Ring for Sinestro. The Guardians are waaaay to uptight to go for that but I also understand that we don’t have time in this (hopeful) trilogy to pull in the Weaponers and the antimatter universe… nor should we. That after all would be OVERLY epic.
All in all they took great Characters from the page like Kilowog, Hal Jordan, Sinestro, etc… and putt flesh and bone (or C, G, and I in this case) on them.
Aeuquitas (Did they do the Characters JUSTICE?)
Unlike some other Comic book movie that lots of people loved recently (Hint: It started with X and ended in @$$) … this film took time to do something important; CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.
Whether the character was on screen for an hour or just a few minutes, you really got a feel for who the character was (or in some cases who they wanted the character to be).
So let’s look at a few of the film’s greatest triumphs as well as failures.
#1 – Hal) This was a tough one for me to swallow since day one of the casting announcement. Ryan Reynold’s IS Green Lantern… unfortunately for the film; He’s Kyle Rayner and not Hal Jordan. Ryan surprised me though. At times when he wasn’t reciting badly written puns he actually achieved some sense of the character. He was a cocky show off just like Hal!
#2 – Sinestro) This was a performance for the books. He was absolutely “no nonsense” amazing. His look was great, The acting was on point, He walked the line of a great hero that will soon be a villain better than Magneto in first class and better than Anakin in Star Wars! AWESOME!
On the other hand…
#3 – Parallax) Um, well, the look of Parallax was… well horrible! The oversized head of a Gaurdian with Poo tentacles?! Really?! Besides the look I really felt that it was too soon to bring a villain like Parallax into the picture… but what do I know?!
#4 – Hector Hammond) The needed to put a face on Parallax for the movie goers. So, they picked Hector Hammond? As far as how the characters are blended together for the film… I thought they did a good job (though destroying anything that represented the Hammond of the comics in the process) but the actor just didn’t do it for me. He seriously over acted. I found myself remembering Jeffrey Jones’ role toward the end of the film “Howard the Duck”.
So, some changes were made… some changes should have been made… live and learn.
Erin Go Brag (Biggest “facepalm” moment in the film)
Every side shot of Hal in that stupid nose covering mask… I swear it looked like a Green Pinocchio!
In Nomne Patri, Et fili, et Spiritus Sancti (Closing thoughts on the Film)
When all is said and done this film was pretty solid (despite some of the reviews). Were there problems? YES! Were there triumphs? YES!
But honestly, all of the bad points of the film were covered by the ending scene of the film. A little recognition to the fan boys covers a multitude of sins.
So when it is all said and done we sit down with the film and eagerly await a sequel of (OVERLY) epic proportions!
(3.5 Stars)