Hey there friends, well since there have been so many of these reviews, I might as well add in my two cents. So yeah Green Lantern got butchered by the critics and had a very dismal opening for a comic book movie of the summer season. Now I’m a big fan of Green Lantern and the mythos that follows him, when I heard and followed all the news, the reactions were like a rollercoaster, so now that it’s out, I saw it and here’s my one word review: Disappointing. But this not a typical review of the movie, this is a spoiler based look at what worked and what failed in the Green Lantern movie and how they could have done a better job.
What Worked
1. Mark Strong as Sinestro: Mark Strong is a great actor and him taking on the role of Sinestro was perfect casting, he embodied the boastful and pride filled character very well
2. The Constructs: The constructs were fun and creative showcasing some of the powers and potentials they could do
3. Overcoming Fear: This is one aspect I didn’t mind, the idea of him growing beyond his limitations and embracing the power of will by conquering his fear, that’s necessary for a hero.
What Failed
1. The shoehorned elements that were added/dropped- The Family scene makes no sense and adds no bearing on the plot, the tossed in part where Hector knows Hal and Carol makes no sense in the narrative, and the fact Hector is in love with Carol comes out of nowhere without any build up
2. Amanda Waller- The forced Nick Fury cameo that goes literally nowhere since she makes no mention of her organization or why she is interested in anything. Also is she dead (?)
3. Blake Lively- I’m sorry but she is not Carol Ferris, she doesn’t fit the role, she’s too young and doesn’t have the seduction and allure Carol Ferris has.
4. Parallax is one of the Guardians?- Yeah big spoiler, one of the Guardians becomes Parallax, rather than being the living embodiment of Fear in the form of a parasitic creature
5. Padded to hell- This movie is only 105 minutes yet it feels longer than that since the actors do nothing but sit and look around, like they are bored
6. Hector Hammond- Again he is shoehorned into the story to be a red herring villain. His arc has no real emotion to it.
7. Short Training sequence- the training of Hal is like 5 minutes and magically he knows how to work the ring
8. PLOT HOLE- How does Hal know where Hector is and fights him the first time?
9. Mainstreamed- The biggest fail of all, this movie was mainstreamed to death, there is nothing the fans could enjoy, the corps members come and go in a heartbeat, Sinestro isn’t built up enough to become the next big baddie, its clichéd to hell
10. The sidekick- HAL DOESN’T HAVE AN ANNOYING AS HELL SIDEKICK FRIEND!!!!
Ok to avoid any more nitpicking and not being called a fan boy, I did enjoy it as a B scifi movie vibe, but as a comic book movie, it failed to live up to high hopes and expectations. This tried and failed at establishing a coherent universe much like Marvel has done. Now here’s what Warner Brothers should have done with this movie in any hopes of creating a better movie. First, remove the family element; it had no bearing on the plot and wastes tons of screen time.
Have the beginning be a flashback of Hal, Carol, and Hector as children on the day Hal’s father dies, you see a young Carol Ferris blush at Hal saying he is going to be great and you see a heart broken Hector grow jealously in his heart at Hal for being a better man than he could be. Then have the flashback end with Hal’s dads death, he awakes in a cold sweat due to his “fear” and heads to his job at Ferris industries.
Then next sequence have it be Abin Sur on patrol and getting attacked by Legion,scrap Parallax and replace it with Legion from Emerald Dawn storyline(a much better origin telling in my opinion).
Abin gets heavily damaged and flees to Earth with Legion following suit. Cut back to Hal training and being much of a recluse in the air and gets fired, he loses his cool and drives out recklessly to discover the crashed ship of Abin Sur and gives him a better dying speech, like the one from New Frontier and give him the oath in his dying words. Hal leaves and recites the oath, the ring activates and he is greeted with a message to go to the planet of OA for training and indoctrination. He is flown through space against his wishes and arrives on OA, he awakens and is greeted by Tomar Re. Tomar Re shows him OA and he meets other new members of the corps and begins his training with Kilowog.
Have that training take 30 minutes to establish everything the Corps is and what they do. Have Sinestro really test Hals abilities by having him go on a mission with him where he battles something greater than him and he admits he has fear in his heart and leaves with a bruised ego and heads home.
Cut to Legion landing on Earth looking for Abin’s body to finish him off once and for all. He senses the lantern Energy at Coast City and heads there and begins to attack recklessly. Meanwhile Carol reunites with Hector who has returned from his travels/studies and they begin to rekindle a lost romance.
Hal returns to Earth to cope with everything, goes to a local shindig and discovers Carol and Hector, tries to join in but they want to be left alone, he leaves disgraced and leaves them be. Hal decides to exert his aggression properly and fights crime as the Green Lantern, allowing the public to see their new protector; this even leads Legion to find where he is. Carol see’s the news of a green clad hero and begins fall in love with him. She gets attacked by a group of thugs and Green Lantern saves the day, and he leaves knowing she can’t know who he is.
Hal goes back to Oa and talks with Sinestro about Abin Sur and how any lantern Corps member can overcome fear. Sinestro goes into some nice back story to establish his life and his home world, vague hints that he abuses the power given to him. Hal learns more and gets in some training. Meanwhile Legion is causing much damage on Coast City while looking for Abin’s body. Hal discovers this and rushes back to earth to engage the enemy. They have a tremendous battle in and out of the city. Hal loses his focus and begins to fear the enemy is much stronger and lures Legion off of Earth and heads back to Oa in hopes they can help but Legion wanted to get to Oa so he may destroy the lantern core.
The epic battle with the cores and Legion in two forms: his shell body and his malleable yellow energy is too much for them. Hal chases after it to the heart of Oa, Hal is embraced briefly by the Will entity Ion and destroys Legion once and for all. The corps celebrates Hal and mentions that Earth may have a few other potentials and sends out 3 other rings, one in a cartoonists office, one in a military base, and the other in a bar room. Sinestro grows jealous of Hal and his victory and finds a piece of legion and feels the power of fear and wants it for himself.
The final moments of the movie is Hal landing on an alien world fighting evil and is asked who is he and he says “I’m Green Lantern of Sector 2814” smiles and flies off with the oath playing in background as he flies in the sky and off to another mission
THE END
See that would a much better structured movie; establish some things in the first movie then allow those to build up more in the sequel. They tried to do so much and threw everything at the board that it didn’t stick too long to invest in.
That’s all for now my friends, I tried something different in terms of a review. Hope you enjoyed and I will catch you all later, ComicCritic87 OUT!!!!