WARNING! MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night; This movie is........ Tight (that's the only rhyme i can come up with....And I know Sean Long did this but i thought of it before he even did that video). This movie is being bashed by critics (the snobby ones) days before this movie even came out. Last time i checked 22% in Rotten Tomatoes and yet i didn't care. A friend of mine even said that this movie sucks. So me being an Optimist i went in and see the movie. And I'm here to say that it is not as bad as the critics say but it still has it flaws. Green Lantern is one of those superhero movies where you expect a lot of things when it comes to source material. Hal Jordon is a unique and different character than the ones we know in the DC universe. He is not this superhero who is after blood or a perfect superhero. He is a everyday guy who (like most people) wants to overcome fear. As a huge Green Lantern fan this movie this is not what i was expecting. I was expecting seeing an adaptation from Geoff Johns Secret Origins. The first half felt like the book without Atrocitus or anything but i did remember that this is going to be about Parallax but i just hope the sequel will be better.
The story is probably the biggest flaw when you are seeing a Comic Book Movie. So here is the plot. Billions of years ago a group of Immortals have founded green energy of will power and they we're able to build the home planet of the green lanterns. They're biggest foe, Parallax seeks vengeance to Abin Sur after he trapped him to his prison. Parallax was able to defeat Abin Sur but he was able to find his successor with the help of his ring. Hal Jordan is this badass that holds on to a tragedy of his father after an accident when he was younger. He was sent to the crash site and Abin was able to find his successor, Hal. That is pretty much the plot. The origin was done in the comics a lot of times but here it made this movie pretty bland. With a plot like this i don't think anything in this movie will make it up for it. The first 20 mintes was done right until he actually left Oa. When i was about to get interested on what he will do in earth it immediately had two sides of reactions which is bad and good. There we're some parts that we're good but mostly bad. The love story (as i read in the comics) in the comics didn't develop well in the comics but here it was not as bad as i thought it would. But like i said with a plot like this a lot of things will suffer in the movie along with it. The script is probably the one that suffered alot we ended up having these set of characters giving out bad dialogue. No matter how shitty they're dialogue is they're performances we're still great
We have Ryan Reynolds who plays Hal Jordan. Although he didn't pull off the brave, serious and (a bit) wisecracking badass Hal Jordan we know in the comics there are just hints in the ending where he will become the Hal Jordan we know. It's like Star Trek XI in the ending of that movie we knew the Kirk we knew in the old show/movies. It could be that same case. He was still great though but they gave him a lot of bad things to say no thanks to the script. I just wished Nathan Fillion is Hal. It's weird because every time we prefer Nathan Fillion, They would let us down by picking another guy. And we have, Blake Lively now i though she is going to be the weakest actor in the movie but there we're a few scenes where she is bad but majority she is surprisingly good (and she's hot). Seriously every scene she is scene she just keeps getting hotter and hotter. And now we go to the great performances and let me start off with, Mark Strong as Sinestro. Mark Strong's Performance SCREAMS Sinestro and he portrayed the character very well. I would definitely like to see a spin off of him and Abin Sur (Because 5 minutes of screen time is not enough). We also have Geoffrey Rush who plays Tomar-Re, I think he was a perfect choice for Tomar. And lastly we have Michael Clarke Duncan which i have to say he is a perfect choice for Kilowog, His big deep voice fits the character. And lastly we have Peter Skaarsagard who did a marvelous job portraying Hector Hammond he also captured his character very well in fact he did better than the comic did.
I do like how it began though (with the narration and stuff) they told that in CG which looks very cool. I just wished we see more of OA than earth because Oa is pretty much where the origin lies for Hal. Speaking of Oa i do like the design of it.Especially every alien that is done creatively in that one and they're only scene where they are together. It's so creatively brilliant it's like seeing that bar scene in Star Wars. CG is pretty much the one worth talking about because ever since that firstr (lame) trailer we had back in November, everyone was bashing about the CG and pretty much the movie itself but when the WonderCon Footage came up online that brought everyone to watching this movie. The CG was great to look at and I'm glad the improvement worked very well with the movie. By comparing the CG costume at the early clips it just looked better. Especially that scene with Kilowog training Hal, when they did a close-up on Kilowog's face it looked terrible but when the CG improved his face looked more detailed and looked better than the early clips. The costume also improved especially the mask. Also comparing the old clips we see more lights on the torso when he is using his power ring. And the list foes on. Parallax was not bad but this time i will talk about Parallax. The build up of Parallax was pretty bad. I was expecting a big battle and some great action, the ending battle can be said in one description: Galactus the cloud vs. Silver Surfer in that Fantastic Four movie. The action was ok at some point and also the constructs. The Constructs are pretty cool looking; whenever I see a silly looking construct it is like that is something that is straight out from the comic. And lastly there is one thought that i have to point out because i keep thinking of this after one scene. When Hal saved the day there is no impact from the people, he never got featured in the news or something like that but wouldn't it be cool to see him being featured in the Daily Planet and it has Clark's name on it (Just a thought).
Overall i enjoyed the film. As a huge Green Lantern fan it wasn't bad or terrible or Terri-bad. It was still good enough. This movie had potential to be a better movie. OH! and also stay for the after credits there is something big after the middle credits. I have to say it is still worth seeing. If you're a young Green Lantern (probably below 12) fan you might enjoy this but if you're an older Green Lantern Fan you might have fun with it or just hate it. It's a good movie, but it is not a good adaptation.
The Up-Side:
+Great Performances
+Decent CGI
+Close to Source Material
The Down-Side:
- Story doesn't make any sense at a few points of the movie
- Some bad dialogue
- Some Bad comedic timing
MY RATING:
BALANCED!-3/5
AFTER CREDITS:
So I stayed during the credits waiting but then the scene appeared after that animated credit. I stayed and saw the scene itself. I find the scene very confusing. Halfway through the movie i don't feel like he was evil throughout the movie. It is very strange. But i hope the sequel (if there is a sequel) will explain it....
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