I guess the easiest place to begin is saying that I watched Green Lantern keeping my Marvel bias as far away as possible. I went to the midnight showing with the idea of both enjoying a new film, and critiquing it along the ride. Again this is a SPOILER FREE review, but I will go to mention parts SEEN FROM THE TRAILERS.
Enjoy!
Green Lantern begins with a quick set up dealing with some of the major characters and villains. The Introduction of the film is narrated by Geoffrey Rush (Tomar Re) who describes the back set of the Green Lantern Corps. To a non comic book fan, this could be very confusing, but to US, we can keep up. Fast forward to Hal Jordan, the cocky test pilot. As seen in the trailers, Hal must run a test with Carol Ferris (Blake Lively - which, her acting, yea we all know the joke: she isn't very lively) against new military jets. As with any hero, something causes things to go wrong for Hal. I don't want to spoil anything, for those who don't know, but we're given flashbacks, to show why Hal is the way he is.
Fast forward to Hal meeting Abin Sur, and being chosen by the ring. Once Hal begins to access the ring's power, we're transported to Oa, perfectly when Hal's spirits have hit a low point. We're introduced to the Corps, especially to Mark Strong's Sinestro. As Hal is introduced to this new world, we begin to see his adventurous side, especially through his hit-and-miss tactics used in training. We see Hal starting to understand the whole essence of will-power, and what it takes to stay alive by using the ring. Meanwhile on Earth, Hector Hammond is receiving his own set of skills. Just like in the trailer, Hector slowly begins to mutate into a creature of his own demise. Hector's motives become more and more clearer as his powers become more vibrant. Martin Campbell really played a few good strings with Hector's screen time, allowing the audience to both sympathize and develop a small bond with Hector. this of course ends abruptly, and Hector realizes just what a menace he can be.
During the screen time used to show Hector's story, Hal is faced with conflict in the form of his love life, and his new 'Green space cop powers' as he puts it. Hal really begins to get a grip on his new direction in his life, and proves this by stopping a sabotaged helicopter from crashing. Here is where humans get their first glimpse of a Super Hero. As quickly as he came, Hal jets off after he saves the day (night).
Cue the : Great power comes great responsibility theme.
As the movie begins to prepare for the end, Hal and Carol continue to try to patch up a rocky friendship, ultimately Carol helps Hal find the power inside himself to fight fear. Hal knows he must become the hero and savior Earth needs him to be, or else there might be no one strong enough to defeat Parallax. Throwing in Hector, the movie allows audiences to get to see the final transformation, from going to 'sympathetic bad-but-could-still-be-good guy' to 'crazy of the hinges baddie'. I won't go further on, as it would spoil too much, but I will say that the movie wraps up quicker than I thought. The final battle(s) last a bit longer than the likes of Iron Man or Thor, but no where near as long as they could of been.
Points of Interest:
Personally, Hal was a HORRIBLE casting choice. This movie relies HEAVILY (Repeat: Heavily) on the comedic performance Ryan Reynolds pulls off. Sure there are a decent amount of serious scenes, but Ryan Reynolds ultimately was just playing himself, even as to going so far as to lightly imitating Batman. Lively, well see the above overused joke, and Peter played a great villain, whom for me stole the show. Yes Mark strong was a good Sinestro, but he isn't featured predominately enough.
In my opinion, the CGI needed work. Growing up playing some great video games, these graphics seemed just like something my Playstation 3 could render. There are a great amount of scenes, where Ryan Reynolds is just a floating head. He looks fine when they have close up profile shots of him or Sinestro, and at times the CGI was really good, but I still felt a little cheated.
The 3D is not necessary, but then again is it ever anymore? Pay for 2D prices, and watch the movie in 2D, which has a better color scheme.
With just hitting over 2 hours, the movie felt a little short on action, and was more into character building. Most of the screen time is shared between Hal and Carol. The action scenes were done well, especially when Hal becomes more evolved with his ring, and as I said the action of the last bit of the movie was probably something we've all been waiting to see.
Don't consider me a DC Hater, and I made it clear I do like Marvel a lot more, but I watched this movie putting the Marvel vs. DC war to rest for 2 hours. Personally I liked Thor more, but that just might be because I was more familiar with that character than I am Green Lantern. Would I watch Green Lantern again? Probably not, does that mean I hated it beyond belief? Well to quote the Nolanites, "The movie wasn't as good as The Dark Knight". ;P
Overall, Green Lantern gets a 2.5 out of 5.
P.S I don't really think The Dark Knight was the pinnacle of great movies, I just think its funny everything is compared to it.
-Tacos