We've all seen Green Lantern, so I'm not going to go through the motions to recap the movie here.
I have recently watched this again a couple of times because they're showing it on HBO all the time now. I really think that this movie's faults are that the director gave up about half way through the movie.
Martin Campbell is a very hit or miss director. The first Zorro was great, but the second was garbage. Goldeneye was awesome as well. And while I wasn't a fan of the new take on Bond with Daniel Craig, a lot of people seemed to like it.
What went right: The fist half of this movie is epic. The battle with Abin Sur and Parralax, the dog fight sequence with the jets, the scenes on Oa, all of these are brilliant.
We are all in agreement that Kilawog and Sinestro were bad ass. The costume looked great considering the changes, even though the mask was a bit weird. Visual effects and the score were top notch as well. The constructs were all awesome, accept for the race car track.
What went wrong: Hal's family disappear without any explanation at all. We're built up with his feelings about his father, his nephew that idolizes him, and the tension with his brother, but then where do they go? His brother and nephew could have at least played a small role in the conclusion of this.
The real problems were the villains. The villain makes the hero better they say, and these kind of sucked. Hammond was great for what he was, but Parralax was kind of boring.
The supporting characters were the worst of the film. Tim Robbins is awesome, but he didn't work for me as Hammond'd dad because he's aged so much better than his son in this. Dye his hair back to blonde, and he could have played the son. Hal's friend was one of the worst acting performances I've ever seen. Also, Amanda Waller was a completely wasted role here, and Angela Bassett could have given an awesome performance if she would have been given the role similar to the character's portrayal on Smallville or Justice League Unlimited.
To sum up, this movie is a guilty pleasure for me. It's not Oscar material, but it is a lot of fun and deserves a sequel. Lose Martin Campbell for sure. I think Zorro was only great because of the cast, which is why the second one sucked once Hopkins was gone.
I think that they should have just went for it and had Sinestro be the bad guy about half way through the film. Green Lantern First Flight was a film that I enjoyed a lot. If you take out the stupid squirrel and the planet lantern it was fantastic. Throw Mark Strong as the villain, and you have a real winner.