My Green Lantern Review. Is the light bright

So... Green Lantern. The main talking point this week for comic book fans was, are the bad reviews really true about Green Lantern? Does it really suck or are the reviewers complete idiots? Etc. I got to watch it today with all the reviews and comments I’d read whirling through my head, I’ve already had one disappointment this week in the form of Duke Nukem Forever. Was this another one? Read on to find out.

Ok so I feel as though the story implemented parts of comic stories such as Secret Origin and Emerald Dawn, after all this was an origin story but an origin story for who, Hal Jordan? Sinestro? Kilowog? The Guardians? Because in my opinion the first hour was about Hector Hammond. Anyways more on that later, right so onto the story, It starts off really well with Tomar Re (Voiced by Geoffrey Rush) informing us about the creation of the universe and the guardians involvement in this, and obviously the creation of the Green Lanterns. Then we hear the tale of how Abin Sur stopped the threat of Parallax. That is when I realised the film was never going to be the same as the comic its based on. Well and the part where Parallax is trapped in an asteroid planet where instead he should be trapped in the Green Lanterns energy core. But anyway the writers obviously didn’t have enough time to do this storyline so they went with an original story. We’ll just skip the whole coast city destruction and plant the Green Lanterns greatest enemy on an asteroid instead.

Anyway this is a film based on a comic and it’s not a real life realization of the DC Universe. In a nutshell, Parallax is released by three bumbling aliens; he then goes around consuming planets and aliens like a certain marvel character. Until he eventually finds Abin Sur and attacks him, Abin gets injured and flees ending up on earth. He then lands on Earth and tells his ring to “choose well”. By this point we have already been introduced to Hal Jordan who fly’s planes. Anyway Hal eventually becomes a Green Lantern. Now take all that ive just told you and add some parts Ive missed and this is what I believe makes the reviewers hate the movie. It’s just so dull, I know we have to have the whole introduction scene but really add some entertainment because I felt like it was ripping off Iron Man oh you’ll see the resemblances throughout the film.

Getting back to Hector Hammond, my god I really felt for him, he’s like an older Peter Parker with a beard and without the spider powers and he turns evil through no fault of his own. The environment he lives in playing chess by himself and eating cabbage/seaweed with Tabasco sauce. The whole loner trick is put on him there’s a newspaper clipping about Carol Ferris so you know he likes her. He then gets chosen to analyse Abin Surs body and in the process gets infected with yellow energy. You see him teaching at a school and he gets pains in his head and starts to read a student’s mind, then we are hit with the old cliché of “What did you say (Insert Name Here)” Hammond then proceeds to throw the student across the classroom. Right he then meets his father who tells him that he sent for him to analyse this alien body. Whilst his Dad is on the phone Hector reads his mind and finds that his father pretty much hates him. Want to know the best thing. That’s the last great scene with Hammond because from then on he becomes a pervert and his character development takes a massive nose dive. I began to hate every second he was on screen not because he’s an evil villain but because you see him nearly more than you do Hal Jordan.

Which brings me to my next point argue with me as much as you like Parallax is tacked on. There is no way he was involved in the drafts. He plays hardly any point in the film “Oh im going to destroy the guardians after I destroy Earth”. Umm why not do it now because you already killed their “Finest Warriors” about 15 minutes into the film.

Enough negativity When Hal gets to Oa that’s when the film begins. Every doubt we (Yes We) had about the suit is gone. It works and looks fantastic and I like how it changes on each race and character. The Green Lantern Corp look amazing and there are lots of familiar faces in the film. I’ll let you see for yourself, the training sequence between Kilowog and Hal is funny, excellent and it shows off the rings power and the special FX that come tethered with it. The fight scene between Hal and Sinestro shows off how amazing Sinestro is, and it creates a reference point when you see how much Hal develops both emotionally and how his power in himself grows near the end of the film. Oa is a fresh take for comic book movies. Because nearly all of them (bar Thor) take place on Earth, Oa is something different and it’s quite a visual spectacle I cant really reveal more without spoiling it as all the good parts take place in the second half.

The acting is solid and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively both surprised me. However I have to go back to the negative. The film struggles with realism even in a comic book film, Hal flies to the sun in three minutes. 3 minutes and this is my problem with the film as a whole. I am thinking the writers wanted this to be a superman film or they didn’t truly know the Green Lantern character. Well obviously they don’t because of the Parallax character and the fact that they don’t really capture the guardians very well they just seem like they couldn’t really care about the threat of Parallax. This aside the main problem really is the editing and the continuity. There is a scene where Hal has no ring on his hand and he manages to perform a construct and then it is back on his hand. No they show his hand effectively quite close to the camera, there is no ring on his finger believe me. The camera angles are also a weird choice especially when Sinestro is addressing the Corp unless Campbell was trying to show the size of the corp.

Essentially there are alot more things I would like to tell you about the film but cant without spoiling it. I implore you to watch it without thinking of the reviews as they will drastically change your opinion. What lets the film down is the editing and the slow paced, out of place story. I would say that the film is not as bad as people say. It’s not an X-men last stand, it’s better than that. However I just feel they mess things up by adding Parallax I mean sure Hector Hammond is a weak character but you could have added the man hunters in. All in all I would say this movie is just below Iron Man 2, I believe the next GL will be better taking all the parts of the second half of this film and augmenting them into a better sequel. Stay behind for the after credits. It seems like you wait a long time for that certain scene but it’s worth it. Essentially the film is entertaining so don’t care about what the reviewers say just enjoy it like I did.

My final grade would be 7/10 just because of the story, editing and some of the annoying parts I hated.

To all the negative comments im going to get on this. No I am neither a DC nor Marvel fanboy I read both studios work. Also don’t say I know nothing about film because I have a B grade in A level film studies (Im English) and if you’re going to hate please have a solid reason. I also know its not the best review but hey it’s my first try thanks for reading.