As I was on my way home from seeing
Green Lantern a friend of mine txt me to ask how it was. I replied "It was ok, not quite as bad as I was expecting" or some such, and he replied; "So it was shite then?". I laughed because he is such a miserable git and then thought about it. Is there any room for mediocrity in the world of the big budget, special effects driven "blockbuster"? Any real grey area? Is a movie like
Green Lantern, despite having some redeeming features, destined to be lumped in with the forgettable rubbish simply because it failed to impress as much as it's Summer competition?
I'll start out the review by saying that although GL is pretty bad at times, I don't think it's QUITE as bad as some of the reviews you may have read suggest it is. The thing is that any of the stuff it does well is overshadowed because the main problem with the movie is the story, and when your story is a bad one, all the good performances, special effects and ring slinging action isn't going to save you. But For a good 45 minutes I actually thought that the critics had it wrong. I was really enjoying the movie. Sure a few scenes were a bit silly(Jordan's little dance when he sees himself in the suit for the first time is about a 9 on the eye-rollameter) but generally I was suitably entertained and engrossed. Kilowog was calling Hal a poozer, Sinestro was being awesome..all was looking good. Then Hal goes back to Earth and the movie literally get's hijacked by some very inept people. Who? I have no idea..maybe director Martin Campbell had an aneurysm, maybe the editor they had been using took sick..one way or another, the remaining hour or so of the movie is, for the most part, awful.
It's not just because we leave Oa behind and are thrust back into Hal and Carol Ferris'(Blake Lively) will they, won't they, who gives a shit sub plot. Well, I say sub plot but really that is THE plot. We had heard previously that WB were going to attempt to get the ladies interested in the movie and thus focus strongly on the relationship between Hal and Carol. Ok, fine, I get that. I understand. This is Hal's origin story after all. But if you are going to do that then you better make it WORK. Here we have scene after scene of cringy, cliched, uninvolving tripe. Harsh? No! It's truly awful. The dialog these poor actors are asked to spout is criminal. And your frustration is increased by knowing you could be back on Oa with the cgi aliens, all of whom have more screen presence that Blake Lively bless her and her fine ass. But that's not all. Scenes just begin out of nowhere and end completely arbitrarily. At one point Hector Hammond(Peter Sarsgaard) is being all evil with his Father(Tim Robbins) when Jordan burst in out of nowhere. People were looking around going "Where the [frick] did he come from?". Then I remembered that about 10 minutes previous we got a glimpse of him flying back to Earth as his ring gave off a little beep as a sign of trouble. Emm, that isn't a sufficient link to the scene guys. This is film school stuff for God's sake. Following that Hammond and Jordan lie on the ground beside each other for a few minutes. It's actually bizarre.
But, believe it or not there are high points. The performances are generally pretty good. Ryan Reynolds comes out as the biggest casualty of all this because he is actually great as Hal Jordan. It's such a shame that he was forced to act the clown so much because when he is allowed to play Hal with a bit of fire and intensity he is very impressive indeed. Likewise Mark Strong as Sinestro. He's not in it nearly enough but when he is he commands the screen. I wasn't impressed by Blake Lively as I have already mentioned but she wasn't terrible either. Peter Sarsgaard will take some stick for his performance but he is actually pretty good while he is normal..well, normal looking! When he transforms into the most ridiculous looking villain in movie history and begins screaming like a girl you will be hiding your face in your hands. And the support from the likes of Tim Robbins and Angela Basset as DC's (potential) Nick Fury type character is fine too. Some of the action scenes are also pretty awesome. We get to see some very creative constructs and the short amount of time we spend on Oa is impressive, if not mind blowing. Which brings me to the 3D. I may as well have been watching this movie with a pair of real sun glasses on for all the extra the 3D brought to the movie. It's in 3D because that's what happens with special effect movies these days and that seems to be about the limit of thought and effort that was put in. Save your cash. In saying that, I saw a trailer for
Captain America in 3D before the movie and that looked incredible. I really hope it wasn't just for the trailer.
Green Lantern does make an attempt to pull things together at the end and we do get a somewhat exiting finale. It's not helped by the fact that the villain is a cgi head with poo for tentacles. Parralax is about as threatening as a two year old with a water pistol. That hasn't been filled. Who's asleep. But Hal Jordan himself accepts his role as hero with some aplomb and it's pretty cool to see. This really only makes the movie's failure more disappointing though because you can see how much potential there was. There may be a cut of Green lantern out there that rectifies the problems. I hope we see it some day. And a (hopefully much better) sequel too. Going back to my opening point, I'm afraid that an "ok" movie like this is just not going to be good enough. It's a shame because what the movie does well it does very well, but when your competition is Thor and X-Men: First Class you will be buried. Oh, and what about the "real fans"? The Green Lantern comic fans, will they enjoy it? I sincerely [frick]ing hope not. This argument confuses the Hell out of me. I hear it so much on this site; "Oh, maybe they just didn't get it because they aren't real fans". Excuse me, shouldn't fans of these characters be MORE annoyed that they didn't get the best big screen treatment they should have? Is it enough for these people that Hal Jordan wears green and flies? Gimme a break. Oh, and I have to talk about that after credit scene. If you still haven't seen or heard about it stop reading now. Basically the scene shows Sinestro put on a yellow ring, created to match the power of Parallax, and become all evil and stuff. Pretty cool right? Well, no. Because it makes no damn sense at all. Before this, Sinestro had gone to The Guardians(crap looking by the way) to ask their permission to make a yellow ring to harness the power of fear. But when Hal overcomes his fear and uses courage to save the day, Sinestro is shown the error of his ways and comes to understand that fear can always be over come. He even accepts Hal as a member of The CORPS..he almost smiles! Then says "ah [frick] it" and puts the ring on anyway. Ass.
In summing up, despite the bashing I have given this movie I do recommend you go see it for yourself. There is half a pretty good flick in there and I doubt you will hate it. Yes, that's about the nicest thing I can say. Not good enough WB/DC/Campbell.
By TwitterButtons.com