THE GENERAL IDEA

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

THE GOOD

The special effects are far superior on the big screen than any of the trailers we have seen. The awe inspiring vistas of the Lantern’s home planet OA were just incredible. The variety of aliens looked awesome too and there is more than one Easter Egg for Lantern Fans to spot their favourite Corp members even though there is little to no interaction with them. And even Hal’s GL uniform looks real and I think so incredible. The floaty cartoon mask is more seamless in the film

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There was a good balance of time spent on OA and time spent on Earth. This balanced well with the what character development there was and relationships Hal has with his new responsibility and his existing life on Earth.

There is a surprising amount of action in this movie. From the get go with the arial jetfighters, to Hal’s training to the conflict with Hector Hammond and Parallax. It’s a pretty exciting film as far as that all goes.

Mark Strong was fantastic as Sinestro. I feel he really stole the heart of the movie here and I really feel for him as a character. Strong OWNED every scene he was in.

The story is pretty spot on, not taking too many liberties with GL’s history even hinting towards more recent lore like the Spectrum Corp referencing another colour of the Lanterns. Purists will have little to complain about short of the costume (which I thought looked awesome). But if that’s the most they will complain about, that’s not a bad thing.

THE BAD

Ryan Reynolds was the biggest worry for this movie. I wanted to believe in him as I feel Reynolds is more than his trademarked snark. He actually was not as snarky as the trailers let us on to be, but he is more snarky than I would have expected Hal to be. It is very tough to cast an actor to play an iconic character that has such a vast history. Reynolds’ Hal was a bit more cocky than the fearless test pilot needed to be, and was more sarcastic than I would have thought Hal would be.

He just didn’t feel 100% like the Hal I wanted. He wasn’t as terrible as I feared, but he wasn’t great. After seeing Green Lantern: Enerald Knights I am even more certain that Nathan Fillion would have served this role much better.

Blake Lively was moderate. She was certainly pretty, and didn’t suck, but she offered little weight to the film. With Reynolds swinging a little outside the strike zone, I was hoping for more, but Blake wasn’t it.

I was a disappointed that Tomar-Re and Killowog had so little screen time. Both of these characters had so much potential for character development and it just didn’t happen. I can only hope that locking in Geoffery Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan is for the benefit of sequels or a potential Green Lantern Corp spinoff film. They were both so awesome in their relatively brief roles. Both of these characters deserved more.

OVERALL

The movie was decent but not great. I think it will feel worse because we wanted it to be more, but the bad trailers might have balanced that out so our expectations were not so high. Good action, good story and some GREAT visuals are what save this film entirely.

This was also one of the films where I felt 3D was used well. No obvious gimmicky “in your face” moments with things leaping off the screen, and with so much CGI used, the constructs and settings made with computers feel more natural in 3D.

So far this season, the weakest of the superhero genre but still decent.

Also… THERE IS A STINGER SCENE. So don’t leave when the credits roll. After it happens there are more credits, so you can leave when its done.

I give Green Lantern a 6 out of 10

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