Saturday, June 25, 2011

MOVIE GUIDE: THE GREEN LANTERN



I’ve never been that big a fan of DC Comics. I always thought their characters were always so dated. And when I’d take the time to read their material, I’d tend to follow Batman and Superman, which even then was a rarity. So when The Green Lantern was announced as an upcoming movie, I had my doubts. I went into The Green Lantern with very low expectations. Maybe it was because of these low expectations or maybe it was simply a good movie, but I was happily delighted. I’m going for the latter.

One aspect of this movie that I absolutely loved were the graphics. In almost every form and fashion, the graphics I thought were top notch. From The Green Lantern’s suit to the opening sequence all the way to the planet The Green Lantern Corps. were from; which brings me to another positive. Normally, I don’t really care too much for movies that are based on another planet. For the most part, when another planet is portrayed, they do such a crappy job that for me it becomes too distracting and I’m stuck finding all the flaws instead of paying attention to the movie. In The Green Lantern, this world is no more than 3 settings and a very vivid background; I liked that.

I thought just about every actor slash actress fit their character to a tee. Ryan Reynolds I thought did a great job portraying Hal Jordan. There’s a certain comedic wit that he has that makes him fun to watch (refer to: Blade Trinity). Peter Sarsgaard, who plays the human villain Hector I thought also did a good job. With him, he carries a type of sinister-esque aura which makes him very believable as a villain. Peter Sarsgaard never plays the brute, smash your face in type of villain. He goes about his villainous ways in a more cerebral approach. The heroine slash damsel in distress is played by Blake Lively. I thought she did a decent job though I didn’t really care too much for her back story with Hal Jordan. I thought going a different route would’ve made for a better movie. But for what it was, overlooking it was quite easy. Personally, my favorite characters in The Green Lantern were Tomar-Re and Kilowog. They were 2 of the 3 characters that taught Hal Jordan how to harness his energy and focus to become The Green Lantern. Tomar-Re reminded me of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: Phantom Menace, only a non-clumsy, sophisticated version. Kilowog on the other hand reminded me of a non villainous Bebop and Rocksteady from TMNT. I thought they were physically good counterparts from each other and Hal Jordan.

In the way of the cons of the film, I didn’t think there were too many. One of the big things I didn’t care too much for this film is the primary villain, Parallax. Personally, I thought the whole floating dreadlock skull look was a bit too cartoonish. Towards the end of the movie, when this dreadlocked being came in to devour earth, I was thinking, “Damn, can’t you just die already?” Another aspect I didn’t care too much for the movie was some of the weaponry The Green Lantern used to ward off and kill Parallax. I mean, if The Green Lantern is able to create ANYTHING he’s able to imagine, I would have wanted something grander and/or super powerful. Realistically, would a Gatling gun really be able to stand up to something as dominant as Parallax, I mean the floating skull with dreadlocks. =( Beyond that, there weren’t any other major flaw worth mentioning.

Immediately after watching the movie, I jumped online to read a few reviews and unfortunately none of them were good, which really surprised me. In my opinion, I truly thought The Green Lantern was an all around good movie. It had just about everything that you’d want in a superhero movie; action, comedy, a villain, and cool graphics. It’s a movie I’d definitely recommend and if you go out and see it, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are.




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