Review: Green Lantern

Thanks for checking out our Green Lantern Review

Genre: Superhero Action Adventure
Directed by:
Staring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard
Released: June 17th, 2011

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.

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: Emerald 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

Comment with Facebook

27 thoughts on “Review: Green Lantern

  1. I agree with the good and the bad one in the movie. I can say that I still enjoyed the movie though. It’s a superhero movie with a twist. My favorite part is when Hal was masked and went to his girl, he was still known. This is a great twist compared to most superhero films where in the hero is unknown and hidden.

  2. I will admit I have never heard of the GL until this movie started being made. I really enjoy the comic book movies so I went in there with a completely open mind to be blown away…and blown away I was…by how much this movie SUCKS! The CGI and FX were terrible. There was little to no character development of the main characters. Once again a comic book movie was ruined with a pointless romance. The “fights” were the biggest crock of sh!t I have ever seen…there was no action in this movie except campy wrestling matches they called fight scenes. I honestly believe this movie will tank DC’s next efforts on a comic movie considering the amount of money spent making/promoting it because it will not gain half of it back!

  3. I’ll chime in and say: Forget the lousy trailers, The film is pretty good and Reynolds and Strong did well.

    of course theres a little cheese in there but overall I LIKED IT! I REALLY REALLY LIKED IT! (HEY MIKEY!)
    Took my 5yr old and had a blast..

    who woulda thought!?

  4. Went to see GL with my kid on father’s day. I have to admit the movie had problems but in the end I enjoyed it. Its not perfect but it is no train wreck either. Kind of fun actualy.

  5. The Green Lantern really was good. If a person thinks it’s horrible, I don’t know what other comic book movies they would like. Not all of these movies can be First Class and Dark Knight.

    I saw that IGN slammed it, saying X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X3 were better, which is ridiculous. The movie was short and didn’t try to create deep characters because there was no need for them.

    Sometimes character development isn’t necessary.

  6. Wow I didn’t think the movie was horrific, the whole CGI Costumes never even bothered me, do I think somebody like Nathan Fillion would have been better for the role of Hal Jordan, absolutely; however Renolds wasn’t that bad and he shined in a few areas, I agree that he had his trademarked snarky wit in this movie, which at times can be too much.

    What I did have a major problem with was the lack of character depth, if your going to introduce the Green Lantern Corps then have a little more interaction on the screen instead of just a couple of scenes basically standing around, yes Mark Strong was perfect casting as Sinestro, but again there was so much opportunity to show the relationship between him and Hal, afterall this guy was Hal’s mentor and became almost a brother to him, then he turns his back on him and the Corps and will eventually become the Villain.

    I didn’t care for the Hector Hammond character at all, complete waste of space, extremely undeveloped, if your going to make him a villain then make him interesting, especially when he supposed had a back history with Hal and Carol; I don’t know but it felt like there was a lot cut from the movie editing wise, and Blake Lively was okay as Carol Ferris but lets face it she was hired too look good, but at least she wasn’t as one dimensional as January Jones was in X-Men: First Class.

    The big probelm was they tried to cram so much in under a 2 hour mark, perhaps if this movie would have been 3 hours in length, more exploration of the history of the Corps, the evolution of Hal becoming the first human Green Lantern, could have been developed, some people would say that’s just too long, well there was this little gem of a movie that came out in 1979 called “Superman” starring a relatively unknown actor by the name of Christopher Reeve, and that movie is still a masterpiece today as it was back then, and is one of the biggest reasons why Superhero films have become so popular over the years.

    There definitely is room to make a much deeper sequel, especially with what happens if you remember to stay for the scene during the credits, but otherwise I agree with the rating the reviewer gave the movie I would say a 6 out of 10 is about right; but it was a decent popcorn flick to see at a matinee which only cost me $4.25 CDN so that was great!!!

  7. FORGET all the Bad Stuff you’ve heard about this movie ! If you love this genre and want to see MORE… go and see it…. it is NOT that terrible. What’s important is that the film does reasonably well in order for DC/ Time Warner to make more !!! If this does poorly , FORGET FURTHER COMIC BASED FILMS !!!!! SPREAD THE WORD !!!

    1. If one bad comic book movie was going to kill the genre, it would have died already.

      Going to see this movie is a personal choice because you wanted to see it. If you do not want to see it, it will not be the downfall of all comic book films. Its not a social statement movement to force the studio to make more. That’s just nonsense.

  8. I saw it on Friday with a fellow sci-fi, comic book geek and one of my buddies who isn’t. We all thought it was great! Is it the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen, no, but it’s not as bad as most critics seem to be saying in my opinion. After reading your review, I was excited to see it, and I wasn’t disappointed!

  9. In brightest day .. .In blackest night…. No bad movie shall escape my sight…. Let those who worship DC Comics’ might… beware my power….. The critic’s eyes!

  10. I’m not a comic book nerd by any means, so I knew next to nothing about Green Lantern going into this. That said, I didn’t think the movie was bad at all. You may rip me apart now, but that’s my opinion.

    *SPOILERS*

    But…if the ring can project ANYTHING from the Lantern’s imagination…boy oh boy was Hal Jordan thinking too small. I’d have gone Gundam, summoned friggin’ mechs and tanks and so on. Really, Hal’s biggest projection (construct, I think they’re called) was the goofy hot wheels ramp, and as his friend said…Really? A ramp? That’s it?

    If the ring has a limited amount of power in between charges, fine, but there was no indication that that was the case at the end. Parallax went down to a couple of green fighter jets and a big green fist? Bullcrap. Parallax should have eaten this planet alive.

    That said, I enjoyed this enough to look forward to a sequel.

  11. 53 million opening… WB and DC Comics (especially GL writer Geoff Johns) must be downright disappointed with this. A comic book character with enormous potential to be so successful , has just gone pfffft. Groan…

  12. It bothers me that Green Lantern will be a bigger hit than Super 8. The latter is CLEARLY a better movie. I just don’t understand the audience’s fascination with crap. Sure Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are hot but it amazes me that people would pay money to see two gorgeous people who can’t act, over a genuinely well-made movie like Super 8. Just sad.

    1. “…Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are hot…”

      Blake is USUALLY hot, but I was unimpressed with her in this. Story-wise, she was basically useless, and as eye-candy she was a disappointment. Only one scene where I thought she looked good.

    2. Sounds to me like you have not even seen the film Maroc. Just upset that a movie that is getting poor reviews is making more money than a niche market arthouse style monster movie?

      And have you seen Buried? Reynolds has a handful of films where he proves he is a capable actor. However in this movie he is mostly the same as he tends to be in most of his films. It’s not that he “cant act” because clearly he can. The frustration is that its so much easier for him not to bother and just do what he is hired for. His snarky sarcasm.

  13. To me, this movie was doomed from the start. Ryan Reynolds is toxic to me, particularly in action roles (I’ve yet to see a single action movie, or a single character in an action movie he was in, seem credible — and yeah, I’ve seen most of them aside from this one).

    I may netflix this down the road, because I’ve always enjoyed this character, but don’t think I could stomach going to see this in the theater. I’d rather go see the excellent X-Men: First Class again.

  14. Saw it last night with my 6 year old son and my wife. I don’t care what the critics say as a summer movie and as a comic movie I had a blast watching one of the most iconic heroes of my youth play out on the big screen. My son walked away (having no comic knowledge) going to me “Dad Green Lantern is my favorite now” I asked him who would win in a fight green lantern or Boba Fett, he paused and said Boba Fett. I was so proud. Don’t listen to people go see the movie and smile like a kid again.

    And when sinestro says good luck green lantern do the internal nerdy squeal I did lol.

    1. Same here, and I got an extra kick seeing my 5 yr old stare at the screen with stars in his eyes like I did when the original Superman came out back in the day.

      made it that much better for me.

      Fun Flick.

    2. I agree. This movie wasn’t bad. I actually enjoyed it. And the kids in the matinee I was in were LOVING it. And that’s ok. Not every film has to be dark.

  15. I enjoyed the film myself, when it all came about I was on the fence about the Hal Jordon casting. There were moments of the film where Reynolds really shined. Then there were moments when he was being corny or whatever and it just didnt work for me. I dont think he exactly nailed the Hal Jordon persona but he did a good job.

    Felt the same about Carol Ferris, Blake Lively was ok as Carol. I honestly expected much worse from her, she turned in a decent performance and thats all I can say.

    Glad I saw it.

  16. I had very little good to say about this movie. I really don’t understand how you can say the CG was good. I’m not saying you can’t have that opinion. I just don’t understand. I thought the CGI was distractingly bad at almost all times. It almost never blended with the real footage.

    My biggest complaint was that this movie was plain BORING. The only time I felt myself engaged and actually entertained at all was when

    *SPOILERS*

    Hammond was going on his rampage in the lab.

    *SPOILERS*

    I’d give it like 3/10. Just so much disappointment.

  17. i went into this cautiously optimistic but still not expecting much. the trailers promised some good action and good CG but that was about it and that is all i got out of it. i hated the script (the story itself was good, just horribly executed) but i though ryan reynolds did his best with what he had. overall i didn’t hate the movie but it wasnt that enjoyable either, ill probably watch it again(probably in 3D this time) just to get a full view of it although i dont have high hopes of it getting any better

    1. after that, why would you see it again? to see if it gets better?

      Did the action seem just o.k. or was it good?

      on the fence myself (I know i’ve bashed this thing, but it’s still a comic book movie after all)

  18. I had a lot of complaints about this flick. And they are :

    – Ryan Reynolds didn’t exactly nail Hal Jordan. He looked ok at times. He also looked jokey at times. But WB should’ve considered someone more seasoned and serious, perhaps Sam Worthington ?

    – I’d recast the Carol Ferris role. Blake Lively didn’t exactly play it right. She’s gorgeous, but that’s all there is to it. She’s sorta like in the same situation that Megan Fox was in the first Transformers flick – for plain eye candy. What I saw in the movie is that she’s smiling all the time and being too chummy with Hal Jordan. Perhaps someone older in her 30s but still gorgeous will do justice to this Carol Ferris role.

    – The GL rings didn’t talk. I was expecting that coz in the comics, the rings talk back after a Lantern asks them . It would’ve been so fascinating if the rings talked like this :

    “Ring status report: Green Lantern Douj Sal of Sector 849 deceased. Sector scan for replacement sentient initiated”

    “”No viable candidates detected in sector. Fail-safe protocol engaged. Returning to Oa.”

    – Lanterns Tomar Re and Kilowog’s screen time is waaaaay too short. Those were really cool scenes. They should’ve expanded it more.

    – There were no “meaty” combat action between the GL Corps and Parallax. I wanted to see that, but all I saw was when Sinestro and his Lantern mates approach Parallax, Parallax simply fires at them and the Green Lanterns are gone in a snap that soon? wtf! It would’ve been cooler if the GL Corps went hard by firing all their rings at their enemy… that would’ve been so cool.

    – The Guardians on this flick looked fine. But the movie didn’t introduce Ganthet. I didn’t know which one of them was Ganthet.

    – The plot was a mess. To think Geoff Johns sorta consulted on this movie, I am disappointed that it didn’t measure up on his Green Lantern storytelling standards.

    Now for the positive stuff :

    – Mark Strong as Sinestro , I’d say perfect casting. This guy IS Sinestro. I was blown away by his portrayal. Wow… The after credits scene was awesome .I think he stole the show .

    – Temuera Morrisson as Abin Sur . The actor portrayed this role well.

    – The visual effects were good. It showed a lot of promise

    – Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan voice acted well on Tomar Re and Kilowog.

    But I highly doubt that there will be a sequel to this flick. Perhaps, when this is over , they’ll treat this flick like the Ang Lee “Hulk” and reboot it again with a new cast and director to get it right.

  19. From my understanding of the history of Hal Jordan, they actually changed quite a bit. Specifically, the origins of Parallax and the yellow ring.

  20. This movie didn’t work for me. I expected a lot from this movie after reading all the Geoff Johns-penned GL stories (Rebirth, Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night). The Geoff Johns stories were the sole reason I am so stoked for this flick. Too bad it didn’t pan out. 2 out of 10 stars.

Leave a Reply