Green Lantern

Just saw Green Lantern in 3D and I have to say, I don't know why its getting such bad reviews. I honestly liked it a lot. Granted I did go in after reading some reviews so I had very low expectations but I thought it was very entertaining and a great summer blockbuster. Was it the best comic book movie ever? Absolutely not. It was not better than X-Men: First Class but I did like it better than Thor. And I am a Marvel guy!!!
First of all- this is one of the rare 3D gems. While it still does not stand up to Avatar's level of 3D, it far surpasses some other recent films. The opening title sequence was very impressive in space. The 3D gave it a nice depth effect without the traditional overally used gimmicks of swords coming at the screen or someone shooting a gun at the screen.
Next to the cast. I felt Ryan Reynolds did great. He is receiving a mixed review from other critics for being too annoying and funny (but not funny). I did not feel that way at all. He was funny, some of it was corny but at the same time- its a comic book movie. Not everything has to be so dark and serious as the Dark Knight. Iron Man was cocky and funny and no one minded Downey Jr. Blake Lively was hot. Thats about it. She did not do a tremendous job (like in The Town), but she wasn't abysmal like Megan Fox in Transformers. The love story between the two could have used some more work and the chemistry wasn't quite perfect. Peter Saarsgard was a good villian. He is also receiving harsh criticism for not being a good enough villian. Is he Magneto or Joker? No. But he has his reasons for turning evil. He used his powers quite a bit. And he overall served his purpose. Mark Strong was great as Sinestro.
Now to the Corp. (extras). The voices of Toma-Ra (Geoffrey Rush) and Kilowag (Michael Clarke Duncan) were spot on. It was a shame to see the most well-known non-human Lanterns cut from most of the film, but this movie is about Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) and his new Green Lantern career. It was about saving earth and unlike a 70 year old comic book, this was a two hour movie. An entire 70 years of history could not be forced into one movie. The CGI to create these characters looked great. The only extra I missed seeing was the flying squirrel- always hilarious!
The CGI was incredible in this movie. The first trailer made everyone doubt the quality of this movie, but sure enough, the finished product looked as real as CGI can and furthered the story and the origins of the Green Lanterns. Many reviews compared Parrallax (the main villian) to the stupid Fox-Created Cloud- Galactus from Fantastic Four. Once again- this is a movie. Do you really want a giant purple humanoid alien actually eating a planet or will general audiences be more understanding of a nebula like being that devours planets. So Parralax didn't look like he did in the comics- honestly I had no idea what he looked like. So far me, his structure made sense.
And finally the story. The story and direction is taking the most heat of the bad reviews. I just don't get it though. I felt like the story was good. Could it have been tweaked- sure. Villian development was not as strong as it could have been. Hal Jordan's training on OA (the Green Lantern planet) was only about 10-15 minutes long and was the only time we really saw Toma-Ra and Kilowog. But once again, the studio decided to make cuts and shorten the length of the film. I am sure a directors cut will include an extra 20-30 minutes of footage that fans will appreciate but that weren't neccessary to a wide audience.
Normally my reviews are much shorter but I really felt this movie got a bad rap from some really critical reviewers that were hoping for another Dark Knight or Iron Man. This is not those movies, its not even X-Men First Class. But its a lot better than X-men 3, Wolverine, Elekta, and Daredevil contrary to some reviews. Someone even said the Phantom with Billy Zane was better. Clearly these people just had way too high expectations for this movie and are now just committed to destroying the future of any DC movies.
I recommend this movie. And I think you should definitely see it in 3D- it really did make a fun difference. I am very critical of 3D movies but this helped the movie. I give it 3 1/2 stars.



Movie poster from: http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/green-lantern-movie-poster1.jpg