When Green Lantern hit theaters this past summer, I had no desire to watch another DC comics failure. NBM guest writer "Superman" had different thoughts and he scribed the review for this film a couple of days after it's theatrical release, then he bought it on Blu Ray when it came out, and finally he loaned it to me. It sat there for over a month waiting for me to have nothing better to watch or do. Now that I have seen it, I feel I must write some words about it. It did not exceed my expectations and it did not fall short of my expectations. Truth be told I had very little expectations to begin with, which suck because I do love Ryan Reynolds. I am not a comic book guy, however I do like the stories that have spawned an entire generation of decent to fantastic comic book films. Marvel definitely has the edge on the market, and by that I do not mean in terms of characters. The characters do have a lot to do with a film, but overall, it's the direction and story that make or break it. Marvel has had a few flubs along the way, but since X-Men broke over 11 years ago, the success rate for a Marvel movie is very high. Maybe they have been doing it long enough to understand the formula. Hal Jordan (Reynolds) is the son of a military pilot, so naturally that is what he wants to be. He is one, and a cocky one at that. No accountability whatsoever for any of his actions. He is a selfish pilot, a selfish man, and a selfish lover. That last one is merely an observation on my part. When an alien ship crashes to Earth, the Alien's "costume jewelry" chooses Hal as this Aliens predecessor in the Green Lantern corps. After Hal inherits his ring, he is the first human to be in the corps, and he doesn't know what that means. He doesn't even know what the corps is or does. He does know he has to speak the oath to the lantern which is the funniest scene in the movie...."To infinity and beyond the Power of Greyskull. Amen" The CG is extreme and the story is mediocre. If you are a comic book guy, I'm sure you knew all the players in the film. I, however, thought Sinestro (Mark Strong) was a baddie from all the trailers I watched. I pay attention and read a lot of movie news and spoiler sites and the fact that I was wrong about such a detail proves that the marketing campaign for Green Lantern sucked. They didn't do their jobs to promote what the movie was. They expected everyone to know everything about this Green Lantern world, and that's just not the case. Hal is the first Human in the corps, and this bothers some of the other corps members. You see to be a Green Lantern, you must not have fear, and it is Human nature to be fearful. After a couple of cool scenes, and a few good jokes it comes to an end. As I have always preached here at No Bad Movies, I never regret watching any movie, but whether I watch it again usually determines how I feel about it. I will never watch this again and depending on whether or not I like you will determine if I tell you to watch it or not. Now that see how I feel, here is a link to the original Lantern review from Superman.
Jester rates the Green Lantern - Good
