Green Lantern

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Remo D
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Green Lantern

Post by Remo D »

Well, it was Father's Day, and this was the movie my son wanted me to see with him. So there you go.

Okay--my least favorite comics-derived movie (major label, anyway) of all time remains BLADE: TRINITY, and a huge part of the reason I hated it was the casting of Ryan Reynolds as the insufferable smartass who would NEVER... SHUT... UP! You KNOW something's wrong when you're rooting for the bad guys to KILL him. Still, I've come to enjoy Reynolds' work in other films, such as the AMITYVILLE HORROR remake/spoof and (especially) BURIED, so I don't really have it in for HIM anymore...

But still--we're in an utter GLUT of superhero movies, and when you've got something as mature AND entertaining as X-MEN: FIRST CLASS to live up to, you've really got to have something special to offer. And if there's one thing that GREEN LANTERN is NOT...

Stop me if you've heard this one. Earth boasts a cocky hero who's very, very good at his specialty, but who has character flaws that prevent him from progressing anywhere meaningful in life. He's gifted with superpowers. But when he realizes what's expected of him once he gets them, he shies away from that responsibility, too. But eventually, his own world is threatened, and he has to man up... oh, are you stopping me?

It's not GREEN LANTERN per se, it's the "superhero origin" syndrome. The hero is played adequately enough, but he's not special anymore. The villains? Well, there's the infected Peter Saarsgard (again, no slouch of an actor), but as he's slowly engulfed by a malicious alien intelligence, I couldn't stop thinking about Jeffrey Jones in HOWARD THE DUCK. Pretty much the same thing. The Lantern Corps, the watchers, the trainers, the alien assembly... yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, nothing new here. Oh, and the Parallax? The yucky face inside the great big cloud of tentacles? Sheesh, I haven't even SEEN the second Fantastic Four movie, but I immediately thought about what I was told about its depiction of Galactus... and my son was right there to confirm my suspicions.

Perhaps I should have splurged on the 3-D this time? I don't remember hearing that this was specifically SHOT in 3-D, but the design certainly seemed intent on carrying it throughout, and some of the visuals were duly impressive (I liked the Parallax yanking the skeletons out of its victims, anyway). And the film DID come to life when instant improvisation was called for on the part of the hero... for my money, the best scene involved an imminent helicopter crash and the solution whipped up by the Green Lantern.

Oh, and I appreciated the way the movie put the kibosh on the ridiculous idea that the Robin/Lone Ranger style of domino mask could possibly protect our hero's identity from someone who actually knew him.

Look, GREEN LANTERN isn't "bad" bad. By now, it's just too similar, too soon, and I'll plant it right down there with the first FANTASTIC FOUR movie. Okay, one notch above. Because Jessica Alba isn't in it.
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Darth Tanner
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Re: Green Lantern

Post by Darth Tanner »

Sorry I'm late catching up to this, but I was on vacation and am just now getting back into the swing of things:)

I did go to see this one on opening day and have to say I was really let down as well. In all fairness, I didn't expect a whole lot going into this. The trailers did nothing to excite me and the casting of Ryan Reynolds really sapped my enthusiasm. But I did notice that this was being directed by James Bond veteran Martin Campbell (who had helmed GOLDENEYE and the new CASINO ROYALE) so I figured this movie would at least have a chance.

This will go down in the books as perhaps the biggest bores I've ever seen on the big screen. At some points in the movie I actually felt like nodding off. The story and acting were as bland as they could be and the action sequences came off as being lame. Ryan Reynolds wasn't completely horrible but then he wasn't very memorable either. The otherwise gorgeous Blake Lively was completely wasted as was Angela Bassett (who had the same thankless "do nothing" role that Rene Russo recently had in THOR). I quickly forgot most of GREEN LANTERN after seeing it and will most likely never revisit it again.

As for the 3-D? I did unfortunately check out the 3-D for this one and rest assured you're not missing anything. Everything still looked flat and there were no good dimensional effects. At least TRANSFORMERS 3 had somewhat better use of 3-D.

This is probably one of my least favorite superhero movies as well. I'm hoping that CAPTAIN AMERICA fare much better (but I think I'll skip the 3-D for that one).
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