"Green Lantern" -- Reviewed

I wanted so bad to love this film. So much hype was met with so much disappointment. There was a couple people in the theater dressed like Green Lantern even and I’m sure they are now embarrassed instead of proud to be wearing the recognizable green costume.

First of all, the writing in the film was awful. All of the jokes were half assed and character development was touched upon maybe 2% of the time whereas spectacle was touched upon the rest. There was a scene in the film when Hal Jordan is explaining that the ring chose him because he had no fear but states that he does. Everyone listening to him has a dumbfound look and then he says, “I’m afraid” and then everyone nods their heads. The writers cater to an assumed dumb audience while intertwining the story with such a rich history that most general audiences might fill lost. Look at the credentials of the writers:

"Dawson’s Creek", "Brothers & Sisters", "Smallville", "Sex and the City", "Flash Forward", and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is the only good thing to come out of the 4 writers that are credited writing this mess of a film. They have written mostly TV shows and this doesn’t translate well for the big screen. Actually, the whole film felt like a TV movie. A second rate character in a second rate medium. Many scenes were very jumpy without much explanation and the film felt rushed. For instance, when Hal Jordan flies to Oa and back it only shows him enter the Earth’s atmosphere and then immediately cuts to the door in his place and him entering his home. Or when an action scene occurs, it occurs fast because we don’t see how Hal grabbed Carol Farris, dodged Parallax and flies away. We only see him fly away with Carol. Everything is supposed to be assumed? I wondered why this was pervasive in the film and I believe that production on the film was behind schedule or that the film already had a $300 million budget that a few cuts in the editing room would save having to implement more CGI laden effects thereby saving millions.

Also, the stupid story line with Hal’s dad is barely touched upon and no one really cares about the sub plot but are forced to later when Hal is trying to overcome fear in himself. There’s also an obvious attempt at making Hal like Maverick in Top Gun. Think I’m joking? Hal is a pilot that’s great but reckless and has to deal with an emotion he can’t overcome. He later even sings to Carol Farris in a bar.

It gets worse. Even the great planet Oa is probably one of the most boring planets ever. There is no exploration into what makes the planet so special. Nothing is really shown and all we really get is Hal being trained for 3 minutes by Michael Clarke Duncan’s voice ("Green Mile", "Daredevil"). It’s this training that makes Hal ready to use his new powers. Does that not sound weird to you? It should. The film is not believable within even its own world!!

Oh, and trust me Ryan Reynolds was not to blame for this being one of the worst films of the year. It is the direction and especially the writers. Why was “Thor” or “X-Men: First Class” good superhero films? One word: story. Without it you have nothing and “Green Lantern” touches only briefly on it. Reynolds and the rest of the cast seemed to do as well as they could with the script they had but they can’t turn shit into gold.

The only redeeming part of the entire film is Mark Strong as Sinestro. Talk about perfect casting. While I wanted a more in depth story on all characters, it couldn’t be more so than with Sinestro. What about Tomar-Re? He was voiced by the great Geoffrey Rush("Shine", "The King's Speech") and he only gets a minute for screen time? Should I complain since I’ve seen a pre-screening and for free? Yes. I believe Warner Bros. should pay me for having to endure an hour and 45 minutes of nonsense.

Overall grade: D+
Award: Most Disappointing Film of the Year