Is the Green Lantern Bright Enough?

Review of the movie The Green Lantern.
Spoiler warnings and all.. 

Let’s get straight to the point and answer the question: how was the movie?

Umm.. not sure. Lol.
When i finished watching this movie, i didn’t quite know how i felt about it. I wasn’t disappointed nor was i impressed. It just felt, so so. With that, i guess it’s already saying a lot since i’m a big fan of superhero movies and sci-fi. Although, i don’t really know much about Green Lantern (or most of the DC characters, as i was born in the Marvel universe) – I wanted to see his live action film. However, basing on the trailer itself, i wasn’t really expecting much – still i went out on it’s opening night and bought a ticket to one of Singapore’s best cinemas (the Grand Cathay) despite the objections of my wallet.

Anyhow, i promised spoilers so here they are:

Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds (also famous for Marvel movies – Blade, Wolverine) is a frustrated pilot having trouble accepting his past concerning the death of his father (also a pilot) when he was still young. He’s an excellent combat pilot who never quite reaches he’s goals due to his frolicking around and fears from his past – always walking away from responsibility and creating trouble each time. He’s had all the opportunities but has only taken them for granted, until a new chance to redeem himself from a life he made for himself came – from an alien purple man! A powerful ring has chosen him to be it’s new bearer as its previous owner is about to die (Frodo, are you there?). He was chosen to be a Green Lantern.

Green Lanterns (composing the Green Lantern Corps) are soldiers of the Guardians that maintain peace and order to the universe. These Guardians are powerful ancient beings that harnessed the power of ‘will’, forging it unto rings that their soldiers can use to fight evil – enabling them to create projections of anything based solely on their minds.

In the universe, ‘will’ as a corporeal form of energy bears the color of green. However, there is another form of energy that is colored yellow – the power of fear. From this energy, the evil entity called Parallax was formed.

The fates of Parallax and Hal as a new Green Lantern was destined to meet – on Earth, no less. There Hal musters the courage to overcome his fears and defeat the massive entity that threatens to consume the planet.

And here you have another classic tale of comic book superhero-dom. It makes the world go round. Hehe.

In the movie you’ll see a lot of aliens (from fish-heads, to over-tanned elfs, to over-sized hornets). Sometimes they all looked ‘too’ computer generated but most of the time they are acceptable. The environments and other effects are actually awesome for the most part – especially during the part when Parallax was starting to consume the buildings on earth. So, hooray for that.

I guess the main problem with the movie is the character build up for our human – turned superhero. It felt like something more could have been done to make the audience understand and somehow sympathize about Hal and his struggles. Of course, i really appreciated his antics – giving the movie a sort of Marvelish feel. Speaking of similarities with the other comic/studio giant – wait for a teaser at the end of the movie.

The movie is okay – neither good nor bad. It is something i would watch just to pass the time. I certainly didn’t go out of the movie theater shaking my head and thinking it was just a waste of time & money. (Although, I really did wish R. Reynolds would just go back to Marvel and be DeadPool again in a spinoff. hehe).

Would i recommend it to others?
Hmmm.. only to the following:

1. If you’re a fan of Green Lantern or at the very least Justice League 
2. If you’re secretly (or outwardly, depending on your overall personality) hoping that DC would also build up to a Justice League movie (vs Marvel Studios’ Avengers).
3. If you have an irrational love of anything that is colored green (specially the glowing ones, even those referring to the color of your mind).
4. If you’re a sucker for superhero movies
5. If you have a lot of time and money, and got nothing to spend it on

Did you match any of the above criteria? Hehe

Here’s the link to the movie’s website.

Happy watching!