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Saturday, June 18, 2011

MOVIE REVIEW: GREEN LANTERN

IN THEATERS

GREEN LANTERN



A test pilot embraces his destiny as a cosmic superhero in Casino Ropyale director Martin Campbell's adaptation of the popular DC Comics series. Ever since he saw his fearless father perish in a tragic aviation mishap, all Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) could think about was flying -- it was the only thing the brash, cocky, and irresponsible test pilot ever truly excelled at. Little did he realize he was destined for something much bigger. Somewhere out in space, a powerful force of evil known as Parallax is spreading fear and destruction; the only hope for defeating Parallax is the Green Lantern Corps, a group of intergalactic warriors powered by the force of will. When legendary Green Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is sent hurtling toward planet Earth after a deadly encounter with Parallax, his ring chooses Hal to continue the fight. The ring spirits our hero away to the Green Lantern’s home planet of Oa for training. The first human ever to receive the honor of becoming a Green Lantern, Hal is viewed with scorn by the league’s leader, Sinestro (Mark Strong), who trains him alongside the hulking Kilowog (voice of Michael Clarke Duncan). Later, on planet Earth, frail scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) becomes infected with Parallax’s evil while performing an autopsy on Abin Sur, and uses his newfound powers to stake claim on Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), Hal’s lifelong friend and fellow test pilot. When Hal learns that Parallax plans to consume all life on Earth to gain the energy needed to conquer Oa, he begins looking inward for the courage to defeat the malevolent force and embrace his destiny as a super-powered peacekeeper. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Martin Campbell

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Jay O. Sanders

Release Date: Jun 17, 2011

Rated Pg-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence

Runtime: 1 hr. 45 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure

Review:

Green Lantern is a film that feels bloated from the start. A fool’s errand gone wild, the budget was reported to have ballooned to 300 million dollars +, like blob like the primary villain in the film. Martin Campbell tries his best to steer the ship in an enjoy fashion but is left with just the most basic of comic book movie tropes and clichés. As a result, everything feels incredibly familiar and unexciting. It’s an inert film that rarely thrills or excites. Ryan Reynolds tries his best to give life to a character that’s so poorly written that he’s an enigma throughout. Reynolds does deliver his usual charm and wit when the script allows him to actually breathe which is incredibly rare. He never gets a good footing and the character kind of just movies along because he has to but not out of a natural sense of evolution. Blake Lively carries all the emotional weight of an invisible barbell. Her lines are delivered in the same wooden fashion throughout, not that there’s much she could do with a terribly underwritten and archaic female character. Peter Sarsgaard fairs no better as he’s handed an incredibly underwhelming role which serves no purpose in the long run other than run a tired dual daddy issues subplot into the ground. Mark Strong’s Sinestro is far and away the most fascinating and intriguing character, sadly he’s in the film for a criminally shortly amount of time. Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett suffer through some of the most embarrassing paycheck roles in recent memory. Their casting is a perfect example of how mishandled the entire enterprise is. The film stumbles and drags as it reaches its climax which feels more like an afterthought. Green Lantern works best when it’s in space, the FX are impressive and the characters there are far more interesting than their human counterparts, sadly most of the film takes place on generic comic book Earth.

D+

Bluray quality; Video is surprisingly poor for a film this new; Sound is excellent but hardly makes up for the poor qualities of the visuals.

I was hand-selected to be a member of Blu-ray Elite, a beta program from Warner Home Video which has graciously sent me this free Blu-ray disc.

6 comments:

  1. Great write up as usual! I didn't even attempt to name names in my review - too much effort was required.

    I think if Mark Strong was the villain I would have enjoyed it more as he is a reliable bad guy.

    I can't believe the budget was that high - I have no idea what they spent that on. It didn't look like a 300mil movie to me at all - I hated the GL costume it looked as though Reynolds' head was just clicked on like a bloody lego man!

    As a non fan it didn't win me over but I didn't lose anything - for fans of the comic it must've been a tough watch

    Not sure what the next summer release is here but we are taking a break and going to see Senna

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  2. Not surprised. Total DVD wait. I was never excited about this film to begin with, even though I'm a huge Ryan Reynolds fan. Nice review as always.

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  3. This is the firstmainstream movie i have avoided inmany,many years. i honestly can't remember intentionally avoiding a trip to the trips on a Thursday!! I couldn't face two abysmal movies in a row!!!
    A D+ even though I haven't seen it seems about right just judging from the promos. It just didn't have a good feel about it did it? But at least it was promoted the right way not like Super 8.

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  4. @ Karina, it would have worked much better with Strong as the villian but all GL stories have to start this way sadly. The space FX looked great, IMO, but on Earth the suit and constructs did look very odd and unatural.

    @ Fred, you'll be best suited by waiting till it hit disk.

    @ Brent, I think you'd hate this movie almost as much as Super 8, it fails on a lot of levels.

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  5. Yeah, I couldn't get with the hype. None of it seemed very exciting to me. And I'm a comic fan who attends the Pittsburgh Comic Con on a regular basis!

    Thanks for the review. I'll definitely pass on this.

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  6. Don't think you'll miss much Robin, a shame because they could have done something interesting with the character.

    If you want some solid GL stories though, pick up the animiated Bruce Timm produced movies GL: First Flight & GL: Emerald Knights.

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