Green Lantern (2011)

This film is a highly underrated masterpiece, fast paced, fun and true to the comic. The cast is almost right, though they should have used somebody more serious for the lead than Ryan Reynolds, Sam Worthington perhaps. Blake Lively makes a sexy helpless heroine and Peter Sarsgaard does a fine job as a creepy bad guy, albeit one covered in makeup. All in all this deserves to be up there with Superman II, Dark Knight and the first two Spidermans. I really do hope they'll ignore the critics and box office revenue to make a second one, as I feel one of the reasons its flopped is because many people who have watched it had never read the comic beforehand, meaning it was harder to pick up some parts of the plot.

Fmovies: A decent comic book adaptation of the DC comic book character Green Lantern.

It's certainly not as bad as some critics have made it out to be.

It's fun, the action sequences are flashy and exciting. The acting is all top notch and the humor is done really well.

Green Lantern is unpretentious, probably even one of the most unpretentious superhero movies ever made. It embraces its inherent goofiness and excludes much of the angst and over-seriousness that we seen in other comic book movies like Batman and Spiderman.

The after-credits scene is awesome. A real fan pleaser and hopefully they will make a sequel.

I went to see Green Lantern because a friend of mine was boycotting DC for such a long time because there has been no release of a Green Lantern movie. Sure, there were plenty reincarnations of Batman and Superman, but where's Green Lantern? Someone out there listened to his plea, and the result is this.....

A mess.

I will go on record to say that it's at least enjoyable. Even though the movie seems to be everywhere in its storytelling, with characters being underdeveloped and random things just happening. I would say that during this movie, I had a hard time finding a bathroom break. I was at least interested to see where the movie is going.

Let me try to explain this movie: There is this elite group of Green Lanterns led by Sinestro (well played by Mark Strong) who are having a hard time beating this giant alien in the Milky Way called The Parallax. So when their alien friend who's name I cannot remember falls to earth and dies, his ring is sent out to choose a new victim, and somehow it chooses Ryan Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds discovers that he has a new ability, and that he is the earth's only hope, but he can't handle that until the end of the movie. Not only that, but some doctor guy turns into an evil alien which, I guess, is controlled by Parallax, and Ryan has to stop him too.

I must say that I was intrigued by the doctor subplot where he is not accepted by his father (Tim Robbins) and slowly goes insane until he turns into John Travolta from Battlefield: Earth. I also liked seeing Ryan Reynolds in the movie because he brings energy to what could otherwise be a boring movie, and I was enjoying both stories that were coming along. The problem is that the whole movie felt disjointed, and not only did scenes felt random, but events turn random too.

Like the scene where Reynolds is chosen by the ring. It just happens out of nowhere. One minute he's talking to this kid (which never served much purpose to the film) and then all of a sudden he's walking and gets carried away in green light to that dying alien dude. This happened in more than one occasion. Also the CGI was all over the place, even on Reynold's outfit, and it's rather distracting. It's very vibrant and colorful (which is good), but it looked very cartoonish and took me out of the film. I also mentioned that the characters are underdeveloped, which goes a lot to Sinestro and that Parallax thing they are trying to fight. Heck, even the love interest felt underdeveloped. By the end of the film, I felt like I barely knew the characters, with just a likable performance by Ryan Reynolds.

However, Green Lantern isn't boring, just purely average. I think the reason why I sort of liked this film was that I went into it not expecting much. I already had groups of people telling me that this film is awful before its release, so I ended up getting a little more than I expected. Just a little. It was still entertaining, to say the least.

Green Lantern fmovies. I just have to do it, I just have to correct all the haters out there...

No summary, no spoilers, just points on what makes a movie.

Storyline: 8/10 Was it award winning? No, but what super hero movie is? The becoming a Green Lantern of Hal Jordan follows the original comics perfectly. If you know the comics, you know the beginning. If you never read them, then you learn a lot real fast. The story introduces only characters necessary to the plot and nothing more. Hal, Carol, Senestro, Parallax, the Guardians, Abin Sur, Tomar-Re, and Kilowog. They easily could have introduced way too many guardians, way too fast, but they didn't. Parallax's origins are changed a little but it works out for the better, remember not everything that works in a book works on screen. All in all, storyline was good, it kept a good pace. Always remember it is an origins story so the 2 hours isn't completely filled with action but neither Casee nor I got bored.

Acting: 8/10 No Ryan R. did not screw up Hal Jordan. Alright, I'll admit Hal may not be as witty as Ryan played him but Hal was sure as hell a smart ace in the comics. I thought it fit. I went in thinking, "This is going to be great, or really going to suck." Luckily, casting was very well done. Carol: Blake did a fine job. I do agree with another review that said they wished someone a little more intellectual/mature would play Carol, but in the long scheme of things, Blake didn't get a terrible amount of screen time to prove herself. Maybe as Star Sapphire she may pull out. Lantern Corp: Sinestro 10/10 Tomar-Re: 10/10 Kilowog: 10/10 Abin Sur: 10/10 I can't say much else besides that these characters lived up to the comics perfectly. I loved them all.

Graphics/CGI: 8/10 Why 8? Eh, there were a few, just a few I tell you, parts where the graphics pulled the cartoon look of Spiderman 3. PLEASE! don't be afraid by this, all in all the graphics were awesome. Oa was beautiful, just a couple notches below Asgard in Thor. Green Lantern Ring effects were great, all around solid.

Costumes/sets: 9/10 First, short and sweet. Live action sets: average. Skylines just like any other city, Ferris Airforce Base: good enough. Nothing spectacular but it wasn't the center of the movie. Costumes: STOP HATING ON THE CGI COSTUMES!!!!!!! Even the the comics the suits were made from energy and that is what the movie did. A powerful ring of willpower isn't going to POOF put anyone in spandex or rubber armor. The mask appears when the identity of a Lantern needs to be protected and eye color changes as well. PERFECT to me.

Length: 7/10 Although, as I said before there were a few slow parts, I would have liked to see the movie for a few minutes longer. Towards the end, yes, a little rushed but it didn't ruin the whole movie. 10-15 minutes longer to put it just at the 2 hour mark would have been perfect for an origins story to me. Took off a couple points here.

Overall: 8/10 By all means it is not as bad as Catwoman or Daredevil as some are writing. Those who make that comment are probably the ones who think Transformers is somehow an epic movie. Anyways, it is a good solid super hero movie. Maybe, not one of the greats like Batman Begins, Dark Knight, and Thor, but still a great movie that wouldn't be bad to take the mature enough younger kids. Parallax is a little scary and there are a few curse words, but by all means, this is not a racy film.

Remember: Stay after the credits...

First, I see that this movie has been getting negative reviews. However, it is the first superhero movie of its type. As an avid green lantern fan, I have to say that it does exactly what it should do, set-up the character.

I would not have chosen this particular plot line as the basis for the first movie. I would have gone with an approach more like the DC animated cartoon, Green Lantern First Flight. That would have appealed to a much wider audience.

However, I can assure you, that if they make sequels, this is a good starting point. Give the movie a chance, see if you like the character, I guarantee you, Hal Jordan's stories only get better from here. Case in point, Geoff Johns has won numerous awards for the comic book series Green Lantern.

Anyway, my opinion, see the movie, then watch Green Lantern First Flight. You will appreciate the movie much more that way.

As a side note, Green Lantern Emerald Knights, is not really important to the general concept. It is more just background information on a few of the other lanterns, and the only important segment, you get the full story in Green Lantern First Flight.

I avoided this film for for a long time because I thought that many didn't like it(a la Daredevil)but was I wrong to avoid it! I loved this movie and have now seen it many times.

I barely remember reading Green Lantern as a kid, but who cares, this was a fun, exciting and impressive movie.

Ryan Reynolds was perfect as Hal Jordan, and everyone else was fine also.

Special Effects were top-notch.

The film still made an impressive $116 million domestically, which shows that many people ignored the ignorant critics.

Parallax was a superb creation.

I intend to see this film many more times in the future.