Green Lantern

“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!“


Out of all the Superheroes in comic books, Green Lantern has the longest, slowest catch-phrase, motto, battlecry, oath, whatever you want to call it. It is no "Up, up, and away".


Well unfortunately, this also translated over to the the new Green Lantern movie. Now GL is a hard character to explain even to avid comic book readers. He is essentially an Universe space cop, and all his battles involve space creatures on distant planets or in deep space. All his power comes from a green ring he wears. He is part of a group that swears to protect the entire Universe from evil. So how do you make this character into a movie? Not well....


Green Lantern is a very slow paced movie. It spends a large portion of the movie trying to explain itself. Who are the Green Lanterns? Who is Hal Jordan? Why do we care? Even once you get to the point were Hal Jordan becomes the Green Lantern the action scenes are too short and too far in between. More time is spent on how he doesn't want to be a Green Lantern. It is sad. I was hoping it would have done better.


I believe that Ryan Reynolds was a good choice for Hal Jordan. He looks the part. Too bad his acting doesn't fit the part. GL was never a joking character. The jokes you seen in the trailers are about as good as it gets. All the others are one-liners that fall way too flat. Plus so much time is spend on Hal Jordan's insecurity that their isn't any time for any of the other characters to develop. 


Mark Strong was excellent as Sinestro, but you rarely see that character. Mark must have shot all his scenes in a single day. Where is Sinestro?! He is the trainer of Hal Jordan. He becomes the greatest enemy of the Green Lanterns. Hal discovers Sinestro uses fear to enforce his will over his Sector of the Universe that he is suppose to protect, and Hal gets him kicked out of the GL Corps. Why wasn't this part of the movie?! The best actor of the movie is rarely seen!!!


Same with all the other characters. We don't really see them. Peter Saragaard was good as Dr. Hector Hammond, but this character was also is neglected. Maybe they shouldn't have even hired actors. The CGI versions of other Green Lanterns were the most believable supporting characters of the entire movie. At least you know a lot of time was spent on creating them.


I was really excited to see this movie, only to be highly disappointed. I thought GL would have the same problem as Thor. How do you translate something that is takes a lot of imagination to the movie format which people expect to feel realistic. Somehow Thor was able to put it off.


You will need a lot of imagination to like this movie. You will have to imagine that the acting is good. That the story is good. That the effects are mind blowing. Without power of your imagination Green Lantern gets a l - lame. I was bored for most of the movie. I was waiting for a surprise or twist to happen, but none occurred. Rent this movie when it is released on DVD.

 At least I had some fun