Reaction & Review | Green Lantern

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a superhero film from 2011. That movie is "Green Lantern".

Now I would love to tell you that I am looking forward to watching this movie. After all, I do like the Green Lantern character, whether it's either Hal Jordan or John Stewart. I know there's Kyle Rayner and a bunch of other Green Lantern's, however, the first two are the only ones I have any actual experience with. But this movie has 2 things going against it before I even push play. Number 1, almost everyone who has seen this film has come out and said that the movie is a piece of shit. Now admittedly, this is more of a minor concern to me, because I have seen quite a few movies for this series that were claimed as being some of the worst movies ever made, but I didn't see that for most of them. Movies like "Jonah Hex", "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie", and even Stallone's "Judge Dredd" ended up being OK despite the negative criticism that they received. So this movie could possibly be one of those misunderstood movies that I might end up actually liking.

That being said, however, the other thing this movie has going against it is the film's star, Ryan Reynolds. I'm probably gonna be in the minority on this one, but I am not a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds work. One of the big reasons why is because I've noticed a pattern with his acting. Ever since his success as "Deadpool", it seems to me that he's taken that role and emulated it into almost every other movie that he's starred in. And thus it leads to his acting being very samey and kind of tiresome. Also, on a side note, I wish all the Mint Mobile ads I see that feature Mr. Reynolds almost every time I watch a video on YouTube would just die in a fire, because they are *painfully* annoying! And yes, I know he's supposedly the owner of Mint Mobile, but those shitty ads have been going on for nearly a year now and I wish they would all just die a quick and painful death, because I'm sick and tired of seeing them.

Now I can't be too harsh about him being in this movie, because this was long before the "Deadpool" movie even came out. So I'm curious to see what he can do here long before his stardom really took off. I kinda have my doubts about this movie being any good, but like I said, I've been proven wrong before, so I'm hoping that this movie will do the same and actually be halfway decent. But the only way I'm gonna find out as to whether or not this movie will be any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Green Lantern".

12 minutes later

So, Hal Jordan's idea against these robot-fighter planes was to pull off what Tony Stark did by flying as high as he can towards the sky just to prove a point by showing what they can't actually do, which essentially was them not being able to break Earth's atmosphere. All right, well, that definitely is a bold move on his part. Not sure if that's gonna win him any favors with his colleagues, but at least it was sorta cool.

16 minutes later

Wow, we're actually getting an introduction to Amanda Waller...interesting. I'm kinda surprised to actually even see her in something that's not either Justice League or Suicide Squad related. That's actually rather refreshing now that I think about it, because I don't know if she was in any other live action DC movie up til this one. Still, it's actually sorta cool to see her in something different, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

OK, I have a really dumb question here, and I know it's a trivial one, but I gotta ask. Why the hell are Sinestro's eyes so fucking big? I ask this, because in the previous shot, his eyes looked normal. And now, of all sudden, his eyes are fucking bigger now that we're getting a closeup of him. I don't know if that was a case of poor CG or if his eyes just naturally look like that when he's widening them, but it is rather noticeable. At least, to me, it is.

9 minutes later

So...Dr. Hammond has the ability to read people's minds. I have a question about that. Exactly *how* did he obtain these powers? The only explanation I can think of is when he was trying to operate on Abin Sur's body that some sort spark happened when Hal Jordan was able to unlock the powers of the Green Lantern. Granted, that's not a really good explanation on my part, but it is something that I can kind of roll with, I guess.

15 minutes later

You know, guys, I find it kind of funny that Hal's love interest immediately recognized him as the Green Lantern upon a second meeting. I'm kinda happy the movie brought that up pretty quickly. Otherwise, if she didn't figure out who he was the moment that she saw him up close and personal, despite his mask, then she probably would've been fucking retarded, and I would have to question the writers mentality on not addressing any of that.

20 minutes later

OK, you know what? That plan by Hal Jordan to give Hector the Green Lantern ring and use it against him was actually a really clever plan from him. I was gonna question why the hell he would give his ring to Hector, but it actually kinda made sense in a way. So yeah, I gotta give Hal some props there.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Green Lantern". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where to begin with this one? Well, first things first. I mentioned it earlier, and I'm gonna get a little more in depth about this in a moment, but when this movie came out, it was slammed by both fans and critics to where it eventually bombed in theaters. And I was very skeptical about buying this movie when I decided to add it to the schedule for this year's "Tales of the Longbox", mostly because it didn't look all that interesting to me. That, coupled with the fact that I'm not a huge Ryan Reynolds fan, didn't really excite me, either. So, I was expecting the worst out of this movie when I eventually got around to cover it. And I gotta say, after finally watching this movie...it really isn't that bad. OK yes, the movie isn't great, and I don't really know if it's worth watching a second time, but to say that it was the one of the worst movies ever made is something that I think was sort of over-blowned a bit.

So now that I've gotten that part of the way, let's actually dig more into the movie itself, shall we? And to continue on with what I just mentioned, let's actually talk about the writing. Now while I did just admit that I sorta enjoyed the movie, I can also kinda see why people didn't like it, and I have a theory as to why that is. See, when you ask fans about what they know about the Green Lantern mythos, one of the responses that you'd get is Sinestro inheriting the yellow ring of Fear, thus him turning evil and having to fight Hal Jordan. And considering that this was the first ever live-action movie centered around the Green Lantern, it's something that fans were highly anticipating. However...that doesn't happen here. Sinestro himself is gone for a good portion of the film after he meets with the Guardians to say that he'll fight fear with fear against Parallax by creating a new ring which would contain that power. And he doesn't show up again till the last 25 minutes of the film after he completes the ring, only to be stopped by Hal Jordan before he executes that plan. Now a little bit of a spoiler here, he does end up wearing the yellow ring after the post-credits sequence, however, we never actually get to see any real conflict between Sinestro and Hal. And what little there is between them basically amounts to very little. Which is, admittedly, rather disappointing, especially when you consider how badly this movie did at the box office. So needless to say, any chance of that happening in a sequel never came to pass, nor will it ever at this point.

Now another reason why I think this movie faltered a bit is that it feels like there were two completely different stories here that got crammed together in order for the film to get made. On one side of it, you have the origin story of Hal Jordan becoming the Green Lantern, and it's honestly really good. But on the other side of it, you have the sub-plot involving Hector Hammond. Now I should quickly mention, first of all, that the movie did clarify a reason as to how Hector might've gotten his powers of reading minds. Basically, Waller explains to Hector that he was exposed to Parallax's DNA that was present on the fatally wounded Abin Sur's body. Granted, it's still a little questionable as to how you gain that sort of ability, but I'm not gonna question that part. But anyway, instead of focusing on Sinestro as the main villain like fans were hoping for is instead focused on this one character. And I would probably care more about it, except, Hector is honestly kind of bland and is really a rather boring villain. He's basically being presented as a weird and insane scientist, and...that's kind of it for his character. He really has no kind of personality beyond that, and because of that, you really won't find much of a reason to care about him. So I can totally see why fans would be upset that this guy was considered to be the main villain rather than Sinestro. And it definitely is the weakest part of the movie by far.

That being said, though, the stuff involving Hal Jordan's origin story is *really* good. And I actually really like how he was written in this movie. From everything involving first gaining the ring, to how he's getting use to his powers, to him overcoming his fears so that he can find a reason as to why the Green Lantern ring chose him as a hero. All of that is really solid stuff, and is one of the more stronger aspects of the movie. Our other characters here range from being kind of bland to just being forgettable. Setting aside Sinestro's short appearance in this movie, other characters like Amanda Waller are also not in the movie for very long either. I think she's in the movie for, like, less than 10 minutes or so. Her backstory is briefly touched upon thanks to Hammond reading her mind, but beyond that, she really doesn't have much of a role here outside of just being one of the main scientists. I feel like you could replace her with anyone else and you wouldn't notice the difference. Hal's girlfriend is also somewhat bland, too, and her chemistry with Hal Jordan is somewhat cheesy, but it does provide more of a layer to Hal's character, which stops him from becoming completely bland. The other characters are just there to exist for plot reasons and they're not very memorable anyways.

So with this mind, I completely understand as to how this movie got the reputation it deserved. It definitely is a flawed movie, and as someone who also likes the Green Lantern character, it would also disappoint me, too, especially if I had seen the movie in theaters back in 2011. However, being that I'n now seeing this movie 13 years later, I can honestly say, despite all of that, the movie is still able to stand decently well enough on it's own merits with it's strong characterization of it's main character. And the story itself is still interesting enough, as long as you're able to overlook the issues that I discussed earlier. Now with all that said, let's get into the acting. And I'm gonna say that the acting here is really well done. And in the case of Ryan Reynolds, his acting is also pretty good, too. There is a little bit of those mannerisms from "Deadpool" that I noticed. However, he's able to not let that part of his acting overtake the role. Because he has a good balance of when to be serious and when to be humorous. And to be fair, Hal Jordan was also a pretty humorous character in the comics and in the "Justice League" cartoon. So in that aspect, Ryan Reynolds does a good job on getting the character right. The rest of the acting is also pretty solid as well. I would say, at times, the actor playing Hector would sound a little hammy, but it's not to a point where he's overacting, so I can give some of that a pass here. But yeah, the acting here is perfectly fine from just about the entire cast.

Special effects in this movie are pretty good, too. I've heard most people say that the effects are god-awful because there's suppose to be some noticeable green-screen effects. And while a good portion of this movie does have some scenes like that, I didn't really notice them as much as I did, so it's just something you have to take for what it's worth. But onto the effects themselves, the CG here is pretty good. The one thing I have to comment on that is gonna be seen as a mixed bag is Green Lantern's mask. I have no idea if his mask supposed to be done in CG or if it was just poorly done makeup effects, but it is very noticeable, and it could potentially pull you out of the movie. The makeup effects themselves are also pretty good, though I will say the one thing that kinda throws me off about it is Sinestro's eyes. Perhaps it's just me, but I swear almost anytime Sinestro's on camera, his eyes look a lot bigger than usual. And I don't know if that's just my poor eyesight, or if the CG was suppose to make him look more "alien" then usual by having bigger eyes. It's not all the time, mind you, but it is something that did catch my interest. I know a lot of people won't notice it, but I did, so again, you just have take it for what it's worth. But otherwise, like I said, the CG here is pretty good, and the makeup effects are also really good, too. The costume is also done in CG, but I honestly didn't have much of an issue with it. It's just the mask that kinda threw me off slightly. Otherwise, though, the costume on the Green Lantern is pretty good for the most part.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting is lit very well, which makes sense, considering we're dealing with a superhero that is working with green light and all. Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music is also pretty good, too. It's not great, mind you, but it's also very inoffensive, as well. So yeah, the music here for both the score and soundtrack are perfectly serviceable.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Green Lantern"? If you're able to overlook all of the issues that this movie has, then yes, I could recommend it, at least for a single viewing. Like I said earlier, I wasn't sure if it was something I would watch a second time, and after actually getting a chance to talk about it, I don't see myself watching it again or keeping it in my DVD collection. Mind you now, I did enjoy watching this movie, and it certainly has it's moments. The really solid characterization of Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern and the story itself being rather interesting is definitely worth checking out, at least once. And if you actually like it enough, then you can go ahead and find it on either DVD or Blu-ray, or watch it on MAX, assuming it's on there. However, I don't really think this will satisfy long time fans of the character, especially with the issues that this movie has. And in regards to those people, I don't think I could recommend for them, because they would probably end up hating it. But like I said, the movie, at least in my opinion, isn't really that bad. And if you do want to give it a chance, well, you can easily find a copy of this somewhere on almost any format. I have no idea if there's a 4K version of this movie, but then again, I don't really care about 4K in general. So yeah, the movie was enjoyable to watch once. But personally, I don't see much of a reason for myself to watch it ever again. Which is a bit disappointing, but not totally surprising to me. Now...with that being said, I think I'm gonna go and watch a different DC movie. I think I'll go and watch my copy of "Justice League: War". I haven't seen that in a little while, so I'm gonna do that next after I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.