Green Lantern (2011) Dir. by Martin Campbell
A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
***Spoiler Alert***
This might honestly be one of my quicker reviews because it is hard to not just go on a rant about all the things that went wrong with this movie. Who am I kidding? Just read on, it may get lengthy, haha. Fortunately I have narrowed it down to just being the fault of the Director and the Writers. Everything else seemed to fit really well. Reynolds was an awesome Hal Jordan, just misused. Blake was just there for eye candy, so they didn't give her much character to work with, so I don't blame that on her. She did well when she had a few seconds to.
All of the characters were spot on to how they appeared in the comic, but its not that difficult to do when 90% of the cast is CGI. Don't get me wrong, they did a great job with the CGI, and it didn't distract from the film at all. There were, however, two actors that really stuck out in my mind as why did they do this film; Peter Sarsgaard and Tim Robbins. Tim's character was in the movie for a total of ten minutes of on screen time, and it was pretty much pointless. Peter had a tough character to play, but I don't think his director really knew much about the comic. So he replaced all the chances for solid dialogue with screaming, heavy breathing, and awkward moaning. To me it was a slap in the face to a method actor like Peter, who could have been used to really flush out the character of Hector Hammond.
The movie has all three of the biggest villains of Green Lantern in one movie. Parallax, who looked awesome, and is one of the most powerful villains Green Lantern has ever faced. I mean he killed the "Best Green Lantern" of all time in Abin Sur, which is fine, but all this stuff about him destroying civilizations and killing everyone builds up for the entire movie, only to end with a 10 minute fight sequence in which he is destroyed. DESTROYED, as in killed. We are talking about a villain who once took over Green Lantern and Sinestro. A demon who embodied them in large story arcs, and is not destroyed in one movie. That brings me to my next point, Hector Hammond. Hector Hammond is to Green Lantern as Lex Luther is to Superman, as Green Goblin is to Spider-man, and you get my point. He is so misused in this film and it is upsetting. Aside from the lack of dialogue coming from him, and all the grunts, screeches, and moans, they really had a change to start off with a beginning villain story. Instead they kill Hector Hammond!!!! Kill him! Some people might say there is a chance he survived, and I have seen people bring villains back from worse, but he was turned in to a frickin skeleton in a matter of seconds. Two of the three biggest Green Lantern Villains killed in the biggest anti-climatic ways possible. A total flop in not only writing, but also directing. Campbell should have known better. He is a veteran director who has made such awesome movies as Casino Royale. So with two villains down, I knew who they would turn to next... Sinestro. He wasn't a villain in this film as he was still part of the Green Lantern Corp, but I knew his little sneak peak at the end was coming.
The movie was cool looking, and entertaining at times, but not enough to warrant even a second viewing. I don't know that I'll buy the DVD either. The Green Lanterns powers were wicked cool, but underused. All of the character were sweet to see on the screen, but once again underused. I don't know if it will make enough money to make up for the $300,000,000 budget (including marketing, advertising, and such), but I know they will try. Especially if they are planning a Justice League movie like they say they are. Thor was made for half this budget and was ten times as awesome, so maybe they should start calling Marvel for tips on how to make successful comic book movies.
Entertainment Value: 6/10 Forged Green Rings
Cinematic Value: 3/10 Forged Green Rings
3 comments:
This is what happens when there are so many comic book movies being made, they give them to directors who dont know shit about the comics, or dont have a passion or understanding of them.
Studios need to keep in mind that whichever director they use should give a crap and understand comics and how they work in the first place....you cant go on killing major villains just like that...jeez. In comics, villains last forever, they get beaten to return another day, or another issue..
I just can't believe that movies have $300 million budgets now. That just seems like an insane number to me. I remember when $100 million seemed huge. I skipped Green Lantern and I was sad to do it b/c I was really looking forward to a DC comic film unrelated to Superman or Batman. The reviews were just so bad.
I really wish these films would go easy on the cgi too. I would have preferred to see Reynolds in a non-cgi costume. I like Chris Nolan's approach--use cgi when absolutely necessary.
But the CGI wasn't the problem on this film. I do agree with you that Nolan has done an amazing job, and I hope he continues it with the third one, but we will see.
@The Film Connoisseur - I couldn't agree more. Look at the first two Spider-Man movies (AWESOME), then the studio took over for the third one, and CRAP. Also, you can tell that Nolan has a love for Batman. It shows in his work.
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