Movie Review: It's Not Easy Being Green

Green Lantern movie poster, image property of Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

Green Lantern AVERAGE

Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a fighter pilot who seems unable to cope with his life.  He’s never gotten over the death of his father, he seems to have messed up a perfectly good relationship with Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), and his reckless behavior has lost him his job.  He appears to be the last person you’d think to bestow with tons of responsibility, but that’s just what a dying purple alien does.

I bet you are thinking that purple aliens sound silly.  Well, that’s because it’s silly.  In fact, much of this movie is really silly.  Silly and cheesy.  The dying alien leaves him with a ring and a lantern and tells him to recite the oath.  Hal does so and finds that he is now equipped with superpowers and a nifty CGI suit.  Yes, ladies, Ryan Reynolds’ gorgeous body is gone most of the movie and instead replaced with a green animated version.

He is now a Green Lantern, one of many who are responsible for protecting the universe… and boy, does the universe need some protecting!  Parallax (voiced by Clancy Brown)—an evil entity that uses the power of fear—is on a rampage.  The Green Lanterns use the power of will, not fear, and the moment their will falters and they give in to fear, Parallax kills them.  Their fear only makes him stronger so he continues to grow and grow as more and more give in to fear.

None of the Green Lanterns have much faith in Hal because he is a weak and pathetic human.  By weak and pathetic I mean a nice guy and not a total jerk which is what all the aliens are.  Seriously, they are all major assholes.  But anyways, Hal overcomes his fear and with his amazing strength of will he overcomes Parallax and saves the day!!  YAY!

What made this movie just slightly subpar for me were the villains.  Parallax wasn’t that threatening to me and the final battle with him and Hal was sort of underwhelming.  It seemed too easy, somehow.  Then there was the character of Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) whose side plot began really interestingly.  He was this nerdy, quiet doormat who accidentally got infected with some of the blood of Parallax, thus turning his fear into power.  He began to hear people’s thoughts, his head began to grow unattractively because of his increased brain power, and he started to control things with his mind.  He was a very damaged and angry character and I thought to myself, “Hey, he’s shaping up to be kind of an intriguing villain.”  But unfortunately, there wasn’t any payoff to that.  His character was killed off way too soon.

Besides the lame villains, ridiculous storyline, and cheesy special effects Green Lantern was actually kinda fun.  Ryan Reynolds is a really likable actor and I feel he was a good choice for this movie.  Blake Lively also did an admirable job as his love interest, providing just enough humanity to an otherwise cartoonish movie.  There were also a few laughs to lighten the load, which always seems necessary when adapting a comic book. 

My favorite comedic moment was probably when Hal flew to Carol’s balcony dressed as the Green Lantern and was surprised when she recognized him.  She says something to the effect of “I’ve known you my whole life.  I’ve seen you naked.  Because I can’t see your cheekbones you think I can’t recognize you?”  Ha ha ha!  I’ve always laughed whenever superheroes would put on their tiny little eye masks and nobody would recognize them!  Do they think we are stupid?

Anyway, if you go in wanting a popcorn flick where you can sit back and enjoy the spectacle of it all, you’ll probably leave happy.

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