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    Green Lantern

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    It breaks my heart, but "Green Lantern" is not the great movie I wanted it to be. Even if you’re a hardcore fan of the character, like I am, you can only deny it for so long. This movie just doesn’t work. If you don’t think so now, just give it time.

    When hot-shot test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) comes upon the body of a dying alien, he receives its green ring and is inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, a millennia-old galactic police force. Unsure of himself at first, Hal gradually begins to master the power of the ring, which allows him to create anything he can imagine using pure, collected willpower from the four corners of the galaxy. But is the rookie able to stop Parallax, an ancient threat that has recently been unleashed?

    What works best is the art direction. Hal meets all sorts of crazy-looking aliens and they all look inspired, as is the Green Lanterns’ home planet/precinct of Oa. Even then, the visuals are let down by the special effects. They range from excellent to flat-out bad. Some of the shots where Hal is flying head-on look like one of those animated gift cards you receive at Christmas where you submit a photo and it gets pasted into a video in order to be personalized. I wish I were exaggerating.

    Ryan Reynolds as Hal fares ok. At least he’s charismatic when he’s not complaining about getting turned into a space cop (I’ll trade you any day) Mark Strong as Thaal Sinestro, a veteran of the corps does well, as do the other voice actors who bring to life the various aliens… though they’re not on-screen for a long time. Angela Bassett as government agent Amanda Waller (you’ll recognize the character if you read the comics) is also well cast.

    With the inherent coolness of suddenly being enlisted as a space cop whose imagination becomes his greatest weapon, you're ready to be swept into an intergalactic space opera/buddy cop story. The problem is that the film cheaps out. Most of the time Hal isn’t a fish out of water accidentally confusing astro lampposts for Thanagarians, or just barely managing to rescue saucers out of the path of incoming asteroids; he’s hanging out on Earth. Then, there’s the story, which is largely devoid of imagination or originality. If you received a ring that could create anything you imagined to fight evil, wouldn't you be excited? Wouldn't you conjure up the most insane and creative weapons, just so you could say you blew away an alien menace with it? Instead, we get the usual reluctant hero, the sidekick funny guy (played by Taika Waititi, who could have been replaced by an alien, or even better, dropped entirely), a by-the-book love plot and a big evil cloud of a villain cloud that’s 0% interesting.

    The extended cut of the film is an improvement over the theatrical one, with more back story on the characters (on Earth Hal hangs out with his childhood friends played by Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard), It adds more dynamic to the human side of “Green Lantern”, but this was the least exciting and interesting part of the film.

    For the bulk of “Green Lantern”, you’ll wish you had been given a Power Ring because you could think of hundreds of more creative things to do than with the premise than what we get. Even if you're a die-hard fan of the comic books, even if you're mildly curious there are better films out that showcase Green Lantern than this one. I recommend the extended version over the theatrical cut, I suppose, but neither are good movies. If you’re inclined, however, there’s a scene mid-credits. (On Blu-ray, December 27, 2012)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  19.8.2017 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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