Green Lantern movie reviewed (Fennec Film Review)
Jaspian the Fennecritic Presents...
A Fox Film Academy Review of...
Green Lantern
Growing up, Green Lantern was my favorite superhero. Looking back, despite my adolescent naivety, I still stand behind this... but less so than I would have back then. It all comes down to this: Green Lantern has the best superpower out of any superhero - ever. Maybe you’re thinking that’s quite a claim, but consider... he can create anything he can imagine. The Green Lanterns are like minor gods... With limitations, of course! (They’d be boring superheroes if they were really all-powerful) Their manifestations are only temporary, and the size and complexity of those manifestations require power and concentration, but still...! He’s like a god, and that is really cool.
I didn’t become aware of the uncoolness of Green Lantern until adulthood, when one of my friends agreed with me that “Yeah its a really cool power in principle, but he uses it for stupid things.” Like making a giant boxing glove or making a lasso... really campy crap... and I got to thinking that maybe he wasn’t so cool after all. The problem comes from the cross of two conflicting phenomenon... first, that to keep audiences interested, Hal Jordan can’t keep making the same few cool things... you can only make so many crazy machine guns and robots to fight for you before the audience says “u srs?...again? Give me something new!” And thus they have to mix it up by having him create a wider variety of manifestations. Some hit, others miss, and we end up forgetting the good ideas and remember those that seem campy and bad. But I feel somewhat vindicated because I would prefer a variety of manifestations and suffer the occasional cheese than for it to become boring and repetitive. But after seeing the first trailer, I prayed that the film would avoid the campiness entirely. With a clean slate, they could have Hal just manifest cool things and never have to repeat. Unfortunately I was let down...
Since he was my favorite superhero growing up, and the later trailers (the first “teaser trailer” seemed cheesy and portrayed it like it was going to be a comedy) looked really spectacular, my anticipation for this film was very high. So much so that I made art for the film’s release (NSFW!... too see it click HERE). And of course I bought advance screening tickets, but it wasn’t showing anywhere respectable. The local IMAX wasn’t showing it (did it even come out in IMAX format?) nor did the new local prestigious theater. Perhaps that should have been some indication of the lackluster reception this film was going to receive... but it really sunk in when I got to the theater and there was no line... and it stayed that way until right before the theater opened. A total of 10 people were there to watch it.
As one might expect, the special effects were pretty good.. although different. They were almost bad, but good. Like... they looked so unrealistic, but I think they were intended to look a bit unrealistic to increase the surrealism of the Green Lantern power (although I’m sure that this didn’t hurt when it came to their budget!). For example, Hal Jordan flies like it costs no effort whatsoever, and reminds me a little bit of how an otter swims through water. It doesn’t look realistic at all, but it is very good... and very “Green Lantern”-y.The planet Oa and the character Synestro are also quite spectacular. However there are also some special effects that don’t meet the bar - such as the helicopter crash (about halfway through), which was so fake and terrible-looking that it ruined my escapism. This is no spoiler, so no need to avert your eyes... there is a very excellent (although terribly prolonged) “damaged helicopter in distress” scene where the tail rotor is damaged and the helicopter is trying to stay aloft. Its all very convincing, and then the helicopter finally flies off, then suddenly crashes through a sign onto a bunch of people.. its so obviously a prop on a track... terrible.
Otherwise the special effects were pretty good. But everything else..? Not-so-good. The acting, for the most part, is just poor. The direction is abysmal, and the pacing is terribly flawed (although not fatally so). The story is really bad... not the overall story arch... but the chapters that make up the greater story. For example, there is one scene where Hal Jordan is coming back to Earth from Oa and suddenly he turns and busts into a secret underground base. Their rationale for this is that his ring alerted him to the presence of yellow energy on the planet. The bad energy was there for a long time... so why didn’t it alert him sooner? And since when does Green Lantern have the ability to detect yellow energy coming from a single person from outer-space?
Green Lantern was also burdened by the expected but avoidable “cheese factor” (as mentioned earlier) - creating manifestations that are just plain silly. While some battles lacked this handicap (the training session with Sinestro is quite impressive actually) other battles are riddled with cheesy unbelievable crap-manifestations to roll the eyes of even the most hardcore GL fan.The movie also suffered from a lack of explanation. While we who have read the comics know about the Green Lantern body shield, I suspect viewers who are new to the idea of Green Lantern wonder how he can fly, lift huge heavy things, and take unbelievable punishment without dying... no attempt is ever made to explain these things. Also, for a movie about Green Lantern, there’s a startling lack of manifestations. The film concentrates more on character development and the character’s personal stories than on the power ring... which is a bit odd considering that this is supposed to be a superhero movie. Outside of 3 fight sequences and a rescue scene, the manifestation powers of the ring aren’t really used.
So in the end, while I love Green Lantern and am glad to see that they made a film of it, I am pretty disappointed with the result. I do hope they made enough money to afford the sequel that they hint at, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t. Its not a very good movie, and I’m sad to say, its not really worth seeing. Two ears drooped. If you simply *have* to see the film... while it does have some fantastic wide-shots, I don’t think you’ll really miss out if you wait for this one on Netflix.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
-Jas