Three Rings for the Elven Kings.
All the pieces are there for the Green Lantern movie, but it just ended up being utterly flat. Not just mediocre, but bad. Listen, I don't expect a lot; I try to keep my expectations at a reasonable level. Like take for example Thor; not a great movie, but fun & nice to look at. A fine example; I am not going to compose any odes to it or anything, but I liked it. Green Lantern wasn't any good at all. It is hard to place blame for that. Partly it is that Hal Jordan is terrible. Ryan Reynolds played him well, & the script started with the assumption that he was terrible & needed growth as a character-- those aren't to blame. It is just...sleazy fratboy Hal Jordan. He's like the most pathetic notion of what a good guy might be like-- a self destructive test pilot? Not even one of the Marvel style "scientist" types, just basically Ben Grimm without the orange rocks, an accent, & a character. Actually, Hal Jordan is nothing like Ben Grimm because The Thing is awesome. Blake Lively was fine as Carol Ferris, & making her a pilot was a nice touch. Also, man, if Blake Lively didn't have the "Los Angeles" vibe about her, I would think she was super attractive. The highest point of the movie is Mark Strong playing Sinestro. He was like, part of a completely different movie. The space stuff in Green Lantern was fine. So what exactly was the problem? In part, it is the script. Or I should say, the writing. Whoever did the outline for this movie did a great job; combining Hector Hammond, Parallax, Sinestro & Krona into a coherent storyline is a coup. The dialogue & the rest of the writing? Blah at best, terrible at worst. The editing is terrible-- oh man, the flashbacks to Hal as a kid are so clumsy-- & the music is apalling. Just...none of the pieces came together even slightly. Except-- well, the Guardians of Oa looked cool with their wrinkle blue heads & super long robes, & as I mentioned, Mark Strong as Sinestro was great. Nothing near enough to make the movie work. It wasn't so bad I had to turn it off, but it wasn't any good at all. Still, a chance to cuddle on the couch with Jenny & split a bottle of wine was just what the doctor ordered.
