Green Lantern (Reviewed by Ed)

2.75 out of 4 stars

 

First off let me say that I was never really into the Green Lantern growing up.  I was always enamored with many other super heroes so he kind of was off the radar so needless to say my excitement level was not very enthusiastic, but with that I was still somewhat excited to see the movie. 

 

I was able to see the movie in 3D at the pre-screening and once again, although the 3D looked really good, I could’ve easily watched this movie in 2D and been perfectly fine.  Fortunately I didn’t have to pay to see it so it doesn’t really matter.

 

I think the positives of the movie were first and foremost the special effects.  I thought they did a VERY good job in this department.  The main villain that looks like a dark cloud with tentacles and a skeleton looking face was pretty awesome!  I thought the message of the movie was a good one to think about, that even though you have fear, if you have the will to fight for what you believe in than you can overcome the evils that surround you.  Ryan Reynolds was actually better than I thought.  He has the “look” of a superhero and he really is a good actor and he doesn’t disappoint in this movie either.  He knows when to be funny and he knows when to dial it down.

 

The aspects of this movie that fell short were mostly character development and plot.  These two were, in my opinion, inseparable because I felt the entire movie that the plot was “choppy” and things just happened too fast.  The thing I love about super hero movies is the character development and how they get their powers and how they struggle to control them, etc.  It’s always so interesting to me to watch that on screen.  Even movies that I absolutely hated (ie. Spiderman 1) the character development was awesome...even though the rest of the movie sucked.  This was the biggest disappointment for me was because things moved too fast the character development unfolded too quickly for me.  They could’ve easily added 30 minutes to this movie and I would’ve been totally fine if they would’ve gotten more out of developing the different characters.  When the Green Lantern (Reynolds) goes to train it was a fun scene to watch him struggle but before you knew it, it was over. 

 

I would say that, overall, this is just barely below an “average” movie.  I was expecting a 3 star movie and it fell just short which is why I give it 2.75 stars.  I believe the hard core GL fans will despise this movie but those of us that don’t know much about him will like it more.  They say the running time was 120 minutes but it seemed much shorter than that to me.  Oh and stay through part of the credits to see an additional bit of the movie.

 

Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!

Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 3
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 4
Would I buy the movie? 2

 

“Green Lantern" is rated PG-13 and features Intense Sequences of Action, Intense Sequences of Violence, Language, Some Sensual Content, Moderate Fantasy Violence.  Not Rec. for Young Children, Mature Theme, Frightening Scenes, Language May Offend

Run time: 120 minutes