When I was a kid reading DC comics, Green Lantern was -- after Superman -- my favorite DC hero. I thought his costume was cool, the power ring an amazing weapon/tool, and I liked the green theme.
So I was pretty excited when I heard a few years ago that there was a big-budget "Green Lantern" movie in the works. I never got to catch it in the theatre when it came out this year… possibly due to a diminishment of that excitement due to the almost universally horrible reviews.
But I still wanted to see it, and I picked up the DVD when I saw it at Barnes and Noble a few days ago. Jeannine, who'd said she would go with me to see it in a theatre, sat down to watch it with me at home.
She left about ten minutes into the movie. I probably should have too, but I wanted to give it a chance. And I did… but it never got better.
Awful writing. Awful story. Awful pacing. Occasionally great effects. A good character well-played in Mark Strong's Sinestro. Ryan Reynolds desperately trying to make the best of the crap he was given to say and do, sometimes succeeding, most times not. Occasionally atrocious design (the ridiculous "throne towers" for the Guardians, for example). Bad choices at almost every turn.
Did I say awful writing? This movie had some of the WORST dialogue I've ever heard in a film.
I could actually sense Jeannine's attention and interest slipping away during the beginning of the movie, which was so off-putting in it's "let's talk down to the stupid audience" exposition and just dreadfully tiresome videogame-like special effects that even I barely got through it.
And I have to ask -- is Hal Jordan (at least the Hal Jordan as portrayed in the movie) REALLY the sole person on Earth most worthy of the power ring, which supposedly has the ability to seek out the best candidate? Really? He's the BEST of all the billions of people on Earth? Please.
What an atrocious waste of a great character. -- PL
(P.S. I couldn't bear to use an image from the movie to illustrate this review, so instead I found one from the comics of my childhood, on Wikipedia.)
