If I had to sum up The Green Lantern in 25 words or less, I’d say this: “Ryan Reynolds is pretty. Blake Lively is pretty. Their love story is boring. The Green Lantern story itself was entertaining.”
I had a good time watching The Green Lantern last night. I hadn’t read any reviews yet but I had seen headlines that cleverly punned “blackest night” to describe the movie, but I think that’s a little bit harsh to say. I have to admit that I liked Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan way more than I liked Chris Helmsworth’s Thor. I like origin stories and I like superhero movies. Going into the movie knowing nothing about Green Lantern lore, I had no problem understanding the story or following the plot. Granted, there was a lot of set-up in the movie before we really got to the good guy vs. bad guy action but people forget that the first Spider-Man movie kinda took just as long to get started (15 minute wrestling match, anyone?). I can’t even sit here and say that the acting sucked, because quite frankly, once I guiltily got past the “ha, yeah right” after seeing Blake Lively dressed as a pilot, I couldn’t find anything bad to say about how each character was portrayed. I even felt bad for Peter Sarsgaard’s character, Hector Hammond. (Again, keep in mind that I can’t compare each character to its comic book counterpart.)
I think the main problem with the movie was that there was too much of the love story. As a female, I go to superhero movies to see the action and learn about the character, not to spend 75% of the movie rehashing the exact same “I’m sorry I ruined what we had” and “You’re good at running away” scene over and over again. The superhero part would start to really heat up, but then the whole story would take a step back with yet another scene between Hal and Carol that was exactly like the previous one only with Lively in a different hot dress. Those scenes were kinda boring. I would’ve loved to learn more about the Green Lantern Core and its history.
That said, I’d still recommend checking out The Green Lantern. Is it the best movie of the summer? No. Is it the worst out of all the comic book movies that have come out over the last decade? In my opinion, definitely not. Now that a lot of the set-up is out of the way and character relationships are established, I’d totally be down to see a sequel. And that’s all I’ve really got to say about The Green Lantern.
For a way better review, check out what Green Lantern guru Ralph had to say.
