So I Saw Green Lantern…

In case I haven’t said it before, I kind of like movies based on comics. Sometimes my comic knowledge makes me criticize a movie in ways average fans would never think of doing but other times it makes me more accepting of movies everyone else seems to hate.

With that in mind here’s what I thought on the comic-based, critically-reviled “Green Lantern” a.k.a guy with ring that makes stuff.


The key to not being angered by this movie, as some fans are, is to modify expectations. I know it's kind of sad to lower expectations but if you calm down, to quote a friend(?) of mine, and come into Green Lantern knowing it won’t be the crazy awesome space opera it should be you’ll be better able to appreciate it as the average, mid-2000s superhero origin movie it is.

Granted, all of the Earth-bound Top Gun nonsense is plodding nonsense. Just like with Transformers, if you show me a never-before-seen alien world don’t expect me to be more interested in the middling drama of an aircraft company on a planet I see every day. Thor kind of had the same issue but for as much as I disliked it, its Earth scenes worked way better because, through the character of Thor, we were supposed to feel like Earth was lame compared to the neon cosmic realm of Asgard.

However, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are totally fine for the cliché roles they were tasked with playing. I have respect for Nathan Fillion but no one should expect him to play the lead in all these nerd movies (Uncharted) where the main character looks sort of like him. Peter Sarsgaard is also kind of perfect as the ultimate creeper, Hector Hammond.

I made out with Liam Neeson. U jelly

Speaking of Hammond, lots of people have enlarged heads in this movie. Hammond, Parallax, the Guardians of the Universe, Sinestro…

Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan and Angela Bassett are also all really good in like the ten minutes of screen time they each get despite how important their characters have the potential of being. Poozer is still a dumb word though.

It seems each new Green Lantern thing has its own explanation for Abin Sur’s death.

I think the effects too are at least decent. I didn't see it in 3D because I still don't hate myself. Even though cloud monsters are dumb in all contexts the Parallax/Krona/Legion cloud monster works better than the Galactus cloud monster. Oa looks neat as do the ring constructs especially during the Sinestro (another underutilized character) duel despite how ridiculous they are. As for the CG suits, I understand the problem one might have with the fake look but the idea that they are just manifestations of the rings actually justifies it a lot for me. And Ryan Reynolds's head never felt out of place.

As much as I like Green Lantern the concept, it seems way less cool once you realize they’re just space cops.

Much like X3’s use of the phoenix force, this movie tries to cram in some ideas way too big for one movie. Just by using Parallax they bring up the whole Geoff Johns light/emotional spectrum in which one color equals one feeling like fear equals yellow and there are all of these other lantern corps running around like some kind of rainbow coalition. That kind of weird and abstract concept works far better for the space opera the Green Lantern comic has become and not the sci-fi tinged superhero movie this movie is content being.

And for as much as I like Martin Campbell after he saved James Bond twice with Goldeneye and Casino Royale, it really shows that he didn't care at all about directing this movie. Great job.

So it's not that good, but certainly not worth getting angry or offended over.

I’ll end by plugging this video. I was listening to this song one day and thought “someone should play this with some Green Lantern footage” and lucky for me someone did.








I love though how the Justice League cartoon has got a whole generation of kids (including me) thinking John Stewart, the black Green Lantern and one of Hal’s like three back-ups, is the main one. Where was he in this movie DC? Maybe they’ll do the story where Hal doesn’t want him as his alternate and only accepts him after the Guardians tell him to stop being racist. True story.

I'd also accept Daffy Duck or a purple octopus of compassion