Everyone here who hasn't seen it yet, I wouldn't believe all of the critic reviews coming out absolutely ripping on the movie if I were you.
I have never read a Green Lantern story (only getting brief glances of Jon Stewart's lantern in the Trinity Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman series), and went into this movie wide eyed and willing to see what it could offer.
To me, a lot of reviewers are either A) dedicated Green Lantern fans who can't see the movie behind their wall of nitpicky reservations, or B) people who just got turned off by all the goofy elements of the movie. Big headed aliens, herp durr.
I'm not gonna lie. The movie can be pretty cliche. And some parts of it can be preeetty silly. (seriously, why all the big headed aliens? and villain? it just looks derp).
But I had a lot of fun with it, and although cliche, I thought the brief touches it made upon the nature of fear, courage, will, and making something out of your life were interesting. Sure, these themes only made their shallowest appearance in the movie, but it was enough to get you thinking, and you could see a lot of depth in the characters if you sat back to really think about it long enough. Depth that was reflected in many aspects of the character's moments on screen, and that I believe was portrayed nicely by the actors.
It didn't go into space as much as it could have. Sure. But if the angry fans and critics would give it a chance to breathe, or at least try to give it more of a chance, maybe it could make enough money to spawn a sequel. That would be in space. Speaking as someone new to Green Lantern, you kind of need to ease people into the character, and starting it off on Earth I think made him slightly more relatable, invested us more in him. I want to see him in space too. But this movie was his necessary, logical origin.
The only contrivance I felt was how Hector just happened to be related (by blood or kinship) to everyone, and I also thought it was odd, in a moment that happened towards the end, that the movie kind of made a "broken aesop", or wrecked its own message.
BIG SPOILERS:
Towards the end, Hal (the hero) gives Hector (the bad guy) a long speech about how anyone can choose to be heroic, how you can always overcome fear, and how you can be whoever you want to be. He basically says "The only difference between you and me is that you are choosing to be someone else. You aren't weaker than me. Just choose, use your will, fight what you have become." This is the issue Hal has been grappling with all film long.
Of course, Hector doesn't go for it, and instead betrays Hal. "I lied," he says.
But then all of a sudden Hal says "I lied too. You have to be chosen." And takes his ring back, etc...
It seems kind of odd for the movie to spend so much time, buildup, and even a redemption lecture to the villain saying that the difference between courage and despair is your own choices. Then Hal just says: whelp, you have to be born brave I guess.
That, I thought, was just retarded. As well as the Guardians giving Sinestro a long speech about how Parralax sought to fight fear with fear and lost, at which point Sinestro says "Well, I want to fight fear with fear to beat Parralax. I mean, he is pretty strong. Maybe he's onto something. Can I have a yellow ring?" While it kind of is set up that Sinestro would really, really grasp at any power to defeat this villain, what's stupid in THIS case is the Guardian's reaction. Wise, immortal beings who created all of the universe, and just told him how Parralax fell. And here Sinestro wants to do the same exact thing that Parralax tried. What do the Guardians say in response? "Good idea, lets make a yellow ring." Deeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrp. Weakest set up for the Sinestro Corps ever.
END SPOILERS.
Point is, the movie was pretty fun, and nowhere near offensively bad. The special effects looked great, in 2D at least. It really sold me on Green Lantern as a character, I thought he used the ring in creative ways, and the play between will and fear was enough to keep you thinking for some time.
I don't think critics and I were watching the same movie.
But then, I am just one person.
Go see it for yourself everyone. I can understand that critics don't like it, but they seem ot be over reacting. Especially Bob here. It wasn't a bad movie, but it's one I can understand disliking. However, I think the people who just simply dislike it are so offended at the fact that it wasn't amazing that they are getting hotheaded and exaggerating the movie's flaws. "Meh" at worst, "A lot of fun" at best, that's my personal review.
