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Green Lantern

TheBigBlackBat

19 June 2011

Release Date

17 June 2011

Budget

$200 Million

Box Office

$220 Million

An elite defense force of peace keepers

This is one of those films that I don’t get what all the complaints are about. As a fan of comic heroes and superhero in general I can appreciate the fact that we are now seeing major comic characters been bought to life on the big screen much better than ever before. Do I have to mention the 1979 and 1990 Captain America films. Then again we didn’t learn much in 1997 either with Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin, less said about that the better!

I’ve watched Green Lantern a fair few times and every time I enjoy it. Yes it has it’s problems, like every other film!

One of which is most definitely Parallax the villain of the film! Whoever decided to show him as a cloud with a head I’ll never know.

In the film, test pilot Hal Jordan is chosen by a dying alien named Abin Sur to become the new guardian of the solar system, complete with a power ring and lantern battery through which he can harness willpower to create constructs and fight evil. Despite scepticism from veteran Lantern Sinestro nd his old flame Carol Ferris, Hal must overcome his own fear in order to confront Hector Hammond, a telekinetic scientist who has been corrupted by Parallax, a fear-based abomination from the Green Lanterns' past.

Personally I think they got the character of Hal Jordan perfect, in the comics and animated versions he’s a comedian and they picked the perfect actor in Ryan Reynolds to play the character.

I like the animations for the ring, like race tracks, giant fists and heavy artillery. If anything I thought taking this concept from the pages of a comic would have been the most difficult thing to achieve, however, I reckon it comes across not to that bad!

Like many people the only BIG problem I have is with the costume. For whatever reason the decision makers decided to create the uniform using CGI, in some respects I can see why, especially for the scenes where Hal has to put the uniform on using the power of the ring. But why didn’t they just use a CGI sequence for that specific sequence, then use a proper constructed uniform like every other Superhero film has in the past.

Let’s face it, this is what all of us Comic fans wait for when these film are released, to see how the studios have tackled the construction of the uniform!

Some film critics have stated that Hal Jordan is made out to be a complete asshole from beginning to end of the film, but even in the comics he’s portrayed as a ‘cocky’ superhero, so in my opinion they got it right and probably if there had been a follow up, they would have shown Hal loose the ‘cocky’ bravado as he learns more and more to control the rings power and what he can actually do.

For all we know this could be the start of DC’s plan for the a Justice League and Hal would be the fun part of the crew just like in the comics who would become less and less ‘cocky’ as he learns to operate as part of a team!

Mark Strong who plays Sinestro is also pretty good as far as I’m concerned and looks just like his ‘comics’ counterpart.

As far as the general movie going public is concerned the Green Lantern movie went wrong and the result was critically panned. Audiences steered clear too, and the eventual worldwide box office take of $219m wasn't enough for Warner Bros to push ahead with the planned sequels.

Who knows maybe in the future, we’ll see WB re-visit Green Lantern. They’ll have to if Warner Bros and DC decide to embark on the Justice League.

Published in the DC Movies articles

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