Blogfromthebarn

Movie review-Green Lantern, shining a little light on good versus evil, sorry not evil, really, really ugly


I was never a great reader of comic books, well that's not strictly true, my father was not a great fan of comic books so they were to a large extent one of many, oh so many, forbidden pleasures, indeed I still remember the pity shown to me by the Amish kids at school who thought that my father's position on suitable entertainment for a teenager was a little old fashioned.
Any road up, on the occasions when I was wriggling through the chimneys in the big houses owned by the posh folk (who had a more liberal approach to the graphic novel) I did manage to sneak a look at the occasional comic.

I was always impressed by Green Lantern, I liked the idea of the corps, a league of defenders of the galaxy, it seemed nice to me, as a socially inept, introverted and imaginative kid that, rather than the loneliness of a spider/super or bat there was a hero support mechanism that spanned the galaxy.

I therefore had high hopes for this movie but was quite prepared to put up with a lot for old times sake. Mrs Stuffy, contrari-wise had low expectations, which were well met. The special effects are impressive but these days that's a given, special effects aren't really all that special, the alien worlds were well realised and thoughtful although with the prevalence of the colour green I wasn't surprised to read that they'd replaced traditional green-screen cgi with a blue based version.

Without exception the characters are not deep and the storyline is immensely predictable. There's a troubled and very unattractive villain with father issues. There's a troubled hero with father issues, (no wonder I related to it) courage issues ( no wonder I related to it) and commitment issues (you get the picture) who saves the Earth (and probably the Universe) thanks to some deeply insightful advice (basically "you have father, courage and commitment issues!") from probably the most insipid and unenthusiastic love interest ever.

Miss Lively (a clear example of inappropriate naming) should take some lessons in acting from the talented Ms Dunst for Spiderman, and Ms Portman in Thor, who have set the bar high for those who aim to love a superhero. That said I enjoyed the film, Ryan Reynolds is not a great screen presence but he's amusing and likeable, the story, although silly ( if there's 3600 superhero Green Lanterns available, letting the new, troubled and semi-articulate raw recruit take on the mega-baddie and his very unattractive minion seems to be an odd command decision, and frankly if you're many centuries old and the guardians of the universe, I expect you to have worked out that two wrongs don't make a right, making a ring out of fear? that's not a bright move chaps!

Hey ho, they needed to set up the next film in the series, hope it works out.



A haiku produced through the power of pure will... (which is green by the way)

On Earth, jet and plot
in space, no one can hear you
asking "you did what?"

Labels: oakwood stuffy movie review green lantern barn

posted by Stuffy @ 1:21 pm