I'll Admit it, I didn't hate the Green Lantern

Its true.

I gave it another watch tonight and believe it or not I didn't hate it.

Now was it the best superhero movie ever made? Of course not. But there are a lot of superhero movies that are a lot worse.

Green Lantern follows the story of Hal Jordan. A fighter pilot for a defense... programming... weapons making... company? To be honest they're very vague about what kind of organization Ferris Aircraft is. I'm guessing its a defense contractor but again, confusing. Well Jordan finds the body of an alien named Abin Sur. Abin Sur gives him a magical ring that allows him to conjure up anything he can imagine... right before he dies. Abin Sur died from a giant fear cloud called Parallax. He feeds off of peoples fear and devours their very being. So Hal Jordan gets sucked up to the Green Lantern planet called Oa and is trained to be a Green Lantern because the ring chose him as the protector to replace Abin Sur. Meanwhile, a xenobiologist... which I don't think is a real thing, named Hector Hammond is infected with something from the wound Parallax gave Abin Sur because Hammond is dissecting the first alien body to be on earth. This... fear stuff infects Hammond until he can read people's minds, gives him telekinesis, and makes his head huge!

That is the overall plot of Green Lantern, and as you probably have assumed already, there are a couple problems, and that was just the overarching summary. However, watching it for the second time, I'm confused on how much people did not like this movie.

Ryan Reynolds: I liked him as Hal Jordan. I don't know if he's the number one choice for this role but he plays it well. I've said this before that this movie is not great but it's not Ryan Reynolds that brings it down. He's funny, he kicks ass and yet he's relatable and sometimes unsure of himself. If he was too cocky he'd be an asshole, if he was totally unsure of himself he wouldn't be able to be the Green Lantern, he's the good amount of both.

The character development, though good, was very obvious. Its very obvious throughout the entire movie that Hal Jordan will have to overcome his fear despite a world where he thinks he cannot have fear at all. It's not a big complaint, but it was almost as if they were pulling a Spaceballs and said, "Did you get that? The whole fear thing?"

The one thing they did wrong was the romance angle with him and Blake Lively

Don't get me wrong, Blake Lively is super hot in this movie. And her acting is not terrible. Its just the dialogue between these two is just horrendous. These two should by all means work together but with the script they had, I just couldn't see it. 

The Villains

This unfortunately is where the Green Lantern suffers the most. You have fear cloud Parallax. He's coming, he's going to destroy everything... but he's a cloud. You get a little bit of his backstory but it doesn't discount the fact that he's a soul eating cloud. Let's just say he's not going to be competing with Heath Ledger for best super villain any time soon. But then you have Hector Hammond.

This picture should tell you everything you need to know about Hector Hammond. He's a mess. The strange thing about this movie was the relationship between all the characters. Everybody knew each other in a weird way. Like Hal Jordan's dad was friends with Blake Lively's dad but then he died and Blake Lively slept with Hal Jordan at one point but it didn't really work out? And I guess Tim Robbins knows Blake Lively, AND Hal Jordan really well and through that Hector Hammond was schoolhood chums with Blake Lively and Hal Jordan... it just never seemed like these three were ever childhood friends. I think flashbacks are over used a lot but this may have been a good movie to tap into those flashbacks a little. Hector Hammond was suppose to be this "thinker" as opposed to Hal Jordan who is a "doer"and there was a deliberate attempt to parallel these characters. It just didn't work. 

Then Hammond gets infected by the fear stuff and he's apparently a servant of Parallax but you don't know that until two seconds before he dies. Hammond also didn't work because he looked incredibly stupid. I don't know what is fake and what is actually Peter Sarsgaard, but Hector Hammond looks like a giant pile of white caucasian shit. When he first reveals his ugly new head he sits down and he looks like the fat nerd from the "Make Love Not Warcraft" episode of South Park. 

Don't tell me you don't see the similarities

Now I'll give some credit, there were a couple scenes that Hammond used his crazy, giant head, telekinesis powers. However, it was one scene. It didn't last long to be memorable, and it didn't last long enough to make us really fear Hammond. I was often confused on who I was supposed to be worried about, Parallax or Hammond. 

Now I haven't seen much of Peter Sarsgaard's work... but this was just bad. He was suppose to play this introverted, eccentric scientist, when he really just came off as a pervert, just strange guy. Not intriguing strange... just strange. 

Like I have said, the movie suffered from poor writing. Surprisingly enough, the same guy who wrote this is currently writing Arrow. Now I haven't watched it but its suppose to be doing well. Maybe he finally learned... or maybe Arrow isn't good. I don't know, maybe I'll do a review on it when I watch it. 

But it was bad writing, bad choices of villains, and just not enough action with the rings. It had some good constructs but I wanted to see more, I still want to see more. 

So where does this put us for future movies? I've said before, Warner Brothers is in a complex situation with Green Lantern. He's set for being one of the five Justice League members that will be featured in the movie. But will DC reboot the character and find a new actor or cut their loses and go with Ryan Reynolds. 

Re-watching the movie, I think they should keep Reynolds. Again, he did not kill this movie, it was bad writing and poor choices in villains. It also makes things a lot easier for DC as they don't need to redo that movie and make a whole new story for Hal Jordan. Even though I'd like to see Nathan Fillion take up the part, Reynolds can do this.

The movie overall is decently entertaining but nothing special. It will do in my book but its on a short leash. I want to see new movies, I want to see the Green Lantern fight more bad guys. I want to see Sinestro become evil and make the Sinestro Corp. I want him to use his ring more, I want to see more out of this movie. I can't give it higher than a 5 out of 10. 

I think this movie given too much crap. But what do you think? Do you think they should reboot it or keep it. If you think they should reboot it who do you think should be Hal Jordan (or John Stewart)? Let me know.