Movie Review: Green Lantern Hits a Red Light

Okay, first things first. I don't like watching films in 3D and the Green Lantern isn't particularly a preferred superhero of mine. Having said that I won't look forward to a second installment of this franchise but won't mind watching it just for the heck of it, but I still don't think highly of 3D.

Green Lantern Story

Martin Campbell, the man who successfully overhauled the James Bond franchise on two occasions (Golden Eye and Casino Royale) looked like the perfect choice to direct Green Lantern but even with an estimated budget of over $150 million this film has precious little to offer. Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a test pilot par excellence who comes in contact with a green ring that imparts great powers and makes him a superhero that no evil can escape.

Reynolds brings a certain level of impish charm to the Jordan / Green Lantern character but unlike an Ironman where the script concentrated on exploring Tony Stark more than anything else, Green Lantern wastes fool proofing everything to the level of boredom. The 'yellow energy of fear', the 'emerald energy of willpower' and other such there is a lot of mumbo-jumbo that one expects in a film based on a comic book character but all this talk doesn't really add anything great to the proceedings.

While Jordan tries to figure out what to do with his new mean green steak, far away in the universe in a place called Sector 2814, where millions of years before the Earth was formed The Guardians of the Universe created an evil fighting force called Green Lantern Corps, there is commotion. Their meanest fighter Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), the one who died and his ring chose Jordan, was killed by Parallax, a former Lantern, who now wants to destroy all the sectors of the universe. The ring, which never makes a mistake in choosing its bearer, bestows Jordan with superhuman powers and works on the premise that if not fearless or responsible, he has it in him to transform; this process of self-realization is only fleetingly explored. It looks as if Reynolds and his leading man good looks are doing the ring a favor and Jordan never really bothers beyond a point. Finally Jordan finds his calling and urges Sinestro (Mark Strong), a Lantern to help him fight Parallax. But Sinestro refuses him as he believes that no human can defeat the bearer of the yellow energy of fear. Finally when Jordan proves him wrong Sinestro, accepts him into the brotherhood.

Final Words on Green Lantern

There is a lot of back-story that Campbell tries to pack in but the manner in which it unfolds doesn't make you want to know more. You are interested in seeing the hero overcome his fears but Reynolds is so self-satisfied that he suddenly decides its time and everything falls into place. Green Lantern is one of the very few superhero tales where the power is shared by a bunch of people and rest assured there will a couple of more sequels where, hopefully, far more interesting sidekicks and partners in crime will fill the screen time.

And also that viewing a film in 3D would become a better experience! There is no denying that more and more films would be released in 3D but something needs to be done about the manner in which the audience is forced to watch it.

Green Lantern Rating: 2/5

Green Lantern Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins

Green Lantern Story by: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg

Green Lantern Directed by: Martin Campbell

I am a Delhi-based author who writes for Buzzintown.com as part of Buzz Bureau team, while I also wear the hat of a documentary film maker. To know about Telugu Movies Mumbai or English movies Mumbai please visit movies.Buzzintown.com

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The Green Lantern Movie Review

I never thought in a million years that I would get to see a live action Green Lantern movie. Of all of the members of the Justice League, he was the one character that seemed to be the least familiar and the hardest to develop into a stand-alone film. Add to that the fact that pretty much all of the Green Lantern's powers come out of the ring meaning that the special effects would have to be such that they are believable and that most of the film would be using a ton of effects. Luckily the technology is now available to make this a reality and therefore we now have Green Lantern in his own film. My hope is that this might lead to additional individual films for each member of the Justice League leading up to a Justice League movie, just like Marvel has done with the members of the Avengers leading up to the Avengers movie due out next year. I'll keep my fingers crossed for that, but in the meantime lets discuss their current effort of Green Lantern.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Green Lantern, he is a member of a larger group called the Green Lantern Corps. They are an organization created by the Guardians of the Universe that patrol the entire galaxy to maintain balance and uphold justice throughout the universe. Each Green Lantern is proved a special ring that allows the Lantern to create anything they can imagine. You see, the ring is powered by willpower and the things it constructs are only as powerful as the willpower of the Lantern using it. This film deals primarily with the first human Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and also gives us a great introduction to the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians, and their worst enemy Parallax.

For the most part, I was quite pleased by the story they told about the origin of Earth's first Green Lantern. The casting of Ryan Reynolds was just about perfect, however the actor who stole the show for me was Mark Strong as Sinestro. I can't think of anyone else that could have come close to his performance. If only they had made him the villain of the film, however I hope that this one does well enough to warrant a sequel. In fact, the best parts of the entire film were those dealing with the Corps as a whole and all of the scenes filmed on the Lantern home world of Oa. If only they had kept the scenes involving Hal finding Abin Sur and his wrecked space craft and Hal finally accepting the ring, but when he travels to Oa to begin his training and learning about the Corps, the action should have remained there to have Hal and the entire corps battling Parallax then have Hal come back to Earth as it's protector. I just wasn't as impressed by the after Hal comes back from Oa when he decides that he doesn't want to accept the responsibility of becoming the Green Lantern. They could have just as easily created an origin story that took place on Oa and was only on Earth for the beginning and ending of the film. That being said, I was still incredibly impressed by what they did manage to put together and the overall story that they told. This was a good introduction to this amazing character but it is just the tip of the iceberg as to everything the Green Lantern can do and how essential he is to the safety of Earth and the Galaxy he helps to protect.

If you are any fan of Superman or Batman, you should go and check out this film. Keep in mind that Green Lantern is one of the seven founding members of the Justice League that includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. I can't tell you how much I hope and pray that we will not only get to see individual films for each of these characters, but also see them joined together in a Justice League movie. Give this film a chance, despite any bad reviews you might have seen, and immerse yourself in this incredible world. If this film doesn't do well, our chances of seeing more of these characters in their own films will vanish before they are even given the chance.

J.Chandler: B

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Movie Review: Green Lantern (2011)

The filmmakers are under the impression that audiences will accept anything, as long as it's drenched in special effects. Balls of gaseous substances, electrical fields of lightning, pulsing rays of color, billowing smoke, fiery explosions and glowing energy beams all shown rapidly and accompanied by piercing noises - these tricks are sure to impress even the most cynical critics. Unexplainable things happen all of a sudden and viewers are expected to sit back and soak up the visual zaniness without questioning all the cryptic events. This is simply not true. For an origins movie, Green Lantern certainly has a lot more explaining to do.

For centuries, the emerald energy of willpower has been fueling intergalactic peacekeepers known as Green Lanterns. Thousands of specially chosen warriors and guardians police the galaxies, using their unimaginable powers to quell the evil forces of fear. Legendary legionnaire Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), aglow with purplish, translucent skin and rubbery tendons, discovers that an ancient monstrosity called Parallax has been steadily growing and is responsible for the recent deaths of several highly skilled Green Lanterns. When he encounters the frightful anomaly firsthand, he's mortally wounded and must crash land on Earth.

The viridian energy works in mysterious ways, and purposefully chooses the individuals that harness its powers. When Abin dies, the ring he possesses, recharged by a literal chartreuse lantern, seeks out devil-may-care, foolhardy, hotheaded jet pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds, who hasn't changed drastically from Van Wilder) to be its new caretaker. At first he has no interest in assuming the responsibilities of protecting a massive sector of civilization, but with the help of negativistic ally Sinestro (Mark Strong), bulky alien Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and bird-beaked mentor Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush), Hal will become the most powerful Lantern of them all.

From the very start, solemn narration, intrusive flashbacks and countless tongue-twisting alien worlds, names and devices are utilized, going overboard to stay faithful to the DC Comics characters and entities. With such a swift running time, too much mindboggling content is thrown at the screen rapidly. In the vein of Star Wars or Star Trek, the ideas are completely science-fiction, working on a level closer to Thor than Iron Man. Almost nothing is grounded in reality, and because of this, little is deemed worthy of explanation. An "induction process" allows for communication between the human and his newfound comrades, along with quick acceptance of his lime green muscle suit, comical mask (to protect his identity, despite merely covering his cheekbones), and super powers. "The ring's limits are only what you can imagine," insists Tomar-Re, making further definition pointless.

A subplot with Dr. Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) is unnecessary and wasted, the primary villain Parallax is built up to be invincible but then casually discarded, and Hal's love interest Carol Ferris (Blake Lively, proving she can only play one character) is hopelessly generic. It takes over an hour to devise a plot and forge an antagonist, and just a few minutes to hastily resolve it all. Impressive makeup goes the route of repulsive instead of awe-inspiring, and the costumes and character designs follow suit, appearing absurd rather than impactful.

While trying to stay true to the look of the original comic books, Green Lantern has crafted some incredibly silly stuff. The visuals are entirely too goofy for non-fans to readily digest. There's also a huge focus on responsibility, facing fears, and never giving up, which passes as noticeably bland and uninteresting. Like Iron Man 2, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and most of the X-Men sequels, Green Lantern is a mishmash of outdated graphic novel lore, reinvention, redesign, revival, adaptation, stale humor and budget-busting special effects, all of which are an abrasive assault to the senses and dolefully dreary filmmaking.

- The Massie Twins GoneWithTheTwins.com

The Massie Twins are identical twin film critics who have been professionally reviewing movies full time for over 5 years, appearing on TV, radio, online and in print. They are members of the Phoenix Film Critics Society and the Internet Film Critic Society and their work can be seen at http://www.gonewiththetwins.com/.

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Movie Review: The Green Hornet (2011)

The Green Hornet attempts to represent the very epitome of cool, with fast cars, masked crime-fighters, seductive girls, dastardly villains, enormous explosions, martial arts combat and senseless destruction. The creators must have thought they had every element necessary to build the perfect action flick - but they completely forgot to design a sensible plot and interesting characters. Although the story is based loosely on the 1930's Green Hornet radio series and the TV shows and comics that followed, this 2011 adaptation feels entirely like a Seth Rogen teen comedy.

That's not altogether surprising, considering Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the writer of Superbad and Pineapple Express) not only penned the script but produced the movie as well. This causes the lead character, Britt Reid (Rogen), to assume the role of a giggling, incompetent schmuck, carelessly wasting away his father's vast fortunes (superheroes cannot be poor) from The Daily Sentinel, the last independently owned Los Angeles newspaper. Drunken partying, countless nameless girls (summed up in a hyperspeed scene of love-making, sans actual sex, a la A Clockwork Orange) and pampered luxury fill up his days, not unlike Christopher Nolan's early theatrical interpretations of Bruce Wayne. Reid even has a devoted, coffee-serving valet, Kato (Jay Chou) to wait on him, who secretly specializes in kung fu, words of wisdom, and hi-tech engineering.

When Ried's father (Tom Wilkinson) dies, his spoiled life is suddenly thrown into perspective - he's not consumed with filling shoes, but rather thrill-seeking, especially when he discovers Kato's knack for kicking ass and customizing weapons onto their custom car, Black Beauty, like a human Swiss Army knife. Deciding to become a masked vigilante (leaving all the physical labor and fighting skills to his experienced partner), Reid dons the moniker "Green Hornet" and embarks on a mission to disrupt the crime in the city, conducted chiefly by aging mobster Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz).

The only mildly amusing aspect of this generic superhero team is the notion that they pose as villains to get closer to the real criminals, while diminishing suspicions about their true motives to law enforcement. The rest is a hodgepodge of failures, from the ceaseless inclusion of juvenile slapstick, to the Academy Award-winning antagonist who embarrassingly switches from realistic to ridiculous while fretting over his intimidation abilities (he predictably participates in the offing of his own henchmen for evil demonstration), to the "drop dead gorgeous" secretary Lenore Case (a noticeably aging Cameron Diaz), who desperately struggles to retain even an ounce of the allure she possessed in The Mask.

Who is the one actor least likely to be on the top of every moviegoer's list to star as an action hero? It would probably be Seth Rogen, who is so far removed from being anything other than a crass, cachinnating, chowderhead that his version of a cloaked vigilante is just short of a court jester. In its defense, The Green Hornet does feature a few thrilling car chases and explosive standoffs, but the typically dependable, macho hand-to-hand combat sequences we expect are tossed aside for highly stylized choreography and graphics that look like an inhuman, computer animated ninja dueling in a video game, with the option to pause and select targets and weaponry. The slow-motion in all the wrong spots and disastrous pacing don't help either.

- Mike Massie ( http://www.GoneWithTheTwins.com )

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