Ryan Reynolds was a good choice to play Hal Jordan,but the Hal we have here is not the Hal we read in four colors.The screenwriters took a page from the Iron Man films and added a heavy dose of snarkiness to the character that is devoid in the book.Fortunatley Reynold's is strong with the humor,and manages to give us an interpretation that works.In fact the strongest thing that this mega million dollar CG fest has going for it is a good cast.The standout was Mark Strong who played the eventual villain Sinestro to a tee.When he goes bad in the books it is because he feels that the Guardians could do a better job using the GL Corps,and you are sold on his commitment in this film.Even when he is willing to use a horrible weapon to fight evil,he is in his mind doing it for the greater good.If a sequel gets made,I hope we get Sinestro as the big bad.Peter Saarsgard is also really good as the alien infected Hector Hammond,a puppet of the films main antagonist,the CGI Parallax.The FX were good in the film,but I was hard pressed to believe that they cost as much as they did,there is nothing ground breaking.
In conclusion Green Lantern will probably be forgotten and rebooted in 8 years,and thats a shame,because I enjoyed it enough to hope for a better sequel.3.5 stars.
That was an accurate assessment, John. I felt much the same, though I can be a bit more harsh. It wasn't "CHOPPY" nor was it Darth Lucas bad, it was just mediocre. Considering the cost, I could attack it for being a total stinker, though it just wasn't that bad... like say, SPEED 2 was.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all your major points, raising the fact that Mark Strong was wholly underused in this picture. I would rather have Sinestro be the villain in a third pic, or have had his story much larger in this one, to make his eventual turn to the yellow ring that much more of an event.
The effects were good, the cast was good, the plot just seemed more setup than story. It's a shame, this could have been a real barnburner, too.