Green Lantern (2011)

Martin Campbell's Green Lantern movie is a strange thing to me. On one hand it got me excited in a way that only Iron Man has done before it, but on the other I have to roll my eyes about certain things. In screenwriting one of the best pieces of advice I have been given is the old "show and don't tell" trick. Apparently, no one has shown or told the writers of this movie.

My biggest issue with the whole movie is the Blake Lively's Carol Ferris. I'm not complaining so much about the casting, though she was an odd choice for the character, nor am I complaining about her painfully sub-par acting. My issue, is that her character seems so weak and helpless, very much unlike the Carol Ferris I know from the funnybooks, and yet they try to keep convincing us that she is strong with unconvincing dialogue. I call this Rachel Dawes syndrome and can not in good conscience say this hurt the movie that bad.

Other complaints, would be that there are certain plot holes, characters constantly outright saying how they know eachother, Tim Robbins having absolutely nothing to do and Hal Jordan's annoying best friend. Either way, I don't remember him from Hal Jordan mythos but he reminds me of Kyle Rayner's (a different green lantern from the comics) best friend. Either way this best friend character adds nothing and suffers from Kat Dennings in Thor syndrome in the respect that he is only there to make funny comments and slow the plot down. Also early on there is an awkward scene involving some supposed family members that goes nowhere at all and could have been shortened or even removed outright pretty easily.

There, that's the negative side of things, now onto the positive. First off, it's incredibly entertaining and I'm baffled how people can give a terrible movie like Transformers a pass but not this one. The effects looked pretty great and Ryan Reynolds made a believer out of me, when I thought he may have been a bit miscast. For a superhero who uses his own creativity to fight evil, the filmmakers surprisingly found several ways to surprise and even amaze me. Mark Strong as Sinestro is great casting but everyone knew that from the trailer, and he proves again that he is one of the most underestimated actors working today.

Now, the one reason everyone should see this movie... Peter Sarsgaard. His performance is so fun and interesting but real at the same time. I found myself smiling everytime he was onscreen.

Overall, despite the flaws mentioned I hope people see this movie. It's a lot of fun and I hope it does well enough for there to be a sequel, we have a lot set up now for the perfect Green Lantern story to play out.