GREEN LANTERN

 

 

Green Lantern is among a long list of movies based on comic books released in recent years. A lot of critics panned this film, although I can’t really see why. To me, it’s no better or worse than any other comic book flick I’ve seen. I mean, it’s pretty faithful to the comic book it’s based on unlike some other comic book-based flicks I’ve seen (cough . . . Iron Man!). For those who’ve never seen the flick or read the comic book, the plot pretty much goes like this: A hotshot pilot named Hal Jordan---played by Ryan Reynolds--comes across a crash-landed alien who hands him a ring with special powers before he dies of his injuries. It turns out the alien was a member of an intergalactic police corps of sorts called the Green Lanterns run by these rather strange beings who call themselves The Guardians. Hal at first is reluctant to join said intergalactic police corps believing he’s not worthy. However, Hal has a change of heart when Earth gets threatened by some powerful evil being (of course!) named Parallax--who was previously imprisoned by the very same Green Lantern who gave him the ring--threatens to destroy the Earth along with the rest of the universe. But first Hal has to fight a mad scientist-type named Professor Hammond who gets “infected” by Parallax and gets an overgrown head and the power of telekinesis that he uses for ill (of course!) and kidnaps Hal’s love-interest Carol--played by Blake Lively (who, I must say, looked pretty lovely in this flick!)--whom Hal rescues right before Parallax reaches Earth and . . . well, you probably already know the outcome, don’t you? Green Lantern, at least in my humble view, was actually a pretty decent superhero movie in spite of what many of the critics said about this film. True, the plot was somewhat hokey at times, but, then again, this IS a movie based on a comic book, so what in the hell do the critics expect? I also liked the CGI, which the critics also, er, criticized, including the Green Lantern costumes, which I thought were pretty cool-looking myself. All in all, I actually liked Green Lantern. One minor complaint I did have about the flick was that they didn’t feature the other Green Lanterns more. But maybe they’ll change that in the sequels of which they are planning on making even though Green Lantern didn’t “perform” as well at the box office as the studio had reportedly hoped (even though it purportedly made about $200 million overall at the all-important box office even though it purportedly cost about HALF that to make; go figure!).