Green Lantern Who has seen it?

[johnmiic]

I caught the midnite show in NY. 3 stars.

Not as good as this summers Thor or X-Men:First class but I'm very forgiving. It's not a bad film overall. Remember this is a DC adaptation. We don't see many DC films outside Superman & Batman so this concept is really out-there. I think it requires more suspension of disbelief than the other films. The character is mainly intact and when suited up he is GL, behaves like GL and flies effortlessly like GL should.

The film drags in places and I don't see the chemistry between Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan. Must every Super Hero film hav a romantic sub-plot. X-Men did without it and it was great! GL also suffers from The Last Starfighter syndrome. What's it gonna take to get the hero in the game!?!? I think there is too much self-doubt for a guy like this flying fighter planes. This is probably an attempt to add dimension to the character but couldn't they have gone the other way and made him a Top Gun smart-azz who learns better? Just a thought.

It could be tighter and use a little more action but the parts with the other Lanterns & Oa can't be beat. Sinestro and Killowog are hard-core! The guardians are portrayed as more alien than in the comics but I guess they wanted to show you they are not human and they are very old. It also occurred to me that when someone watches this film and see the corps, the guardians and think about how GL is selected it seems all to much like the Jedi Knights. I thought it was a shame that George Lucas borrowed so many concepts from everywhere because people who don't know GL's story might think GL is copying Star Wars and no the other way around. Remember, stay past some of the end credits. You'll know what to look for when you see it!

[ctc]

>people who don't know GL's story might think GL is copying Star Wars and no the other way around

....actually, they're both copying "Lensman."

I dunno; from the ads it looks okay, but I didn't see anything particularly compelling. Yeah; guy flies, monsters (although the monsters part is awesome!) explosions, guns (WHY does he need to make so many guns? *sigh*) kiss the girl.... the end.

Don C.

[MIB41]

Well one bit of good news. The midnight crowds were very good and grossed the movie an early $3.3 million dollars (Well above projections). Based on early CROWD reaction and online ticket sales, Lantern which was projected to make about $47 million it's first weekend, is now bumped up to make over $60 million. This wouldn't be the first time the critics have gotten it wrong.

[BlackKnight]

I'm going Sat Morning with the Boy for Sure.
GreenLantern1999 Loved it ..., I figure since I like GL So Damn Much ..., I will too.

[madmarva]

Everyone, be sure to stay through the credits. There is a very cool teaser scene for the sequel.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Okay here's my take. Non-Spoilers until some more folks see this.

I like it. I really enjoyed myself.

Okay, that's the first hurdle. I felt my money was well spent, and I even took a half day's vacation to take the boy to see it as soon as we could. And I didn't regret that one bit either.

Did it faithfully adapt the GL comics? Yes. In fact it's probably one of the most faithful comic adaptations yet. Everything you'd expect that should be in a Green Lantern movie was there. I can't imagine a Green Lantern fan NOT enjoying seeing all of the various elements of the comic played out on the screen.

Were the effects believable? Yes. There may have been one, maybe two scenes that were a little "under done", but other than that it was pretty flawless. Much more convincing than the rubbery Spider-Man we all know and kind of love. The suits looked good. I never noticed Hal's toes. Maybe they went in and fixed that due to the back lash. They pulled off the "crackling with energy" look that Van Sciver innovated very well. Hal even has a very subtle green flame glowing behind his chest emblem.

All the aliens were well done. I especially liked Tomar Re.

Was the cast believable? Yes. Ryan Reynold convinced me he was Hal Jordan. I never had a problem with his casting though, but I felt he did a fine job. Blake Lively was a good love interest. Carol Ferris was a stronger character than a lot of these comic girl friends in movies. And I could see why Hal fell for her. Besides the obvious reasons.

Mark Strong dominated every scene he was in. He was great as Sinestro. His presence in the role reminded me of Terrence Stamp's Zod, minus the campy attributes. We all know what Sinestro becomes, and I look forward to him being able to let it all hang out in a sequel.

Was it the best comic movie ever? No. I'd put it up there with the first X-Men. Well done, well cast, and well executed, but you can tell there is a better sequel in it. I'm not one who dislikes origins stories, in fact I love them, but compared from the origin and Corps-secntric sequences, some of the Hector Hammond parts were not as compelling. Maybe it was the pure comic geek in me who would have rather seen more of the Corps than see Hammond's head get bigger. But I never cared for the character in the comics either. He's not a bad villain, but we all know the greater villain is waiting for another movie.

One minor gripe. Skip this in 3D. I hoped they with all the energy and constructs the 3D would really shine here. It doesn't. Besides a few mundane scenes with some spatial depth, the 3D is pretty blah. Don't fork over the dough for it. Not worth it. Thor had a few more 3D worthy scenes than this actually.

Oh, and a reminder, stay past the main credits. That sequence is HUGE. You can see it coming a mile away, but it's worth watching. There is nothing past the rest of the credits besides an ad for GL Comics.



I think anyone who ever remotely enjoyed GL will like this movie. And I think non-comic fans are in for a good, fun popcorn flick with some nice eye candy and some substance to boot.

Oh, and if you see this at a Cinemark theater, you may see a quick commercial for the upcoming Bruce Timm GL CGI toon on Cartoon Network. It played during the preshow.


Chris

[The Bat]

I'm glad to hear you liked it Chris...I value your opinion very much!

[samurainoir]

I liked it. I can see why it wouldn't play as well with the non-comic reading public. The wife described it as "just like a comic book", and she meant it in a fun way, although I could see that being a negative for others who aren't on the "in".

[MIB41]

Awesome news! Thanks for the review Chris. Question though. What was the audience like? Were they into the film as well? Did your opinion seem to come across as the consensus in the crowd? I hope so. Because the critics have been so unmerciful in slaying this film, it would be nice to see the crowd show up despite their put downs and walk out as pleased as you were. I can't wait to see this film tomorrow! Here's a box office article posted tonight. The movie is already churning out more business than expected.

FIRST BOX OFFICE: Deadline.com

[Earth 2 Chris]

I didn't really get a vibe from folks afterward, but everyone seemed engaged during the movie. And many of the folks seemed to be non-comic people to me. At leas they didn't look like the typical comic geek types. It would have been cool to have seen it with a big crowd and got the pulse there.

I'm glad to see it's doing well. Hopefully it will continue to do so. It deserves it, and we deserve that sequel!!!

Chris

[Bizarro Amy]

I thought it was pretty good, but not great. There was that one little change in the way Sinestro's story is set up. Why were the Guardians ok with that idea? There should have been more battles in space or on Oa, and less time on Earth. It was neat to pick out favorite Corps members, but they didn't have enough screen time. I'm still not crazy about the way they designed Kilowog, but I'm picky because he's my favorite. However, I squealed when he said, "Poozer." I didn't like the way Tomar Re was at first, but the more I saw him and heard him talk, he grew on me. The guy who played Sinestro nailed it! He was probably my favorite part of the movie. I don't really know much about Hector Hammond, so was that his actual origin? And the story about how Parallax came to be struck me as a little odd. I can't really be specific, because I don't want to ruin anything for anyone. I didn't care for Blake Lively as Carol. I don't know what it was - she just didn't impress me. And like someone else mentioned, she didn't have great chemistry with Ryan Reynolds. I thought Reynolds did a good job - he was a good casting choice. I was very excited when I saw the clip after the ending.

[Riffster]

I freakin loved it...solid A, and that's with giving Thor a B+, I found nothing wrong with the movie, no complaints at all

[GreenLantern9999]

Spoilerish

I've said it a few times before and I'll say it again, I really enjoyed this film! It engaged me from beginning to end. While it has a handful of faults I think if they give it the chance to go to a second movie those faults will be taken care of. I really loved Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, I liked him a little less as Hal, but his GL was pretty perfect. They did tweak Hector Hammond's story to include Parallax but I think over all they got him pretty well done. I went in expecting to have Lively's Carol Farris, but in stead I really think she brought her to life fairly well so she exceeded expectations any way. My two big issues with the film are 1) a few shots of CG looks unfinished to me, mostly having to do with Abin Sur, I heard they hit a point in production where they knew they weren't going to be done in time so WB gave them more money to hire outside folks to finish it on time, so I am sure this was a casualty of that. 2) was I wanted more time with the Corps, even just a bit of banter show Hal hanging out where like 50 or 60 of them are walking around talking, toss some names around like... "You think Mogo's gonna make it to this one? Ha!" or at least say a few names. The weirdest part of all this is there is a huge toy line out right now and 90% of that toy line has names of Lanterns that were never uttered in the movie! Now I will never be upset for having too many lantern toys but I was under the impression they would have played a heavier part in the movie, so really all my problems I think would go away if I got a second movie with more time to hang out with the Corps and to finish all the CG in any case I have seen the movie twice and I'll go again at least two more times, my nephew has been on my brothers case for weeks to take him to it ever since he was the first commercial so here's hoping it does well! Oh and the after credit scene was well worth it!

[Adam West]

Based on the mixed reviews; I think I am going to wait it out. With a family of five; it needs to be a killer movie for me to drop the money and I'm not feeling the vibe right now.

[The Bat]

I just have one question...is Arisia in it?