Review of Green Lantern (2011) by Kangstah — 16 Jun 2011

While I can see why many critics disliked it, Green Lantern is NOT deserving of the bashing it's been getting.

The superpower of being able to create anything you could imagine through willpower has, in my opinion, always been unbeatable in terms of HOW COOL IS THAT? I knew going into the theatre that although it probably wouldn't be executed as well as I would have liked, a story like Green Lantern couldn't possibly fall into the "been there, done that" list of superhero movies. I've took notice when I first began reading comics that DC characters tend to be more fantastic and space-bound than Marvel, which tends to focus on internal issues. So far, DC hasn't had as many shots as Marvel in films outside of their Batman/Superman franchises, so I was really hoping Green Lantern would be new and exciting.

It was disappointing, yes, but it's definitely not a borefest to the average moviegoer with no invested interest in the comics or characters. It's action-packed, funny, very cool powers with very cool effects, romantic, and certainly fresh in the sense that I can't recall any other superhero movie that's been released that had a place like Oa be a major part of the storyline. I also want to mention that as a female comic book fan, I tend to take notice of how the female leads are treated throughout the movies. In the past few decades, I've never really been all that impressed by the love interests outside of Lois Lane. Before the movie was even announced, I had already known that the only iconic characters that would be able to hold a candle to Lois would be from DC. I had high hopes for Carol Ferris, and while she wasn't executed all that well, she's still impressive to me. There wasn't much focus on it, but I think more people should consider that she's a pilot and is business savvy. Having seen films like Spider-Man accurately portray Mary-Jane Watson and keep her as a plot tool lead the way to comic book movie formulas, for me, the fact that Carol saved Hal from death counts for something.

I'll hold off on saying I loved the Carol in the movie, but the writing made her recognizable as Carol Ferris, and simply because there haven't been many women in comic book movies that have impressed me, I'm going to give Carol Ferris the credit I would never give to characters like Mary-Jane Watson, Pepper Potts, Betty Ross, or Jane Foster etc. The DC women I feel I can respect and look up to, and I'm very glad to add Carol Ferris onto that list with Lois Lane. I expect the same for Catwoman in the next Batman installment. Overall, the movie is very what much what you expect from the trailers. Yes, it probably could have been the next Star Wars and is one of the only comic book franchises with that type of potential, but it wasn't. However, just because of that, it doesn't mean that this film should be bashed because Thor or X-Men: First Class handled themselves better, in my opinion. Green Lantern at it's best would blow everything else out of the water. At it's mediocre, it's on par with the rest of them.

This is, of course, speaking in the context of what I was looking for when I went to see it.