So lets talk Green Lantern:
Beware of Spoilers, ill try to keep it hush hush and will let you know before if i drop a spoiler.
Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, sounds good on paper and discussion, but translating to film is a lot harder than most realize.
Where do you start with the First Live Action Green Lantern Movie? There is so much vibrant history associated with Hal Jordan and the Corps, it sounds almost impossible to do the comics justice when so much is knowledge is needed to understand the concept behind Green Lantern.
With a run time a little under 2 hours, there is a lot to talk about. Green Lantern could have gone two ways.
The first (the worst) is using the Green Lantern concept and applying to a brand new character to make their own Green Lantern only related to the comic book counter part in name and power ring. This was the original idea for Green Lantern. An average joe, overweight who receives a Power Ring, and becomes a hero. The story would be built around the concept that anyone can be a hero. This movie was going to star Jack Black, as a fannie-pack wearing Green Lantern, who saves the world by creating a Giant Superman and have the Superman Construct Reverse the axis of the earth's spin thus turning back time to save the day (Superman original movie). What a fail that would have been!!!
The other way was to introduce Hal Jordan. Now i think we can all agree there is way too much history involved to be page for page accurate to its comic book counter-part. For one thing, the yellow impurity must go. Too much explaining for ppl new to the series, like serious i can knock u out with a banana. This would cut away at alot of the training Hal goes through also.
Now here is where the ppl behind Green Lantern Fucked up. They promised us a Space-Opera, the next big Star Wars. This was a fail. But i think it was impossible to do to begin with. This first movie is about Hal Jordan. As a comic book fan i know almost everything about Hal Jordan, but some average joe wouldnt know squat. There is just too much going on with Hal to make it a proper Space-Opera. The movie needed to explain Hal's fear which ties into the death of his Father. The movie had one scene regarding this moment and never really talked about his father. It focus more on Hal being a quiter than Hal having no fear of death.
The Movie had to go into the dynamics of the Hal/Carol relationship, them being childhood friends, past lovers, and now employee/boss relationship. And finally the Movie had to show Hal's struggle to unlock the power of the ring and start his journey to mastering its power.
This is a whole lot of info, just how are we going to get our Space Opera and all that info in under 2 hours!!! Simple it wont happen atleast not in the first movie. While we do get glimpses of some of the awesome Green Lanterns (bzzrd, anyone see him? little green lantern insect AWESOME!). I had a problem with Sinestro and Abin Sur. The movie tells you Abin Sur is the greatest Green Lantern followed up by Sinestro, but it never shows us why they are the greatest. Never gives us a reason to believe they are
Sinestro was under-written. He was basically a spokes person for the Corps and gets his ass kicked by Paralax. Not a whole lot of Greatness there. Abin Sur part is summed up to getting his ass kicked, over and over and giving Hal his ring. The movie should have shown us the original battle between Abin Sur and Paralax to show us how great of a Lantern Abin is. At no point are we given a glimpse at how bad-ass these characters are
The same goes for Parallax. He is the greatest Enemy of the Green Lantern Corps (in film series) and not once do we really see why he is so bad. Besides sucking ppl's souls and wearing it as "armor".
I know Right?
The Film gives no justice to Parallax or the power it has. The movie actually hints that Parallax is just a rogue Guardian tempted by the yellow power of fear instead of the Embodiment of Fear that we all love. Big Fail!
The movie is definitely eye candy. The special effects were great and i loved how OA looked even though we were there for like 15 minutes.
Overall it is a decent start to the franchise. In the next one i would like to see more Corps, with more lines given to the green lanterns. I want the Corps to be brought to life, give them character, have them talk damnit!
Sinestro will obviously wear the yellow ring in the second, more on that below. I would also like to see a different villian, maybe Black Hand or a Red Lantern, or Krona? (anyone else thing the broken Guardian chair was Krona's?)
Check it out and let us know what you think. What needs to be improved? What Sucked? What was the best part.
Now ill talk about the end goodie
********************Spoiler*********************
Dont continue reading unless u like to read the end of the book first.
After the credits roll we see Sinestro steal the yellow ring of fear and put it on. Some ppl did not like this. They wanted Sinestro to get banished to Anti-Matter universe of Qward, were the natives forged him a Ring of Fear. I think that is a lot to do. If they go that route they would have to explain the Anti-Universe (good luck with that one) who the Qwards are, why are they forging Sinestro a ring and not using for themselfs. That is a lot of story to tell that doesnt involve much action of anything else. BORING! We already sat through something like that in the first Green Lantern.
Heres where i think they will go with the story in a sequel. Sinestro will be like a double agent using the Green Lantern Ring during one scene and the Yellow during a different one. Hal will take on a more of a tourist role, learning from the Veteran Lanterns, while exploring the Vet's background and their planets. Sinestro will let the power of fear influence him and he will control his planet through Fear. Hal will visit Sinestro on Sinestro's home planet and Hal will see what has become of the once greatest green lantern.
So there will be some big fights hopefully with the Corps ending with the Trial of Sinestro. End credits we will see many yellow rings looking for hosts, which gives us a teaser of Green Lantern 3 : The Sinestro Corps War. Maybe even see Carol Ferris beocme the Star Saphire, love to see Lively in that costume.
I know Right? I should be a writer for them. What did you think?
-Ultramann
