"In blackest day and darkest night no evil shall escape my sight... " fans of the comic will know the rest, so let me get straight to the point. There was alot of speculation with regards to the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. The comedically gifted actor has turned in some fantastic performances as of late with a few of his lesser known films, but there was a big question regarding his ability to play the iconic role of Hal Jordan. With the films release, all questions were answered and Ryan Reynolds wound up being the least of the films problems. He tackles the role adequately enough, presenting Jordan as a reckless pilot thrust into a role of responsibility he isn't quite prepared for. He's quirky in the right moments, courageous when he needs to be, and is just about as vanilla as it gets when it comes to playing a superhero.
There are no major problems with the film. It isn't clumsy, it has decent pacing, and the story is rather traditional in and of itself. It features spectacular special effects, decent fight choreography, and a decent supporting cast. They throw in a prerequisite super sized beasty bad guy threat, introduce concepts for an ongoing franchise, and they have some fun with the concept of the Green Lantern Corps.. But, at the end of the day, Green Lantern is such a "paint-by-numbers" superhero film that it's easy to loose sight of it in the summers gluttony of comic adaptations. It's fun, it's frivolous, and you can munch your popcorn and shut off your brain because you already know how everything is going to work out and how the hero will overcome stacked odds. There is not a single surprise throughout the film. But I already know that I'm a jaded jerk-wad so I defer to the judgement of my six year old son and my thirty-six year old wife... both of whom quickly reminded me that it was a fun movie, a family outting, and it was just what it needed to be. It doesn't really matter that it doesn't try to be more.
I look back to when I was a kid... did anyone ever see the Captain America movie from the 90's? How about the "never-released" Fantastic Four film? Punisher with Dolph Lundgren? Seriously, folks... Green Lantern has the dubious honor of being compared to "The Dark Knight" and "X-Men" and other comic adaptations that have frankly spoiled the hell out of the core audience. So you might read or hear about some harsher reviews from other critis, but I'm going to say that Green Lantern was fun enough for the price of admission.
3.5 out of 5.
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