PollMaster Rates and Reviews Green Lantern

Just a REGULAR comicbook fan's view on DC's first full-length movie outing of their EMERALD KNIGHT. [The RATING CHART is spoiler free but beyond that is No Man's Land]


PollMaster Rates GREEN LANTERN
	Very Bad	Bad	OK	Good	Great
as a ComicBookMovie	1	2	3	4	5
*Faithfulness to the "comics"*
a) character design	Noooh! Those basterds what have they done to you?!	Barely resembles the comic character	Some changes here and there but is still recognizable	Character look is altered for the movie but the design works	Smart/Perfect adaptation and presentation of character design from comicbook page to live media
					*	5
b) character personality	"Get out I don't know who you are!"	"Hmmm... I recognize you somewhere?"	"Oh! Hi… hello there."	"This is different but it fits you."	*"NOW that's You!"*
					*	5
c) relation to comicbook storyline	No relation to any comicbook storyline	Generic comic-fare that would fit any other character	Some hint of inspiration from the comics	Original story that is custom fit for the comic character	Excellent adaptation / great story inspired by a comic storyline
			*			3

as a MOVIE
Picture In General	Vomit Inducing	Meh!	Just Ok	It was Goooood	Uber Great!
				*		4
Directing	lousy and clunky screenshots	noticeable amateur shots	A watchable movie	Good scene compositions	Innovative and memorable scenes
			*			3
Acting	Skill Non-existent	Amateur	So-so	Inhabits the Character	Is the Character!
				*		4
Story	Nauseating and Repulsive	Zzzzzzz… wha… what was that?	That was nice… Next!	It's good	Whoa! Mindblowing!
			*			3
Movie Editting	A monkey could have done better	A monkey has done it	Nice but there's still some monkeying around	A monkey has nothing on you	Flawless
			*			3
Cinematography	Worse than Crap	Crap	Passable	Alright	Awesome
			*			3
Visual FX	I'll gorge my eyes out now	I'm squinting	Doesn't make me dizzy	Good to look at	Amazing to look at
				*		4
Costume Design	Good Gawd!	You won't see it near me	Hmmmm.	Love to have one	I MUST... get me one of those
				*		4
Sound Editting	After that, I wish I was deaf!	A monkey is doing it again.	I didn't really mind it.	Nicely done	Kudos! Bravo!
			*			3
Score	No way that's music!	"Amateurs clanging in the basement"	Highschool Musical Presentation?	Now that's good music	Angelic Chorus
			*			3

		OK Movie			34	/50
		Good CBM			47	/60

Recommendation:		*Definitely a must see in theaters.*
		*Definitely a must see in theaters.*

POSSIBLE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

As always, I have tried to stay away from other previous reviews to not taint my opinion about the movie. Here is my unadulterated look of DC's Green Lantern.

In General, the movie was good, and to be honest I was actually expecting it to be better than Marvel's Thor. So, I was a bit disappointed that it fell a little bit short but that doesn't mean that it was a horrible movie, it just felt lacking a little in some places.

Here's my first irk as a comicbook movie fan, I'm not sure if it’s Anthony Hopkins doing the narration (I guess I was a bit excited to actually look for his name on the credits) but if it was not then the narrator sounded uncannily like Sir Hopkins. With that said, I was confused early on whether I was watching the next installment of Thor upon hearing the voice of Odin (might not be the best move DC have done considering that Thor was just released just a month ago).

Then we have our first view of the CG characters of the movie, in all honesty and I might be the minority here, but I like how they present the characters here, how clean but still natural looking. I especially how these alien character moves, they seem normal but with other minor twitches that actually make them seem "alien". However, at times, these go over the top and we get to see a more "cartoony" depiction.

I feel that the moviemakers put a lot of effort and thought in doing Hal Jordan's costume; I have to give kudos to the creators. It felt organic, and actually, looks like a second skin for the character but was still respectful of its comicbook roots. I am not saying that other superheroes should go this route but this definitely works for the character of Green Lantern.

For the characters' personalities, I believe they did not deviate much from their comicbook counterparts. Like most of you here, at first it was difficult for me to accept Ryan Reynolds for the role of Green Lantern, as he was more of a "Flash" type of guy but a little tweak to his natural "Ryan Reynolds" persona he did inhabit the role of Hal Jordan. For the other characters, it just felt like that, there is not much of a character development for them for the actors to really botch them up.

In terms of the story, it was fun to see some parts of comicbook storyline adapted in this movie. The geek in me liked how they handle Hal's father and his relationship with his brother (for however brief it was). I am just not sure how much it resonates with regular moviegoers. However, it did feel that they cramped a lot of GL mythos in the movie for a non-comicbook fan to wrap their head around.

It was great to see OA, the short time that Hal trained with Kilowog and Tomar Re, I think that was a missed opportunity for the moviemakers because these were the more interesting part of the movie. They should have just cut short the scenes with Carol because it just did not feel that it moved organically (but I have to say that Blake Lively was easy on the eyes).

I was a little bit disappointed with Campbell's directing because I was expecting much action considering he has done Bond and Zorro, but this time around it felt that there were moments that was just dragging. It was sad that we did not see the Corps having a big fight and Hal Jordan's final confrontation with Parallax was a bit anti-climactic (Silver Surfer facing-off with the Galactus cloud comes to mind).

The audio and the musical score were unremarkable. It is serviceable but nothing epic and memorable.

I guess I just got spoiled by Marvel Movies’ cameos and easter eggs that I was also hoping that we could have one in a DC movie but I guess they decided to really cater to the general public than the fanboys. Though they should have borrowed some moves in Marvel's playbook and have those easter eggs without derailing the movie.

In the end it is a good movie, still a must watch for comicbook non-comicbook geeks alike but they should have done much more. I am still hoping for a sequel, especially with their tease of Sinestro wearing his yellow ring.

Now for our Special Edition CBM FIGHT CLUB

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P0llMaster
6/17/2011
DCMU

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