Green Lantern

Welcome back folks. Let's talk comic book flicks!

Yeah I know, there have been quite a few of them in the last 18 years. We just had Black Panther (soo good), Thor: Ragnarok (highly enjoyable) and Avengers: Infinity War (No I haven't seen it).

With 3 days away from the release of DP2 (sounds dirty that way, right?) Ryan Reynolds is getting to ride the Fox X-Men/Fantastic Four high and hope for more box office records with the newest Deadpool installment. But before the red and black gimp suit, before looking like Freddy Kruger's ass double and before wielding twin ninjatos, Reynolds was on a bit of a comic book slump. First the rolling dumpster fire that was Blade: Trinity where he really didn't get to play Hannibal King: Undead P.I., some of these films like RIPD got the shaft from critics world over.

Yet I cannot fault the actor that is in these roles. If the story is poorly constructed and flimsy dialogue (A David Goyer specialty) then it may fall on its metaphoric ass. Today's film gets a lot of flack in spite of a decent attempt at an origin story and trying to compress villains and heroes of more than a 75 year story line. This is Green Lantern.

So no chimichangas then?

From the director of Bond films, GoldenEye, Casino Royale and The Mask of Zorro, Martin Campbell tackles a DC Comics book character with a rich history in comics, graphic novels and even cartoons. Sadly, this did not go over nearly as well as was hoped.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a former Air Force pilot now private contracted test pilot with Ferris Air, a man known to be cocky, arrogant and fearless. You know, a fighter pilot. Whose charm and wit land him virtually any girl he may want but the one he loves. Awww...

He proceeds to be late getting a test flight underway tackling a new Ferris prototype remote fighter that can anticipate what a human could manage.

After embarrassing his boss Carl Ferris (Jay O. Sanders of V.I. Warshowski, Kiss the Girls, Edge of Darkness and Sneaky Pete) and his junior executive/test pilot/daughter Carol (Blake Lively of Gossip Girl, The Town, The Age of Adaline, The Shallows and All I See is You) Hal is in deep kimchi and proceeds to be misunderstood and grumpy bumpy. A few flashbacks of his father a test pilot for Ferris he gets to remember his dad bringing an experimental plane in safely and then...die.

Superhero movie, remember? Almost always means dead parents.

SUPER CAAAAAAAR!!!

Meanwhile in space, a Green Lantern of said sector of space is combating a dangerous menace known only as Paralax. He crash lands on Earth and is mortally wounded. The ring chooses its successor for said Lantern Abin Sur (Termuera Morrison of The Island of Dr. Moreau, Once Were Warriors, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, The Barefoot Bandits and Moana) dragging Hal to his dying self, gives him vague notions that he is to be the next lantern in this very sector.

A tad daunting? To say the least. So off to intergalactic boot camp with aliens voiced by Geoffrey Rush and the late Michael Clarke Duncan as Tomar-Re and Boot Instructor Kilowog. Yup neither of these names mean a damn thing to the casual film goer. The comic book nerds are in awe and yet still not fully sold on the CGI glowy costumes.

Sinestro (Mark Strong of Blood, Zero Dark Thirty, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Day Hitler Died, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle) the finest and bravest of the lanterns, thinks very little of Hal and speaks to the founders of the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians that they must have a greater weapon than the GL ring.

FYI, this ring creates energy constructs only limited to your imagination and willpower. Nothing permenant but dude, Mechas and Kajuis against bad guys, right?

But Paralax has a minion on Earth listening to his dark whispers and sets site on destroying the planet or simply laying so much waste to it, his toady could rule what's left of it.

Hal realizes he needs to nut up or shut up as this fight is for our blue and green marble.

Now I have read plenty of critics' and IMDB users' comments on this film. Honestly, I liked it. I felt it needed a bit more editing and the extended 123 minutes does fill in story better than the 114minute theatrical but the glowy suits were a bit painful and main they needed to tone down some of that fluorescent green.

You have solid veteran actors, a decent enough origin story called Emerald Dawn and honestly the only real problem was the rush to get it to theaters. Give the extended version a viewing.

I'm sorry it wasn't Batman Begins or Man of Steel. Boo hoo. Not every story needs to be these two characters and DC was trying to get the ball rolling with their lesser known characters.

This was the first time they took off the safety net and tried something ballsy in the same way Marvel did. Is it a failure? No. Is it a great film? Not really. A decent film? Yeah you can have popcorn to it but it fell under a fair movie not a compelling movie. It is also the building blocks to launch obscure characters like Suicide Squad. So yeah, DC has never been Marvel. That's not a bad thing.

Both franchises have tons of characters and I for one, look forward to more risks like Green Lantern in 2020, they're trying to do more GL so stay posted for that.

Damn. No Pornhub in this sector.