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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Damn. No Pornhub in this sector. |
