green lantern

i hate to say it, because i really love ryan reynolds, but this movie was kind of a dud. i grew up loving comic books, but green lantern never interested me. i guess that should have been an indication for me when i saw this one, huh? the story follows hal jordan, an ace pilot in the air force, as he is called to wear the ring and take up the helm of a green lantern. the movie, though epic in scale, feels really disjointed. we get to see the unhappy pilot who struggles with his father's death years earlier in an airplane related accident, but it never feels like a real motivation. we see the grand scope of the green lantern corps and all the strange creatures through out the galaxy that also have taken up the ring, but they never play any sort of real part of this story. we see the all encompassing evil that is the bad guy parallax, but its threat is never really conveyed. they even fail to truly explain what it is that the ring does. we know its the physical manifestation of will and hope, but what exactly does that mean? with out any explanation or attempt to justify its power, hal jordan can make a race track appear out of nowhere to save a helicopter. um, what does that have to do with hope? we never really see hal struggle with this new position except in the most shallow of ways: showing off to a roommate, trying to figure out the oath of the green lanterns, etc. there was much potential, but very little of it is realized with this film. sure, the effects looked pretty cool, but to what end? it felt like much of it was designed to distract the audience from the lack of storytelling. things just kind of happen with little rhyme or reason. how does hal suddenly have the strength to go from worthless hack to galaxy saving lantern in the course of one day? and that last scene! really? there was no reason behind it other then maybe everyone involved knew they didnt stand a chance of getting to do a second one so they wanted to go for it. what ever the case, this movie was a disappointment. a shiny disappointment, but that didnt help much.

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