Green Lantern: the movie (a critique/review)

Okay, before I get started I must say I was thoroughly disappointed by the catastrophe of The Green Lantern movie. Tears dropped from my eyes not only at the sight of it, but also the sound.

In 2011 Martin Campbell directed a live action film based on DC comics character The Green Lantern, specifically the silver age version of the character, Hal Jordan. With his appearance in the DC universe, the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force, was introduced. Each G.L. owns a power ring that can create solid constructs. The rings themselves are powered by the will of the owners and are technological creations that were made by an alien race known as the Guardians who are also the creators of the Corps and are also said to be the guardians of the universe. Only those who are without fear are chosen. (because not everyone is up on their comic history)

With a very interesting concept that has had a multitude of great comic book stories how does one fuck up the first ever theatrical rendition of the most legendary of all Green Lanterns?  Ryan Reynolds. Nuff said...
When I first got wind of Reynolds being cast as Hal, I couldn't see it beyond the right type of resemblance and build and the fact he has some type of charm? Trust me, people dig his corny ass... why? Besides his body I have no clue. Maybe charisma? Whatever the case, he's likable, but does that mean he's what you would call the right guy to be Hal? Hell no. At the very beginning  he displayed his annoying sense of wit in what I dare to characterize as one of his most corniest performances. Ever. And it just so happened that he had to use it to desecrate the screen of our emerald warrior's movie. Like a fool, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, hoping he could pull weight and that the central corniness was due to the kid he was talking to in the movie. I was wrong! He starts off corny and by the end he upgrades to completely whack.

I will say it did stay true to the origins of course with some changes to better fit this time period since the original origin story was in the 1950's, but there were other choices that went along with part of the problem.  Amazing as you would expect it to be, the movie has only two memorably great scenes in it. Sadly neither of which were able to save this pile of cinema crap that was thrust upon us that very year.... I'll get to that later.

The movie opens with a spectacularly done prologue, letting us know right away who the enemy is. They really were off to a good start; Abin Sur, the Green Lantern in control of earth's sector before Hal Jordan, appears as he should. All sounds pretty good right? Well, that ends the minute Reynolds enters the fold. The story starts with Hal Jordan, a test pilot leaving some chick he screwed in his bed ( not a bad choice, but the actor being Ryan is another story entirely) to rush to his job. The next part wasn't all that bad, well minus his lackluster wit....
Anyway, Reynolds objective was to test out what the Saber's (pretty much UN-manned fighter jets, their equivalent of a drone I suppose) capabilities in battle, but Reynolds has a different idea entirely. He uses his wingman as a decoy and comes up with a cleverly stupid plan to beat them. Not the type of dude you want on your team; dude will let you get jumped. By this point he's managed to piss everyone off. Sadly, the dogfight was one of the verrrrrrrrrrrrrry few scenes that were praise worthy. (that's right, verrrrrrrrrrry is just how dramatic I chose to make it.)

So we're going to skip pass the lame moments as well as Ryan's weak ass chemistry (or should I say lack there of) between him and his long time love interest, Carol Ferris (the wingman he used as a decoy BTW)  and head towards the second praise worthy performance.

By the time we reach the middle he has the power ring in his possession and begins training with the other ring wielders. The action and special effects far exceeded my expectations with beautifully designed constructs. Out of all the great scenes that could have been used, the training parts were probably the best that this movie has to offer. In fact, I argue that it may have done better if they never went back to earth. That and have another actor cast as Hal Jordan.
So what killed this movie? Be sides Ryan's acting? Nothing. He single-handedly destroyed the whole damn thing with his performance alone at the end. I see what they were trying to do with their approach with him making a speech, but it doesn't work in the context they were aiming for, especially not with Reynolds! They couldn't even redeem themselves with an epic boss battle. That movie was bullshit. How can you not have an epic boss battle given all the other effects you used? It was supposed to go out with a bang, not some crappy moral of the day shit. It's so bad that it was worse than Twilight.

Final thought: if you come across this movie head for the nearest exit, you were warned.