My 1st Summer Movie!!!! Green Lantern

Being a stay at home dad is great. I get to watch a lot of TV. Sarcasm. The morning is spent trying to keep the boys occupied, either with a nap or with the flickering box, so I can take my own nap. So PBS kids is on, because flickering color is way better than the talking heads on the Today Show or CNN. Then the afternoon is spent catching up on my DVR list. Mostly it's random things from the History Channel, College Football Live and lots of re-runs of Seinfeld and The Office. Occasionally I squeeze in a movie off the list, like The Crazies or The Other Guys.

But today, I got out of the house and went to the movies by myself, something I said I'd never do, but in the last 6 months I've done 3 times. "Two f"ing babies at the same time"(This American Life Episode) makes it impossible for Betsy and I to go to the movies together.  Needless to say, the people in front of me decided they absolutely needed to get out of the house, and went with their toddler that didn't care to be there. I wasn't upset at their choice, I just felt really sorry for them because apparently they really, really, really needed to get out of the house. Anyway.....Green Lantern.

Green Lantern - We are now living in a post Iron Man world. That movie set the watermark for all superhero movies now. And with the exception of Nolan's Batman series, superhero movies have sort of gotten into a rhythmic funk of mediocrity. Green Lantern fits right into that mold of pretty good superhero film, but doesn't quite get over the hump to be really great. The sad part, though, is that they really tried to.

The film follows the usual 1st film in a series, it's the backstory of the character, Hal Jordan. He's a test pilot, his love interest thinks he's a slacker dofus, he's living in the shadow of his Dad....actually really close to the Iron Man story isn't it? Except, Hal doesn't have it so bad, his life is actually pretty good, he just stumbles upon getting the green lantern ring, or it finds him or something. The first half also goes through the backstory of the whole Green Lantern Corps, and this huge unstoppable threat that could wipe out the Universe, yadda yadda. Great place to start the series, the threat is total annihilation of the Universe. That's actually the watermark that this movie adds to cinema, before threats were The Entire City!, The Entire Country! or The Entire World!!!! Nope, this film trumps all that and goes for the whole Universe. Keep in mind; Hal Jordan just got the ring, he's the newest Corps guy amid thousands and before this he knew nothing of anything off the planet Earth at all, oh and btw this Universe destroying thing just killed the best Green Lantern guys easily. But he's the guy to do it.
That's actually not the real problem with the film, to be honest there wasn't really anything "wrong" at all. It was laid out properly, like a mom laying out her kids clothes for the next day. In fact, little foreshadowing hints were dropped here and there to make you smile later.

So what is the real problem? Mediocrity, that's what the problem is. The film sort of just balances between comic book wonderment and real life what- would-it-be-like feeling. And because of that, it has no foundation. We know the characters, but it's because they're cartoons. The plot and characters were basically like the cartoon movies that have been put out the past few years, by both Marvel and DC. And those movies are actually really good, but they're cartoons. This is a feature film. Or should have been. Iron Man was so good because it told the story of a flawed man so well. The action was sort of just incidental. Green Lantern seemed to be based around action a little too much. (It is an action adventure film, I know, I know.) But when you start to present yourself as an adult film with real people, you should follow through.

The one great thing I think the film did do well, was that the theme was actually really telling to the story of the comics. Superhero films are all about courage and fear and really base emotions. Good versus Evil at it's core. Green Lantern was all about that, it pitted the good guys with strong will and courage against the pure evil of fear. I'm not a fan of the Green Lantern comic book, but from what I can gather it's about really solid core values of being courageous and having honor. These guys have an oath and are sworn to protect the Universe. With their rings they can construct anything in their minds and it's as strong as their will is. That's what makes Hal Jordan so strong, his will and his courage against evil. Visually that was a no brainer, the rings and the constructs that they made were awesome to see, but they really did a solid job in putting that thoroughly in the story. And in my opinion, the best superhero movies are the ones that really get into the core of what makes the comic great. Dark Knight did it, Iron Man did, the first two Spidermans did it, and anytime a superhero film fails, it's usually because they made it about action and awesomeness rather than about the core of the character and what the comic was all about. And character is what's really awesome. Thumbs up.


Top 5 Superhero Movies


5. 4 Way Tie - Batman(1989), Spiderman, X-Men, Batman Begins
4. Iron Man
3. Spiderman 2
2. X-Men 2: X-Men United
1. The Dark Knight