Now Playing: Green Lantern (2011)

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power... Green Lantern's light!"

Today was the big day. The day I've been waiting years for. For years I've seen Green Lantern grow in popularity in the comics, but never knew how to break into that complex universe. Then I heard they were making a Green Lantern movie. I thought that it would be my gateway into the franchise, but instead I found the Green Lantern: First Flight animated movie which came out first (and I subsequently made Puneet watch). This then inspired me to dive head first into the comics with no regard for my sanity. This means I was now going into this movie looking through the eyes of a fan. Hit the jump to see how it all turned out for me.

The biggest hurdle that Green Lantern has is getting over the massively complex story. It took me so long to get even a basic grasp of it when I had books upon books of stories explaining origins and side characters and multiple story arcs of the many villains. The hope was that the film would streamline this process, making it accessible to audiences. A movie simply doesn't have the time to go into the extreme depth that the comics have the leisure to do.

Generally I think they succeeded in explaining the vast story, the background of Hal Jordan (played by Ryan Reynolds), the scope of the Green Lantern Corps and where they get their powers, as well as a couple of villains. Where they run into problems is that they seem to have insisted that every facet of the Green Lantern story work its way into the film. I really don't think that it's very fair to audiences because they end up spending a vast majority of the film on Green Lantern's origin, his training, character development of Hal and his relationship to Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) as well as character development for Peter Sarsgaard's character of Hector Hammond, one of Green Lantern's classic comic book foes.

Mark Strong is expertly cast as the powerful Sinestro

What this leaves us with is plenty of scenes building up the romantic relationship between Hal and Carol which just came across a little forced to me. This also means that the action in the film between Green Lantern and the multiple villains takes a back seat to Hal simply learning to use his powers and lots of speeches. While I admittedly liked all the scenes on the Green Lantern home-world of Oa, the training fights, seeing all the aliens, and even the grand speeches by Sinestro (played by Mark Strong) I was definitely left with a feeling of being short changed by an ending that felt lacking and honestly, abrupt.

Hal Jorden is only on of thousands of Green Lanterns in a vast galactic Corps

It really feels like the movie has too much. It's not bad, just very very full. Even as a fan, and just loving getting to see the things the movie holds, I wish they had left some of the development for a second movie. Usually this type of movie only has 1 villain to start since you need to spend time introducing the hero as well, but Green Lantern has 2 right off the bat. They're both cool, but that's just even more time taken away that could be used for more plot significant fights. Also, I know they made many of the important alien Green Lanterns, but only 3 of them really get any screen time. I really wished they had taken the chance to have team-ups or screen-time with some of the others, like Stel, the robotic Lantern you can see in the center background of the image above. Sadly, they're all just resigned to background decoration this time around.

As far as acting and special effects and cinematography go, I thought they were all great. I even went to see this movie in 3D and it was gorgeous! The movie wasn't filmed in 3D, but since the VAST majority of the movie is all CG work, the post conversion works extremely well. The 3D was crisp and clean and I can only remember 2 instances in which the fast paced action and 3D didn't work well together, but even those moments were only a few seconds long each. Really, the movie's only problems come down to a jam packed plot, too many characters and the pacing issues those bring about.

"WE ARE THE CORPS!!"

I'm still having trouble struggling with how I ultimately feel about the movie. For the majority of the film I was having a blast! I loved the casting, the visuals, and all the cool winks added in for fans of the comics. Even Marvel comics! I just really think the final climatic battle could have used another 5-10 minutes of more over-the-top action and space fighting, but sadly it suffers from the same issues Iron Man 2 did. Even so, I can see so much potential for a sequel to be amazing. All the brick-work is now laid out, and we'll have more time for more Lanterns and hopefully see more of that after-the-credits stinger!

So, the big question after all that. Do I recommend it? I want to say 'yes', because I did thoroughly enjoy most of the movie. However, I also know how I feel about the ending. On the other hand, a sequel wouldn't have to deal with a lot of this movie's issues, and so I want to support this initial film as much as I can. So I leave it up to you, if you are willing to see a movie that isn't absolutely perfect, and want to support the future of this movie franchise, then please, go see Green Lantern, and enjoy it for what it has to offer.