In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night…This Movie was Just Alright…

Grab your seats, class is in session.

So as most of you know, the Professor is a big fan of comic book movies. Having grown up a comic book fan (thanks to my brother) I am going through a great period watching the things I read as a kid come to life in front of me. Now, I was a Marvel kid and continue to be a Marvel guy today, so I never read much in the way of DC, but I can still appreciate the characters coming to life in full length motion pictures. So while I’m a little behind, this week I’m giving my feelings on:

Ok, so, right up front: it’s no Chris Nolan Batman or Jon Favreau Iron Man. Personally, I use those movies are the benchmark that all other superhero movies should be striving for. More specifically, The Dark Knight and Iron Man 1. This movie really doesn’t reach that level. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t get that close either.

One thing to keep in mind while reading this, I never read this comic growing up and really don’t know the characters all that well. I can only give you what I saw in the movie.

Let’s start with the good. The acting in the movie is actually very good. Love him or hate him, Ryan Reynolds can do it. The role seemed to call for the tough guy smartass who is really a good guy, just doesn’t want anyone to know. If that’s what it’s supposed to be, he hits it. That’s the role you want Reynolds playing, it’s what he’s best at. I personally hope they do the Deadpool movie because he will destroy with it if done right. Blake Lively, well…she doesn’t really NEED to act all that well, she can pretty much just stand there and I’m ok with it. That being said, she was also good, but honestly, it was probably hard not to be. They really could have placed just about anyone in the role and they probably would have been ok. While a big part in the movie, it’s not a ground breaking role. I hate to almost take it away from her, but that’s really the truth. There are really only two other major players in this one and that’s Peter Sarsgaard as flakey yet brilliant scientist Hector Hammond and Mark Strong, who plays the Green Lantern leader, Sinestro. Hammond does a nice job as essentially “Villain #2” who gets infested and helps bring “Villain #1” to Earth. You have to see the movie to see what he goes through…it ain’t pretty. The Sinestro character, while not in the movie THAT much, plays a huge role and will be the focal point should a sequel come around. Strong gives a real nice performance as this character, probably the best in the movie. Unfortunately, just not enough of a player to be on screen enough.

The other good for me was the effects and CGI. The Green Lantern home planet, known as Oa, was awesome. Not quite as good as Asguard was for me in Thor, but still pretty impressive. Anything done here in the movie is great. When they tell you there are hundreds of Green Lanterns, they aren’t kidding, and they did their best to prove it by creating an almost ridiculous amount of characters to display here. I loved the work they did to create literally an entire Green Lantern Corp on screen.

Ok, so, the bad. I hate saying bad about movies I didn’t dislike, but what choice do I have. Basically, the easiest way to describe my biggest problem with this movie is this: it felt like one loooong ass commercial for Green Lantern 2. The movie started fast and slick, then basically slammed on the brakes to tell 30-40 minutes of back story about 20 of which was unnecessary. Yes, we needed to see how he becomes the Green Lantern but there is a long, drawn out section where they try to explain why he is like he is that involves a whole thing about his departed father and then his nephew’s birthday party. It’s kind of a shame, because the movie ends pretty strong. A better script would have saved this movie a lot of grief.

So bottom line: the movie was ok. The effects and the characters were good, the story was weak and somewhat unnecessary. This is one of those where, if you are a fan of the character and the comic book, you might want to catch it in the theater, but you also may be disappointed. If you don’t know the character and want to see it, wait for the DVD.

That’s all for now.

Class dismissed.