Green Lantern: actually doesn't suck
Jun. 24th, 2011 12:05 amThe money I paid to see Green Lantern would have been well-spent just for the character of Carol Ferris, who is probably the best female character I've seen in a superhero movie in quite a while.
The rest of the movie is, contrary to what I'd been led to expect, not terrible. Yes, the central idea is goofy (glowing space cops who use the green energy of willpower!), and yes, the "good guys" make one monumentally stupid decision partway through the movie, and there are smaller details in the story and script I would have tweaked. But Hal Jordan, the main character, is not nearly the "dur, I'm a man-child who can't take anything seriously" disaster the first trailer seemed determined to advertise him as, and the central theme is better than some I've seen lately.
And Carol Ferris. She is smart, and competent, and not terribly interested in Hal's bullshit (though she's interested in him sans bullshit), and she does actual useful things. Not the best actress in the world, and there's one thirty-second scene where I would have rewritten all of her dialogue, but it was the only sour note; the rest of what they did with her, I liked a great deal. Spoiler cut:
( So's I can list specifics. )
So yeah. It is not the best superhero movie I've seen in the last five years, but it was entertaining, and far better than some of the dreck they've been putting out lately.
The rest of the movie is, contrary to what I'd been led to expect, not terrible. Yes, the central idea is goofy (glowing space cops who use the green energy of willpower!), and yes, the "good guys" make one monumentally stupid decision partway through the movie, and there are smaller details in the story and script I would have tweaked. But Hal Jordan, the main character, is not nearly the "dur, I'm a man-child who can't take anything seriously" disaster the first trailer seemed determined to advertise him as, and the central theme is better than some I've seen lately.
And Carol Ferris. She is smart, and competent, and not terribly interested in Hal's bullshit (though she's interested in him sans bullshit), and she does actual useful things. Not the best actress in the world, and there's one thirty-second scene where I would have rewritten all of her dialogue, but it was the only sour note; the rest of what they did with her, I liked a great deal. Spoiler cut:
( So's I can list specifics. )
So yeah. It is not the best superhero movie I've seen in the last five years, but it was entertaining, and far better than some of the dreck they've been putting out lately.