Green Lantern Review

The Green Lantern movie is an origin story. We are first introduced to Hal Leonard the cocky test pilot, who risks his life and nearly loses it after pushing the limits of his plane and the newly designed planes he is flying against. This is a hero with a chip on his shoulder because of a fear he hides.

Fear, and its ability to disable us is not the central theme of the film, but it is a major undercurrent in the story and inevitably leads us to the main point: Fear is something that should be overcome. Never embraced. For if we embrace it, we become faced with a power that can render us utterly helpless and then our true potential can never be reached.

Hal Leonard must learn to overcome his fear and rise above it so that he may be fearless in the face of evil. For that is what it means to be a Green Lantern–fearless in the presence of evil.

While Green Lantern has really great visual effects and a good plot, the film suffers in its ability to give the audience a sense of pending doom. In fact, it is the opinion of this author that the ending was rushed and because of that, there is not a significant sense of peril. Even with two villains in the film, there is not any reason to doubt that Hal will rise to the occasion and become a Green Lantern worthy of the name.

The other item that could have been better was the 3D conversion. Go see it in regular 2D. Your wallet will thank you later anyhow.

Despite those two negatives, Green Lantern is a great film and fun to watch. Ryan Reynolds is wonderful as Hal Leonard/Green Lantern, ad Blake Lively is commanding and sensitive in her role as Carol Ferris. Ultimately, the film is worth watching if one is looking for a film with plenty of special effects and a simple storyline.