Because I am a big fan of the DC Universe I made an effort to attend the midnight release of the Green Lantern film on Friday morning. The fun thing about midnight showings is that some theaters will have events going on prior to the movie starting. I attended the showing at the Alamo Drafthouse in West Oaks where before the lights were dimmed, the owners of 8th Dimension Comics and Game Store provided prizes—such as official movie posters, comics and t-shirts—for the trivia contest they held.
Green Lantern is the one major superhero movie they have debuting this year as opposed to Marvel’s three films (Thor, X-Men: First Class, and later this year, Captain America: The First Avenger). I myself have nothing against Marvel and do enjoy their stories, but I grew up with DC, so I have always been a little more partial to those characters.
Without spoiling the film, it is your basic origin story about one of the classic comic book heroes, Hal Jordan. He was the first human to become a member of the Green Lantern Corp and was a founding member of the Justice League of America. Played by Ryan Reynolds, Hal Jordan is a test pilot who works for a company called Ferris Aircraft. However, his life was changed forever when a spacecraft carrying a dying alien by the name of Abin Sur crashed into Earth.
Walking out of the theater that morning once the movie was over, I was left with an underwhelmed kind of feeling. But before I go into this movie discussion I want to be clear that this wasn’t a bad movie though. I did, in fact, have fun seeing it. It had faults and weaknesses but I don’t regret going to see it, let alone losing hours of sleep before work that day. If you have plans on going to see it, then do so; you may want to keep your expectations low though. Or you can wait until it is out on DVD to rent it.
The movie felt flat in the end, but that isn’t to say it was boring. Every five or ten minutes there was something big happening: huge, loud and, oftentimes, something exploded. For me, the highlights of the film were all of the scenes that took place on Oa (the planet that is home for the Green Lantern Corp) as well as seeing Hal wield the ring’s power.
Because this is the story of how it all began for Hal, he is, of course, the main focus of the story, but I found myself wanting to see more of Kilowag, Tomar-Re, Thaal Sinestro and the rest of the Corp. Tomar-Re, in particular, was my favorite to see. My other concern was I found Hector Hammond’s plotline to be more interesting to follow than Hal’s. He was a normal human who was consumed by the yellow power of fear. Watching his struggle and seeing his humanity slip away due to terror consuming him was the most intriguing part of the plot to follow.
All in all, Green Lantern is one of the weaker movies of the summer. It isn’t terrible and certainly doesn’t deserve the low ratings I have seen around the Internet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this franchise is rebooted in a few years.
Now costume-wise, the movie has proved to show that the majority of it’s budget has gone to the CGI, including the redesign of Green Lantern uniforms. Seeing as we all can’t walk around in CGI costumes Rubie’s has gone ahead and designed uniforms that we can actually wear this Halloween season. We currently carry the Deluxe Green Lantern costume that is modeled after the cartoons and comics in stock. The costumes and accessories that are based on the design from this movie are on order and as they come in I’ll be sure to post updates on our Twitter (frankelscostume)!
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