FTRC Film Club does Green Lantern

This week FTRC Film Club headed out into space to see Ryan Reynolds get his superhero on in Green Lantern. Was It any good? Er…you’ll have to read on to find out.

Not seen it? Be careful…spoilers ahead!

Laura ‘I was really surprised at how much i enjoyed it – yes it was cheesy but I think it helped! I thought the effects were good in it too…thought Ryan Reynolds did quite a good job as Hal – his character seemed very unrealistic though’.

Rachel was less keen. ‘I was kinda hoping it would surprise me and be really good like Thor but it was dreadful! I found the story incredibly boring, I was twiddling my thumbs…way too much CGI too, I felt like they made the movie in 2 weeks and just threw it out there and hoped for the best – awful storyline and the scary professor made me cringe’!

Would she like to see more Lantern action? Nope. ‘I hope to God they don’t make a sequel, spend the money somewhere else! I like Reynolds just not as the Green Lantern….I came out of the film and was speechless – and not in a good way’.

Peter ‘thought it felt like a long time to develop and then ended quite suddenly…I might have well as been watching those original Superman’s as this brought nothing new to the table for me. And the sequel? ‘I don’t think they should be making a sequel, it’s just not a strong enough story based on how they executed this film. I guess we’ll see though’.

Hannah thought it was ‘alright, the one liners were hilarious – it just didn’t seem to know what sort of film it was! One minute it was a comedy, then sci-fi, then it was romantic!’ She wasn’t a fan of the big bad guy, though. ‘They built up Parallax to be a big bad ass that nobody could kill then he gets taken down by the rookie – lazy writing’?

And what about lead character Hal? ‘I’m not sure that him being a mega Lantern came across very well especially with most of the film being taken up with his should he shouldn’t he attitude…the switch from one to the other happened too fast, one minute he’s struggling…the next he’s flying towards the sun’!

It was a thumbs down from Andrew too. ‘For a movie that is about a galaxy-spanning police force the movie felt so small in scope…this is Green Lantern, this should be cosmic-scaled stuff, but it never gave a strong impression that the world was in peril – just a single stretch of street in a nondescript US city. It was so limited in its imagination, which is ironic considering that’s the source of all the Green Lanterns power’.

Ouch. And the hero? ‘Hal Jordan’s character arc was a joke, too. Did every character in this movie have daddy issues? The movie never offers a legit example of how Hal would screw up as a GL. How can we invest in his journey if the movie isn’t even trying to engage us with it’?

Yasmin thought it was ‘okay, but considering the budget it should have been better. Amused at the LG product placement and plethora of high heels! Reynolds was good but felt Peter Saarsgard was the best thing in it for me though he looked a bit like Ron Jeremy gone all wrong with the bulgy head at one point’!

‘I thought Ryan Reynolds was okay in this but it wasn’t what I’d call a challenging role. More a fun one, it was tongue in cheek in places which was cool and he played it well. I think maybe the reason the film wasn’t as good as it could be was because it was inconsistent, like it was trying to be too many things’?

Edward? ‘I thought it was quite average. Didn’t expect much but was left thinking “meh”. I thought Saarsgaard was okay – I think he had a hard job – especially with the bulging head makeup. There’s a fine line between panto villian and stupid in these kinds of films’.

Anything he did like? ‘Mark Strong was easily the scariest, best, most interesting thing in the film for me! (apart from trying to work out if I fancied Blake Lively)’.

Suzan liked it! Hurray! ‘I enjoyed the movie. Sure it’s not the greatest comic book one but nor is it the worst. it is a film that entertains you for 2 hours, with great eye candy in for both men and women’. She wasn’t too impressed by the action sequences though – ‘there wasn’t epic scale action happening, just enough to make you think they are having a battle’.

James was not a fan. ‘The action was just about the only thing that kept me going through the film. I was very disappointed by the plot though. The whole lineup of superhero movies this year have been quite disappointing despite the hype’.

And Adanma? ‘I would have liked for Blake Lively’s character to kick more arse really…she was just fulfilling the need to have a damsel in distress. Wasn’t really convinced about her suddenly falling for Hal either’. She also wasn’t feeling the action in the flick – ‘when i think about it most of the battle scenes did seem to be over very quickly…maybe they were over edited’?

Any positives? ‘I did like Hal’s character, I think the idea of him being all bravado with a big heart allowed you to empathise with his character’.

And Adam? ‘I’ll be honest, I had read the dire reviews before going into this so I wasn’t expecting much. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! Granted it could have been a lot better, and should have been a lot better, but it was still watchable. I agree that the effects were shoddy, and some of the acting was a bit wooden, but it wasn’t the worst superhero film I’ve seen’.

Does he want more from the Lantern? ‘I hope they do do a sequel, and learn from the mistakes that they made with this one. I would give the film 3/5 overall. It probably would have been a lot lower if I knew much of Green Lantern from the comics, but that’s never really been one that I read’.

Mark’s opinion? Short but brutal. ‘Why did Ryan Reynolds follow ‘Buried’ up with this rubbish? Only good thing about the film is Blake Lively’!

Chris ‘I really enjoyed the film although I do think it had a lot of flaws that you could drive a planet through. I did feel quite bad for Hector, I really don’t think he was evil just trapped by the fact he was a loser…to be honest I think it would have been better if Hector had some form of redemption. All in all despite the movie’s flaws it was fun so I would give it a 7 out of 10’.

Hmmmm. We’re trying to think of the best way to put this…

We really didn’t like it. It just didn’t do it for us at all – and who knew that was even possible when Ryan Reynolds is involved? Sorry RyRy – but you dropped the ball on this one. It just seems rushed – which is odd because it’s actually kind of short – and we got the feeling that great big chunks of it had been chopped out. (By that we mean it’s kind of incoherent. And messy.)

It doesn’t help that the CGI effects – which had an extra 8million added to their budget – looked like something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Making a giant green racetrack (complete with cartoon car) come out of your arm? We half expected Bugs Bunny to be driving.

As for lead character Hal, nice as he was to look at in his CGI Lycra (Reynolds fans watch out for some near-nekkidness too) he wasn’t convincing anywhere else. Like how he suddenly decided to save the world after all after spending a good bit of time moaning about how he wasn’t good enough – where was the angst? We didn’t even get a Rockyesque training montage!

One question we have to ask – why did so many of the characters look like extras from Mars Attacks? It didn’t matter if they were goodies or baddies, the only accessory to be seen with in this flick – other than anything in green – was a giant bulgy forehead. Weird.

It’s not all bad – it does have some funny moments and Reynolds gets some great oneliners – but it is way off being the best of the genre. We do reckon being a Green Lantern would be quite cool, though – they get to fly after all. And we could make anything we wanted! As long as it was green, obvs.

But just what is this Film Club malarkey all about? It’s simples, really. Each week we send a pair of cinema tix (ODEON or Cineworld, whichever is best) to 10 of our most active Facebook/Twitter followers. We put the film we’re going to see to the vote, and the winning film is the one we all go to see. Then we all sit around on Facebook on the Sunday night (6.30) and chat about it. Magic. Sound like something you want to get involved with? Drop us a line at twitter.com/f_t_r_c or on Facebook at on.fb.me/d4dMv8

June 20th, 2011
Categories: Film Club . Author: admin