'The Green Lantern'

'The Green Lantern' (PG-13) (2 stars)

Writers: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Micheal Goldenberg
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins,
Mark Strong, Jay O'Sanders, Angela Bassett

I was surprised about one thing while watching "The Green Lantern" and that was how strong Ryan Reynolds was as the title character. I expected him to ham it up and be miscast and make the movie cheesy but he doesn't, the movie does it on it's own. This is a dim, ugly and flat looking movie and I expect 3D to make it look even dimmer. I wanted to check with the projectionist to see if they needed to change a projector bulb. The Green Lantern has to be one of the dullest and least interesting superheroes in my opinion. "The Green Lantern" movie doesn't help that opinion because the movie is very dull and not interesting at all.

The creatures and characters in the movie are ugly and grotesque and not in a good way. This movie reminds me a lot of the terrible 84 version of "Dune" with it's dark, grainy, flat look and badly made up creatures. Look at a movie like "Hellboy" or even "Star Wars" to find grotesque creatures that are done right with personality. I couldn't differentiate any creature from the next in this movie. "The Green Lantern" is boring and I wish it would have just turned into camp like one of my favorites, the 1980 version of "Flash Gordon".

The saving grace of this movie stopping from it becoming a turkey is Reynold's funny and energetic performance and the main bad guy. The villain in this movie is weakly written but Peter Sarsgaard is amazing with his performance. He fleshes out this weak character with a performance that is deep and complicated. He doesn't ham it up and over do it and that is refreshing. He even scared me a little and made the character menacing. The movie just can't be saved though because like countless of other movies these days the ending is all explosions and bad action in the end. There is no suspense and no feeling of threat or real danger. Also the love interest in this movie has to be the most boring love interest ever in any superhero movie though it is not because of actress Blake Lively. This is the weakest superhero movie of all the latest ones.