Well Daniel and Karina I actually took myself off to see this after I steadfastly said I wouldn't !!!! Why I hear you ask?!! Well on Saturday night I won a paltry NZ$63 in our national lottery...only one more number and it would have NZ$28,000 ..but them's the breaks huh?! Anyway since my investment of NZ$18 turned into NZ$63 I thought 'what the hell I ain't paying am I?', so off I went because I really can't get by without a weekly trip to the flicks.
I really wasn't keen on seeing this at all which started from the moment I first saw the trailers months ago. Ryan Reynolds can be so-so but I did like him alot in Buried, and funnily enough in The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. But other than that Reynolds plays Reynolds. In some ways he reminds me of Keanu Reeves who is always the same...completely wooden. What gets me is why I felt like avoiding this, I still can't define it because Reynolds alone wasn't enough to deter me. I think the shot of the alien looking out of his cockpit at Jordan reminded me too much of a similar shot in Enemy Mine from the 1980's with Dennis Quaid....( anyone remember that or am I just old??!! ). I think when I saw that I turned off and thought, 'seen it all before'. But I will say this now I shuddered when I saw the Captain America trailers and thought 'oh my god it looks worse than Green Lantern...god help us!'.
Anyway in I went and pretty much got what I expected. It is the usual formulatic, CGI heavy, plotless, all been done before, Hollywood weapon of mass destruction on intelligence, yawn fest. I just sat there thinking to myself it is the same movie I saw last week , and the before that, and the one before that, and so and so, and so, and.....yeah.
It isn't that it isn't visually appealing as I did like many of the visuals, but the plot was diabolical, and the whole thing like an over done formula. There was no originality anywhere. The whole structure of the film is like the one last week, and the one before that, and the one...oh I've been there haven't I? It is almost a scene for scene, week in week out replay, but with different actors and visuals. And this is what I am getting sick of week in week out. The same fucking movie over and over and over. Christ! Hollywood has millions at its disposal and yet produces the same bloody movie each week!!!!!!!
It wouldn't be a problem if each movie was constructed differently, or added something new or innovative, but on Sunday I could have fallen asleep and woken up wondering how I ended up watching Thor again, or Source Code, X-Men, or heaven forbid Super Trash...oops, Super 8. But one thing Green Lantern had going for it which Super 8 didn't was the fact there was no under handed promotion to it. What you saw in the trailers was what you got, and not the sneakiness of Super 8, which is why I hated it so much and why the bad taste in my mouth still lingers.
Anyway rant over!!....nah!...here's some more!! I didn't hate Green Lantern because I got what I was expecting...and I didn't really pay for my ticket so it had an added bonus. I even paid extra to see it in 3-D!! Fair to say though I wasn't impressed either. I've seen worse movies by far ( The Green Hornet for example ), but for me Green Lantern was just another example of the deep rooted problem with mainstream Hollywood. Just not enough originality. I feel with the quality of the movies coming out out of Tinseltown recently there is a major excersise in dumbing down of the audience. I for one don't really want to play the game. Super 8 was a real low for me and it is with real horror that I read how many people really liked it and called it the best movie of the year. Somehow the dumbing down is here and we haven't realised, or not wanted to see it happening.
Green Lantern is just another expensive movie with little going for it. It even fails on the entertainment side as I can go to the flicks next week and see the same movie again, but with a different title! Oh yes..the green CGI suit did tend to make Reynolds look like 'a bloody lego-man' didn't it Karina?!!!
Boring, pure mind rot!!!
RANT OVER!!!....now I'm off to watch some Alfred Hitchcock classics to remind myself that once there was intelligent life in cinema!! Anthony Perkins here I come!!
Never even heard of ENEMY MINE (let alone seen it) but either way: think that shot of the purple alien in the trailer was a bad marketing choice - it certainly seemed to turn more people off then it turned on. I've said this a couple of times elsewhere but I genuinely think this is a real missed opportunity to do something different with a comic book film. The development of Jordan in the books doesn't follow that of a typical hero at all and so many things could have been done with this above and beyond what you describe above. I'm waiting for the DVD, which is in itself a sad indictment of the vast amounts of negative opinion this has generated.
ReplyDeleteI respect Reynolds for Buried, but have no real interest in seeing this.
ReplyDeleteEnemy Mine is a personal favorite of mine from when I was a kid. Having prior knowledge of GL in a different form, I was terribly let down as well. It's so incredibly generic and lazy, the result of group think, 3 writers if I remember correctly. The FX off world were well done I thought at the very least.
ReplyDeleteWill make sure to avoid this. Just like Super 8. Looking forward to Captain America, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments guys!!
ReplyDeleteYeah Filmtel it was a missed opportunity but when I think back over so many mainstream films I've seen this year it is a constant comment I have made. I really am sick of crap like this being foisted on us.
CDR yep you ain't missing anything if ya don't see it!! Buried is probably the only decent thing Reynolds will do in his career.
Daniel is old like me!! I had forgoten about Enemy Mine until I saw the trailers to this. Honestly that purple head shot is lifted sraight from EM isn't it!!
Ty..good choice my friend as this isn't worth bothering with, and don't get me started on Super 8!!
Ryan Reynolds looked awful in his costume - his head and body reminded me of lego.
ReplyDeleteYou were a lot kinder to GL than I thought you would be.
I really didn't like it. I am not against summer fluff at all and normally enjoy it but just didn't work for me at all.
Glad you didn't have to pay for your ticket (mine was free too!)
K :-)
I got what I expected with GL and I can't complain about that. After Super 8 the week before there was no dis-honesty involved. Went expecting the ordinary and got it and thanked my lucky stars I didn't pay for the priviledge!!
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