Green Lantern | Teen Ink

Green Lantern

August 13, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

 Green Lantern is a movie based off of the DC character of the same name. The Green Lantern Corps are an intergalactic group of heroes that act as police enforcement for the entire universe. Each member is sworn to protect, and the corps has been around for centuries. Empowered by a powerful ring that conjures up designs that the wearer wishes to create, it gives each member an unheralded amount of strength when they are embedded with the most powerful weapon in the entire universe. Limited only by their will and imagination, the only true limit is the limit that the wearer sets for him or herself. However, the Green Lantern Corps are shaken up when they begin to recruit their first human member, Hal Jordan, to join their ranks. Hal is a former pilot that knows how to be confident enough to fly a plane, and he also has a confident, cocky attitude towards life. Despite this, the Green Lanterns do not highly regard humans and feel that they are inferior for the most part, since humans have been unable to harness the power of the ring so far. Forced to attempt to do the near-impossible and become the first human to ever successfully wield the power of the ring, Hal Jordan realizes that he has to step up to the plate and serve as a part of the Green Lantern Corps when a new and powerful threat rises in the form of Parallax that threatens the entire universe as a whole, with Jordan possibly being one of the only sources of hope to fight against it. 
 

Green Lantern does possess some extraordinary visuals that bring the capabilities of the rings to life, but the plot of the movie itself is severely flawed. The movie never really works, because the concepts and ideas introduced in the movie never become that compelling or realistic. The whole notion of some guy randomly being sent to space to fight alongside with aliens with rings that make cartoon-like constructs stops the movie from ever becoming a serious superhero movie hit. At a time when superheroes movie were beginning to become more grounded and realistic enough so that people older than little kids could find enjoyment, this movie fails to go along with that trend and it shows. Even the villain of the movie is far from menacing, which is a shame, considering that there were so many better options. Without a meaningful villain, the story arc of Hal Jordan is prevented from becoming as compelling, and without a compelling lead, it becomes incredibly difficult for this adventure to succeed on any level. 

 While Green Lantern has more flaws than just the average superhero movie, it also has some noteworthy visuals that bring several concepts to life. All of the constructs created by the Green Lantern rings are fleshed out and brought to life, and while the movie does overly rely on these visuals to have any means of success, it is still cool enough to watch. Additionally, the alien Green Lantern Corps members look relatively realistic and the non-Earth setting also aids the science fiction qualities of the movie. 

Green Lantern has the rare ability to not be enjoyed by viewers and critics nearly equally. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an unimpressive 26%, which is just as bad as it sounds, and an insanely low 65% of Google users liked the movie, solidifying the concept that this movie wasn't a hit with basically everyone. 

Green Lantern gets plenty of criticism for being a poor superhero movie that doesn't do Hal Jordan's comic book history justice, and for the most part, it is justified. While the movie does have some bright spots, albeit few, such as the look of the rings' constructs, none of the concepts are elaborated enough for them to become substantial. Even the lead of the movie, Ryan Reynolds, has agreed that this superhero adventure is practically a disaster from start to finish. This is definitely one to miss. 


The author's comments:

"You're afraid to even admit you're afraid. I know - I've spent my entire life doing it. You know, we have a saying on Earth - we say: 'I'm only human.' We say it because we're vulnerable, we say it because we know we're afraid. It doesn't mean we're weak." - Hal Jordan


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.