Writers: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, and Michael Goldenberg
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Michael Clarke Duncan, Geoffrey Rush
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let all who worship evil's might beware my power, Green Lantern's light!" Cocky jet fighter pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds) has his fearlessness truly tested when recruited by the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force, to help combat the Corp's greatest enemy, a being of fear known as Parallax.
Once again, it's time for me to break ranks with the critical consensus. Green Lantern currently has a 22% on RottenTomatoes, but I have no idea what movie that 78% of the reviewers saw, because this was far from bad. Campbell cast the film superbly (Sarsgaard has traces of Malkovich, and Duncan is spot-on), the script is well-paced, and the much-maligned-in-production special effects never cease to amaze. I've even heard that the 3D (only used when off-Earth) is pretty good. Also, keep an eye out for a Marvel-inspired construct in Hal's training scene. However, the film's not without its issues. A couple big changes to the source material really bothered me, but I tried to overlook those and view this just as a movie on its own merit. The villain's appearance got laughs a couple times when he came onscreen; if the audience won't fear a villain, how can they expect the hero to fear him? In addition, a few scenes involving large crowds and mayhem have the crowds not freaking out as soon as I'd imagine they would have. As soon as something bad starts happening, that's when you run like hell. All issues aside, it looks great on the big screen, and it'd be a crime to not continue the series's rich mythology. Speaking of which....stay through the first section of credits. A-
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