Green with mediocrity

So I finally saw "Green Lantern" the other night. Where to begin?

Let me start by saying that I didn't hate it - I think some of the reviews it's been getting have been overly harsh. That said, it is thoroughly predictable and doesn't offer anything new or exciting.

My main problem with it(as I knew it would be) is the over-the-top CGI. It got to the point when watching him breathe was really annoying. And when you're getting annoyed at the sight of a CGI character's unrealistic breathing, then there's something wrong with the film.

And what's wrong with the film is that it's actually quite boring. Beyond the predictable story-arc of the main character, there's the manner in which he kills the final boss, which is so telegraphed I actually groaned when he did it. Plus the mid-credits "sting" happened EXACTLY how I had just told my friend it would. Now obviously, making a by-the-numbers superhero movie is inherently going to be predictable, but after we've reached the genre-defining heights of Iron Man and The Dark Knight I've just come to expect some originality in these films.

Ryan Reynolds makes for strong lead as the Emerald Avenger, but I do think that part of his star power is also part of his problem - I always feel like I'm watching Ryan Reynolds and never the character he's playing. Blake Lively does her best to flesh out an extraordinarily one-dimensional character, and at least manages to give Carol Ferris a little of the feistiness that Lively displayed in The Town. Her and Reynolds have absolutely no chemistry though, which I'm reliably informed (by Joey from Friends) mean that they're "doing it" in real life.

Peter Sarsgaard is great as Hector Hammond, although he portrays his downfall so well that you're feeling sorry for him by the time he's in full-on villain mode. Mark Strong gives a -ahem- strong performance as Sinestro, making him just arrogant enough that if we do get to GL2 we'll believe his descent into villainy. Angela Bassett turning up as Amanda Waller suggests that if they do end up making some more of these "second tier" DC hero movies, then they may be a bigger over-arching universe. Let's face it, DC really need to catch up with Marvel in that respect.

There were some high points to the film. The first training battle between Kilowog/Jordan/Sinestro is entertaining and the only time where they fully realise the potential of what the power rings can do. Also (and this may be a British thing) but the guy who play's Jordan's best mate looks just like Moss from the IT Crowd (not Richard Ayoade, but the character Moss), which meant that whenever he was on screen I kept expecting him to say "I came here to drink milk and kick ass. And I've just finished my milk." Alas, that doesn't happen.

So overall, it's not really that good. I hope it does well though, as I think DC are using this as the watermark for bringing other characters like The Flash or Wonder Woman to the big screen. Which I really hope they do. There's only so many times that you can reboot Batman and Superman before I'll stop watching.

Ah, who am I kidding?