Tag Archives: Oa

In Case You Missed It Review: Green Lantern

I’m a Green Lantern fan. I’m not one of those from the beginning Lantern fans, I’m talking the Geoff Johns era Lantern fan. That would probably make a whole bunch of geeks out there vomit in revulsion because they don’t like the Geoff Johns era because it made Green Lantern relevant after they blindly followed his lameness throughout the decades before. But that’s neither here nor there, as a Lantern fan (a pretty big one in my opinion) I felt it only proper that I review the recent Ryan Reynolds starring film. I was very excited after the second trailer came out for the flick, but once I missed it the first week in theaters the critics and my colleague Dr. Kronner had already done the damage. The movie was lambasted as a piece of crap that failed at every turn. Dr. Kronner had a more reasonable assessment but he stopped short of calling it awesome or even good. Well I’ve watched the Blu-Ray disc this very night and let me tell you: This movie sucks major arse, especially if you’re a Green Lantern fan. Casual movie goers would enjoy it and that’s about it, which explains it’s heartless box office performance.

*SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY*

So for those of you who do not know, the movie is about an ancient species of beings called the Guardians who have harnessed the green energy of will power and created an intergalactic force of peacekeepers to maintain justice throughout the space sectors of the galaxy. The peacekeepers wear rings imbued with the green energy of will power and the wearer can make any construct they can imagine to serve and protect those in need. Sounds great right? Yes, in theory it does and in the comics it is awesome but this movie really just falls flat and makes the mistake of spending far too much time on Earth and not in the galaxy showing us what the Lanterns can do.

Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan I could live with. He was wise cracking and humorous at times but nothing too over the top for Mr. “I like to wear no shirt” Reynolds. But as for the costume he wore, in particular the mask, I found myself laughing out loud at it in certain scenes. I still can’t figure out if the laughter was a confused laughter because I should have been crying at what a joke they had made of the Green Lantern Hal Jordan.

Hurr Durr Durr

It’s a shame because the movie did have some potential in many ways. The scenes on Oa and elsewhere in the galaxy were very well done and made up the best parts of the movie. As I said before there just wasn’t enough time allotted to said parts. Kilowog, Tomar Re, Sinestro and the Guardians all looked fantastic as well. Mark Strong did a fine job as the veteran lantern Sinestro who starts off as a mentor to Hal Jordan before eventually turning into his greatest nemesis. The one issue I had was with Parallax and it was not because they changed up his origin and character quite a bit. It was because he basically looked like a squirming pile of burning dog shit. Watch the movie if you want to see what that might look like on screen.

Instead of more Oa and space action we are served with a generic romance between Hal Jordan and fellow pilot Carol Ferris, played by Blake Lively. Lively is definitely a very, very hot slice of pizza but she really doesn’t have much of an onscreen presence. However, that doesn’t mean I’m against a sequel where there is a possibility of her being in the uniform of a Star Sapphire.

Blake Lively would look great.

The other bit of Earth story we get is the completely pointless one of Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard. Hector is a childhood friend of Carol and Hal who is more of a bookworm who gains telekinetic powers from a connection with Parallax; this again is for no good reason other than to have someone for Hal to fight on Earth. I give props to DC and the studio for making Hammond, a lesser known Lantern foe the main villain besides Parallax to face off against Hal, but unfortunately most of the scenes with him made me laugh. And I assure you that was not their intent.

Huh huh… I farted.

His gargantuan cranium looked sillier than it does in the comics and he had a propensity for screaming about anything and everything that brought an amused smile to my face. This would be the sort of smile I get when I see a drunken idiot in a bar trying to fight everyone in sight and making a complete ass of themselves. Epic fail Mr. Hammond. Epic fail. But seriously big ups to the literal roast of Tim Robbins, because that was entertaining for about ten seconds.

Holy Smokes!

Overall I have to give the movie a 2 out of 5 bears. It would have been a 1 out of 5, but since Ms. Lively was looking so superbly elegant in the movie I’ll bump it up. The other point would be for the scenes not taking place on Earth because they looked pretty, especially on Blu-Ray.

Otherwise the movie just didn’t have good enough pacing or anything on Earth worthy enough to care about. Hal’s fear wasn’t touched upon nearly enough except in a silly flashback seen from viewpoints of footage we had seen about fifteen minutes previously and a couple parts that took him two seconds to decide “I’m not afraid. Let’s party”.

I’ loooooooove screamin’!

A sequel is definitely most welcome, granted they work on focusing it more in the galaxy at large instead of boring old Earth. With Sinestro utilizing the yellow ring of fear at the end that would make for a good set up for a third film if he is exiled from the Green Lantern Corps by the end of the second movie. And if they need a villain that doesn’t suck as hard as Hector Hammond for the sequel I suggest they use Artrocitus and his Red Lanterns due to his history with the Guardians… and because they are totally bad ass.

Green Lantern: TAS Review – Episode 1 & 2 ‘Beware My Power’

DC Comics track record when it comes to animation has been great. They continually blow the competition out of the water, and it goes back a long time. Marvel has had a few successes, but its rare for a Marvel show to last more than 2 seasons, where its rare for a DC show to be canceled before 4. Everybody remembers Super Friends, and Batman: The Animated Series is widely considered to be the definitive Batman series.

So with the new Green Lantern cartoon sharing the title of The Animated Series, it shows a certain confidence by the DC Universe team in their newest show. And it couldn’t happen at a better time. Green Lantern has been reaching new levels of popularity recently, but has never had an animated series devoted strictly to him. When the CG series was announced there was a lot of debate over the animation, but more were cautiously optimistic than negatively opposed. Well, the wait is over.

Continue reading Green Lantern: TAS Review – Episode 1 & 2 ‘Beware My Power’

DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #1 – New 52!

Well it looks as if the Green Lantern comics will be occurring in the same continuity it left off from during War of the Green Lanterns. (Just like Red Lanterns) When we last left the Green Lantern Corps, things were not going so great. Hal Jordan was relieved of duty and his ring by the Guardians and Sinestro was chosen by a green power ring. After the War and the on the verge of an uprising over Sinestro having a ring, all Lanterns have returned to their respective sectors and Sinestro is still under the jurisdiction of the Guardians.

The issue starts with those events still lingering. With Sinestro the Guardians had Sinestro say the oath of the green and then releasing him and ordering him to go and protect his home planet of Korugar. They hope for redemption for this scumbag Sinestro, something I’m not very keen on. To me, Sinestro has done a little too much damage and caused the countless deaths of others all in his so called quest to bring order. Good job doing that with a corps made up of baby snatchers (Kryb) and overgrown psychos. (Arkillo) Will Sinestro have proved me wrong at the end of this issue? Is he truly a green lantern again?

Hal is most definitely doing a lot worse. He’s broke, with bad credit and no car. THE GREEN LANTERN HAS NO CAR!!!! This is just humiliating. And to top it off, Carol Ferris won’t even hire him back as a pilot. But don’t count him out yet, because by the end of this issue it seems that most unexpected person may be able to get him back into the superhero game somehow.

I give this issue a 4 out 5 power rings.

Mahnke’s art is great as always and Johns has basically picked up right where he left off with the Lantern storyline. Readers of the new 52 who are long time readers of DC material will more than likely be most comfortable with the Green Lantern titles since there are no questions of which timeline or continuity these stories are coming from. Readers who are just jumping on? They’re going to not have such as easy time. Stay tuned for the Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 and Green Lantern Corps #1! Also check out my Red Lanterns #1 review!

Hero Express – ‘Green Lantern 2’, ‘Man of Steel’ Casting, and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Set Photos

Welcome to Hero Express, your one-stop shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

This is the Hero Express for June 27, 2011:

Continue reading Hero Express – ‘Green Lantern 2’, ‘Man of Steel’ Casting, and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Set Photos

DC Comic Review: War of the Green Lanterns – Part Six

Part six: Emerald Warriors #9

The War of the Green Lanterns has been wonderful, to say the least. It’s been very hard on our heroes who have been on the run since the beginning. And to make it worse it’s from their own fellow corpsmen! After leaving Hal, Guy, Kyle and John last issue they were in the middle of a brawl with the rogue green lanterns and Mogo showed up!

This issue picks up with the Lanterns making a run for it because let’s face it; Mogo is a freakin’ planet! They find a reprieve underground as they plan their next move.

Continue reading DC Comic Review: War of the Green Lanterns – Part Six

DC Comic Review: War of The Green Lanterns – Parts Four & Five

The War of the Green Lanterns continues this week with two parts being released today! I’m loving this! (is that McDonald’s catch phrase?)

Green Lantern #65 – Part Four

This issue seemed like an incredibly fast read. It seems a little rushed to move the story along, but it gets the characters where they need to be and by the end of the issue I was super excited for Part Five. If the cover is of any indication for what’s next….

Whoa...

If that picture wasn’t spoiler enough then by all means read on…

Continue reading DC Comic Review: War of The Green Lanterns – Parts Four & Five

Green Lantern Preview: Wonder Con 2011

Wonder Con has brought us quite a collection of geek tidbits this year. None of them quite stack up to the spectacular four-minute preview of the forthcoming Green Lantern movie. After watch the preview I was awestruck. It seemed as if they got everything right or at least looking comparable to the comics. Abin Sur and Sinestro looked like their comic counterparts, while Oa and it’s inhabitants were simply beautiful in their scale and variety.

We finally were able to get a good look at Tomar Re and plenty of other Green Lanterns including Kilowog! Before reading on you should just watch the footage already!

Not only do we get to see Tomar Re, we get to hear him speak with the voice talent of Geoffery Rush after it was announced several days ago. We still didn’t get to hear Kilowog speak but I was just satisfied to get another glimpse of him. Mark Strong seems to be doing a stellar performance as Sinestro giving an inspirational speech to a group of gathered Lanterns and it looks as if Parallax will play a large part in the movie.

If I was skeptical at all about this movie before, then it has all been wiped away by this preview. Even my skepticism of Ryan Reynold’s playing Hal Jordan has abated after seeing him in the preview. His costume looked a lot better when Jordan is in action and his humor wasn’t over the top. My favorite part was when his ring had created a replica of a mini-gun that Hal was unleashing on something.

Being a big fan of the Green Lantern comics and Sci-Fi movies, this movie has jumped past Thor and Captain America as my must see comic movie this year. It will be released on June 17th, 2011.

DC Comic Review: War of the Green Lanterns – Part 3; Emerald Warriors #8

The War of the Green Lanterns rages on this week in Emerald Warriors #8, featuring the ‘love him or hate him’ Green Lantern Guy Gardner. I personally used to hate him, and nothing was better than the time Batman decked him in the face.

Now I see Guy Gardner as the one who balances out the personalities of his fellow Earth Green Lanterns. He is the one who will get down and dirty if things need to get done when the stoic John Stewart, good-hearted Kyle Rayner and noble Hal Jordan can’t.

Continue reading DC Comic Review: War of the Green Lanterns – Part 3; Emerald Warriors #8

DC Comic Review: War of The Green Lanterns Begins – Parts 1 & 2

*Please beware of spoilers*

Green Lantern #64-War of the Green Lanterns Pt. 1

It’s here! The newest Green Lantern event! I’m hoping this one is at least almost as good as Blackest Night, and on par with the Sinestro Corps War. And let me tell ya, the first part did not disappoint. Not one bit! In the prologue for War of the Green Lanterns we learn that Krona, a member of the Guardians’ species, and antagonist of the story, was once to be inducted onto the council of the Guardians. And he might still be there if not for his insistence that emotion is a necessary part of being a Guardian, and life for that matter. Because of this he draws the ire of the council and is arrested. It was unclear if he escaped, but the ring leader’s of each emotion are shown visions of Krona’s past where he reprogrammed the Manhunters to turn on the Guardians, and annihilate a whole sector. This sector as it turns out was the homeworld of Atrocitus, the leader of the Red Lanterns who vows vengeance against Krona and those who stand in his way.

Continue reading DC Comic Review: War of The Green Lanterns Begins – Parts 1 & 2