Caught a showing of the Green Lantern movie on Friday. I found it to be rather enjoyable all in all. Some elements of the movie were to be expected, as the movie was set in its own sub continuity, apart from the rest of the DC universe. I have always thought it odd when these stand-alone comic book movies are attempted. While the character and the story do need to be able to stand up for themselves well, displacing it all from the established canon is very peculiar. Surely they do not think people would not recognize references to Superman, Batman or the other superheroes, even if they were not appearing in this film?
Ryan Reynolds made for a decent enough Hal Jordan. Hal was always kind of a nut after all, especially true 'back in the day' when he first took up the ring. A good blend of serious and frivolous all in all. I expect his portrayal of Hal will only improve as the other movies in the series are produced.
Mark Strong performed superbly as Sinestro. Very well done. Good choice of actors here as Mr. Strong (heh) has shown in his other movies up until this point. My only complaint, which can truthfully only be addressed by the next movie in the series, is there was nothing to show the reason why Sinestro stole the Yellow Ring at the end of the movie.
For an isolated movie, many of the plot element changes were logical enough ones. Without the existence of much of the rest of the DC universe (save for the spacy Lantern bits) the changes to Paralax and so forth made a bit of sense. I do not think there was quite enough reasoning behind why the Guardians chose to tap into the Yellow power of Fear originally, that part of the movie could have used some beefing up.
An enjoyable movie. I look forward to its inevitable sequels... if it does well enough at the theaters of course.
