HUFF: Big-screen ‘Green Lantern’ rendition excites, but fails to fulfill

I'm a comic book nerd. I'm not afraid to admit that. Even more so, I'm a huge DC Comics fan. Though that's a bit of a painful statement these days with major and highly suspect reboots happening in the universe in September and Marvel's habit of kicking DC's ass at the box offices.

In spite of all that, I was pretty excited to see DC announce the Green Lantern movie last year. That excitement quickly began to dwindle, however, once more details of the project were released. The casting of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively in the two main roles was questionable at best. Neither actor fits the part of their character very well. Reynolds is too goofy to play straight-man Hal Jordan, and Lively doesn't have the fierceness necessary to bring the feisty Carol Ferris to life.

Casting aside, the plot is extremely problematic and barely coherent. The story is loosely strung together. Cramming Hector Hammond, Parallax and Hal's origin into one movie seemed to be a stretch. Not to mention the terrible flashback scenes that are awkwardly inserted in an attempt to show Hal's backstory.

His family dynamic and history as a pilot are extremely important to his character but aren't handled with the care they deserve. Hal comes off as selfish and full of himself, which are definitely two things he is not.

One of the major flaws of this story is that we, as an audience, are never really shown why Hal was chosen to be a Green Lantern. One of the things I love about GLs is that they are all so brave and noble. They do amazing things and beat insurmountable odds to save their sectors. GLs have the ability to overcome great fear, but the first time we see Hal in such a situation, which also happens right before he gets his ring, he chokes and crashes his airplane because of a ill-timed flashback.

There is also the issue of the CGI suit. There are points throughout the movie where it doesn't look half bad, and even I will admit that CGI is probably the best way to do the suit for this movie. But there are still many scenes where it looks terrible, most notably in many of his flying scenes, which is unfortunate because flying through space is a huge part of GL culture.

Despite the fact that the movie has major flaws, there is still something irresistible to me about seeing "Green Lantern" on the big screen. There are pieces of how great "Green Lantern" can be speckled throughout the movie.

The creepy voyeurism of Hector Hammond and the frothy, cool demeanor of Sinestro hit their comic book counterparts dead on. And the shots on Oa with glimpses of other Lanterns that are clearly characters from the comic books was a fan service that I very much appreciated. Even Reynolds portrays some classic Hal mannerisms and lines that shouldn't be ignored. Unfortunately, these instances are few and far between and fail to save the movie as a whole.

So no, Green Lantern was not all I hoped it could be. But as a fan of the comics, I'm just excited to see something resembling my favorite emerald warrior on the silver screen, which is more than what most fans of DC characters who aren't Batman or Superman can say.

beahuff@dailynebraskan.com