Better Late Than Never: Green Lantern (2011) & New Trailers

This is the first of many entries of a new series entitled Better Late Than Never. This will be the chance of covering films seen in theaters after their original releases. These three mini-reviews should be enough to give readers an overview of what to expect to see if they decide to give up their hard-earned cash to check out the likes of Emma Roberts (Reviews for both The Art of Getting By and Scream 4 coming soon) and Ryan Reynolds. Speaking of these stars, let's get things rolling with the most talked comic book film failing to gain momentum critically: Green Lantern.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a jet fighter pilot who's taken to the planet Oa after being given a ring and magic lantern worn by a deceased member of the Green Lantern Corp. Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison). Chosen because he is one without fear, and being the first human to be a part of said Corp., he has to face off against two foes Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), a scientist whose past made him the chosen candidate to examine Abin Sur's body. He's later affected by the remains of Abin Sur's murderer as well as formidable foe against the other Green Lanterns Parallax (voiced by Clancy Brown) and creates danger using his thoughts to put other people in danger such as his father and Hal's love interest Carol (Blake Lively). To fight off against Hammond and Parallax, Hal goes under training with Tomar Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush), Kilowog (voiced by Michael Clark Duncan) and Sinestro (Mark Strong) which goes by so fast, it's unbelievable that Hal's able to swoop in to save the day. On the positive side, there were a few uses of the powers from both Hal and Hector that made me smile. I felt the Hector used his powers much better than Hal. The film almost slid into being a kids' film with Hal interacting with his nephew early in the film, but it steers back to being one for all audiences yet will lose faithful readers of the comic books early on due to too much time being spent on Earth with little time spent on Oa, the short battle of Green Lantern Corp. vs. Parallax, and Sinestro's solution to defeating Parallax with an item set up to never be used anytime in the film and set to be sequel bait. The rest of the following notes below go into detail about what went wrong with the film.

I couldn't believe Blake Lively as Carol as a hardcore, straight-faced woman. I couldn't feel any love between her and Hal and wished that some of their scenes such as their little conversation turned dance at the bar could have been left on the cutting room floor.

On the topic of battles, what was with the three random guys attacking Hal? First of all, there wasn't a lead-in and no one in the audience knew about who was getting fired other than the possibility of Hal even though Carol saved him by giving him a lighter punishment. Second, it almost made me remind myself of the random thugs attacking Mary Jane before Our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to save her in Spider-Man (2002).

Hector having daddy issues? What? This might ring true in the comics, but the family drama should have been left out of the film. Speaking of family drama, I understand that Hal's nephew Jacob didn't want him to get hurt after testing out the jet, but the interaction between the two also should have been cut.

Now that I think about it, why is the film filled with SO many scenes that were unfit for the film? I'm sorry, but less family scenes, stronger romance angle, better uses for the Green Lantern ring, and a better villain (Sinestro) than the brother of Galactus of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

After being reminded of Hal's training in The Cinema Snob's review of the film, I remember the Captain America reference of Hal being hit by a shield reminiscent of the Cap's during his battle with Sinestro. Really? Let's make it clear that Marvel has 1-up'ed their game with a triple threat while DC Comics has this clunker.

When Hal's 'best friend' came to pick him up after Hal received the ring, Abin Sur's body disappears only for it to reappear in the lab when Hector was asked to investigate it. 

Summary of Green Lantern: There's so much that went wrong with the film that while it is okay, it's not going to be a film to be seen over and over again. If a sequel's made, it has to be MUCH better than this.

Moving away from this film, there are two new trailers that have been released today (not counting The Muppets which debuted last week. That review will come later.) For those who are ready to prove that they're not pussies, Shrek's feline friend who's good with a cutlass sword is back in his own film. This adventure sets up the character and his so-called legend before being meeting with the famous ogre in Shrek II. Here's the first full-length trailer which, personally, didn't make me laugh but will be enough for others to want to check it out this November:

 Second trailer is the blatant advertising for the re-release of Titanic this time in the oversaturated  3D. Add in The Chipmunks and we have an instant classic. Seriously, why is Fox waiting this long to advertise this film? This schtick might have worked when it came time to advertise X-Men: First Class, but it's getting old. I'm hoping that this will mark the end of The Chipmunk craze. I'm ready to no longer deal with them remaking popular songs for the next few decades.