GREEN LANTERN 3D -- (7)

GREEN LANTERN gets a 7 for being cool-looking.

So my sister Caroline is awesome and a world-class schmoozer and she got me advance tickets to see GREEN LANTERN. There was a whole section reserved in the middle of the theater for the members of the press and the rest of us hoi polloi  were reminded before the film started to be quiet and let the press folks work.  So, feeling all fancy-like, I put on my 3D glasses and watched the movie.

How can I describe it?  Imagine for a moment that I am this character:

Now pretend that every fan boy/comic book guy/male in the universe is this character:

Now, watch this video:

And that, my friends, is how I felt about GREEN LANTERN.   That also is how everyone else will react when they hear me say "It's okay!"

Obviously I am not the ideal person to review this movie.  And it's not like I didn't want to like it.  I know very well that Green Lantern is THE comic book for everyone who likes comic books.  But it's not easily accessed.  I have in the past asked several Green Lantern dudes where to start reading and they all stammer like I walked in on them watching the 6th season of LOST and asked what the show was about. I was hoping for a beginning point in the mythology so I could learn what the fuss was.

GREEN LANTERN explains things very well.  As it turns out there's a lot of space and aliens and drone fighter jets but it's really about being an American in the '60's. (Which is when the Jordan/Green Lantern series started.)  It's the story of Hal Jordan being told he is a space cop with unlimited power who's job it is to protect a ridiculous amount of territory right about the time the U.S. started sending "advisers" into Vietnam.  It's believing the United Nations is a great idea even if you are gonna do all the work yourself.  It's pretending all of this is fine and nuclear weapons don't scare you to death.  

Yeah... maybe now is a good time for GREEN LANTERN to show up. And if we have a strong enough will, a big enough imagination, limitless energy, an awesome girlfriend like Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) then everything can be "okay."