GREEN LANTERN
3 out of 5 stars

“in brightest day, in blackest night / no evil shall escape my sight / let all who worship evil’s might / beware my power, green lantern’s light!”
– hal jordan

ryan reynolds sure looks good in green... ;)

if you don’t know the story of hal jordan AKA the green lantern... hal jordan (reynolds) is a fighter pilot for ferris aircraft, and he’s picked to do a test simulation against ferris aircraft’s best fighter jets as a demo for a u.s. general in charge of military acquisitions, along with senator hammond. it doesn’t go too well, and hal almost dies... (he ejects his seat just in time) of course, childhood friend now boss carol ferris (a serious and brunette blake lively) is mad at him for not following orders, and hal just shrugs it off... meanwhile, in a galaxy far far away, abin-sur, a green lantern, is attacked on his spaceship by the evil fear-loving entity parallax, and he seeks refuge towards earth. (but not before he’s attacked by parallax in the chest) once abin-sur crash lands on earth, he asks his green ring to seek out his successor, and of course, it finds...hal jordan, and brings hal to him via a great ball of green energy! abin-sur dies, and before his death, he tells hal to activate the lantern with the ring and to recite the oath of the green lantern corps. OF COURSE, to spice things up even more, hector hammond (peter saarsgard), dr. of xeniology, is asked by the u.s. govt to perform an autopsy on the purple alien AKA abin-sur. but he soon gets infected by the yellow substance from abin-sur’s wound, and this turns him into a very nasty “person”...

the whole movie is really over the top with all the special effects and crazy flight sequences, but it’s tolerable and entertaining. it’s obviously NOT x-men: first class, but it gets a passing grade for those wanting a good action flick for the summer... to me, it’s more of a 2+, but peter saarsgard makes this one a 3 due to his awesome performance as creepy/volatile/easily corruptable hector hammond. BRAVO! now, could we transfer some of that to ryan? and possibly get someone more age appropriate for the role of carol ferris? :P