Starting with the Caveat That I am coming from a comic collectors view and know the source material very well. Having gotten this out of the way I thought it was a pretty good super hero movie. Not great. Hal Jordan is a test pilot that gets picked to wear the ring of power by a dying alien Abin Sur. I thought Ryan Reynolds looked the part of Hal Jordan, Earths first Green Lantern, but I thought there were too many times when he went back to his comic roots. Some examples of this were when he was trying to get the power ring to work for the first time. He starts by reciting his own version of the Pledge of Allegiance, and goes through the usual He-Man references as well as others. This has been used so many times in other movies and I thought it was a bit much here. I thought once he got through that, the action sequences were well done. The constructs created by the ring were great. The Lanterns were not just shooting green light at their enemies. I thought Kilowog and Tomer-Re were well done.
The other Lanterns I thought were done well. Mark Strong was excellent as Sinestro, as well as Kilowog. They looked exactly as I would have imagined them if they were real. Oa and the Guardians were done well. My biggest complaints are about who they picked as the main villains. Hector Hammond and Parallax. I thought with the recent Sinestro War that ran through the comics would have made a really good story for a movie and hopefully now that they have gotten the origin story out of the way and with the Easter Egg in the movie at the end of the credits will lead into that. Sinestro was always my favorite Green Lantern enemy. To wrap up I think for comic fans they were kind of left wanting for a better story. The visuals I would rate an A. Story C so I would average it out to a B.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Comics and stuff
I have went around and around about what this blog was going to be about. I wanted to write about something I was passionate about. So I put on my nerd glasses and decided to write about comics and how I got into them.
I have been collecting comics for over twenty five years and have the long boxes to prove it much to my wifes chagrin. My first exposure to comics was at a book fair at my elementary school. I got a book with the first five or six issues of the New Teen Titans written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Perez. I was drawn to the cover that had robin surrounded by a bunch of characters that I did not know. Robin was and is one of my favorite comic characters. He was someone as a kid I could identify with. He was around my age, had not powers, and cracked jokes while cracking the bad guys heads. I could see myself as him. So seeing him I was sold.
Cracking open the book and seeing the amazing art of Perez and the new characters created by Perez and Wolfman blew me away. The mysterious Raven, Kid Flash, who if I had a superpower super speed would be it. Along with Changeling, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, and Starfire. All great characters. They had great powers but were flawed. Kid Flash had doubts as to whether he wanted to be a superhero. Cyborg half man, half machine with a chip on his shoulder because of the circumstances that turned him that way. All characters again that I could identify with. Add to the great characters the great villians, such as Trigon, Ravens demonic father. Deathstroke the terminator the mercenary with a grudge that ended up actually capturing all of the Titans except for Robin. Great stories. They were part of my childhood and teenage years. They provided an escape. I was the typical awkward kid without many friends so comics were my escape.
Eventually my comic collecting turned to the Claremont X-Men of the 80's, Detective Comics, The embarrasing Justice League International, and other JLA titles. As I got older I got into the Sandman Comics by Neal Gaiman. This was one of the first comics that I had read that showed that comics were not just for kids but adults as well. The Spider-Man titles were also on my pull list at the local comic shop. Again someone I could identify with. Who does not with they were bitten by a radioactive spider? Eventually I moved to Ultimate Spider-Man, The walking Dead, and still had the Titans comics on pull. Even though they have been terrible lately. I mean Deathstroke leading a team of Titans? Even that pushes my suspension of disbelief. But I still love comics.
I went to the Detroit Comic Con a few weekends ago. I have to say, comic creaters are the coolest and most down to earth people around. I got a sketch by Angel Medina who did the art on the Adam Warlok comics of the 90's as well as others. He did not know me from Adam yet talked to me for at least 15 minutes. He was really cool.
Now DC the company that creates some of my most beloved comics is on the precipice of either screwing up everything or creating something great by rebooting 52 comics back to issue number one issues. This includes the Iconic Action Comics and Detective comics. We shall see how this goes. One of afformentioned cool comic creators is Gail Simone who is involved with the reboots has been twittering nonstop about the transition. I think it has helped put people a little at ease. At least I know it has me. So I will at leat give it the benefit of the doubt.
I have been collecting comics for over twenty five years and have the long boxes to prove it much to my wifes chagrin. My first exposure to comics was at a book fair at my elementary school. I got a book with the first five or six issues of the New Teen Titans written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Perez. I was drawn to the cover that had robin surrounded by a bunch of characters that I did not know. Robin was and is one of my favorite comic characters. He was someone as a kid I could identify with. He was around my age, had not powers, and cracked jokes while cracking the bad guys heads. I could see myself as him. So seeing him I was sold.
Cracking open the book and seeing the amazing art of Perez and the new characters created by Perez and Wolfman blew me away. The mysterious Raven, Kid Flash, who if I had a superpower super speed would be it. Along with Changeling, Cyborg, Wonder Girl, and Starfire. All great characters. They had great powers but were flawed. Kid Flash had doubts as to whether he wanted to be a superhero. Cyborg half man, half machine with a chip on his shoulder because of the circumstances that turned him that way. All characters again that I could identify with. Add to the great characters the great villians, such as Trigon, Ravens demonic father. Deathstroke the terminator the mercenary with a grudge that ended up actually capturing all of the Titans except for Robin. Great stories. They were part of my childhood and teenage years. They provided an escape. I was the typical awkward kid without many friends so comics were my escape.
Eventually my comic collecting turned to the Claremont X-Men of the 80's, Detective Comics, The embarrasing Justice League International, and other JLA titles. As I got older I got into the Sandman Comics by Neal Gaiman. This was one of the first comics that I had read that showed that comics were not just for kids but adults as well. The Spider-Man titles were also on my pull list at the local comic shop. Again someone I could identify with. Who does not with they were bitten by a radioactive spider? Eventually I moved to Ultimate Spider-Man, The walking Dead, and still had the Titans comics on pull. Even though they have been terrible lately. I mean Deathstroke leading a team of Titans? Even that pushes my suspension of disbelief. But I still love comics.
I went to the Detroit Comic Con a few weekends ago. I have to say, comic creaters are the coolest and most down to earth people around. I got a sketch by Angel Medina who did the art on the Adam Warlok comics of the 90's as well as others. He did not know me from Adam yet talked to me for at least 15 minutes. He was really cool.
Now DC the company that creates some of my most beloved comics is on the precipice of either screwing up everything or creating something great by rebooting 52 comics back to issue number one issues. This includes the Iconic Action Comics and Detective comics. We shall see how this goes. One of afformentioned cool comic creators is Gail Simone who is involved with the reboots has been twittering nonstop about the transition. I think it has helped put people a little at ease. At least I know it has me. So I will at leat give it the benefit of the doubt.
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