Written by Greg Berlanti & Michael Green & Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg Directed by Martin Campbell Running Time: 1:54 Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action. B-

Green Lantern was a decent superhero movie that had all the right pieces, but they just weren't put together correctly.

Hal Jordan is a world-class test pilot with nerves of steel but a hidden fear inside from the day his father died in a plane crash. Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, a group of protectors known as the Green Lantern Corps is under fire from an enemy known as Parallax which feeds on fear. When the toughest of the Green Lanterns is attacked by Parallax, he crash lands on Earth and in his dying breath, gives the Green Lantern ring to Hal. Confused and a little afraid, Hal visit the planet Oa and meets the other Green Lanterns, but turns his back on them when he feels he isn't up to the challenge. Back on Earth, Parallax has seeped inside the scientist Hector Hammond, turning him into a mind control freak. Together, Hector and Parallax will try and destroy Earth, before Parallax turns his sites on Oa. Will Hal Jordan face his fears and come to the rescue of the planet? Or are we all doomed?

I don't know much about the character of the Green Lantern, so whether this is accurate to the mythology, I can't say. But the idea of the character is rather cool so I was looking forward to the movie. Early trailers left me feeling a little off because they simply didn't look good. Later trailers started to play up more on the action and I was starting to warm up to the movie and all in all it wasn't a bad movie, it just didn't blow me away. You know that feeling you had the first time you saw The Dark Knight or Iron Man? Neither Green Lantern nor last month's Thor had that. There was some excitement over the characters, there were some cool scenes, but there wasn't that feeling that this was an event. That this was something that you'd be talking about for days after seeing it and rushing to tell your friends they had to go see it. And yet the character of the Green Lantern is so cool, isn't he? The costume, the ring, the lantern, the fact that there are thousands of them. From the trailers I was worried about whether or not the movie would be over-the-top cheesy and it wasn't, but it never hit that level of cool that I was hoping for. It felt almost overly CGI'd, which I suppose is par for the course these days, but I think the thing that made movies like The Dark Knight and Iron Man stand out is because they felt like they were based in reality. And it's not just that the characters were regular people who either trained hard or paid for a metal suit, it was that the movie looked like it took place here. The biggest problem I had with Thor, and one of the issues I have with Green Lantern is that too much time is spent away from Earth, away from reality. Thor was really bad so I'll give Green Lantern some credit in that the majority of the movie took place on Earth, but when you constantly go into a world that's 100% CGI you lose that connection. I'm hoping that if they make a sequel to Green Lantern, they'll base it entirely on Earth and have a simple one on one battle of good vs. evil, because those are the movies that work.

I will admit that I am a fan of Ryan Reynolds, especially in comedy. I love his sarcastic comments, I love his harried looks, I love his everyman style. Does he play a convincing Green Lantern? Eh. He tones down the sarcastic side - though there are a couple of funny lines/scenes. And he can play serious when he wants to. But for most of the movie he never felt quite right. Maybe that was the point because towards the end, especially in the final battle scene, he did start to come into his own. But it took nearly two hours for it to happen. So again, if there is a sequel, I feel like he might just feel more at ease in the role. Blake Lively has quickly become a front runner in the race for hottest woman in Hollywood. Just by looking at her, and her TV history, I keep thinking she's another throwaway CW girl, but between this movie and The Town she has shown she can definitely act. And if she's dating Leo DiCaprio, she might very well be on her way to the big time. The rest of the cast was fine enough, but this entire movie hangs on Reynolds' shoulders and as I said, for the majority of the film he never felt quite right, but he did come into his own towards the end. The visual effects were OK, but not spectacular. I felt like they could have been a lot better, though I'm wondering if this ridiculous 3D played a part in making them look bad. The 3D added virtually nothing to the film, so there's not a huge need to pay the extra money. I didn't recognize the name of the FX company so maybe next time they go to someone a bit better. The story wasn't actually bad for an intro to a superhero. It was simple and allowed us to learn the players in the saga instead of giving us a bogged down origin story where you had to follow convoluted plot lines. It's a good building block for a second film.

So overall I liked Green Lantern but it didn't blow me away. All the elements were there, but the entire movie never came together like it could have. I do feel like it's a good start and I'm hoping it does well enough for a sequel, because I feel like a second film could be great.