I grew up watching cartoons on TV including the Justice League. I always thought each super hero brought their own "cool" powers to the group and Green Lantern was no exception. He could make anything he could think of appear to help him battle evil. I was happy to see this hero was being brought to the big screen in a live action movie and knew I wanted to see it when Ryan Reynolds was cast as Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern (I like him in other movies and knew he'd make a great Green Lantern). Last night I went to see the new movie and here's my review...(spoiler alert)

Having never read the comic books, I did some background work by getting a synopsis of the birth of the Green Lantern and the corps from a mini-book that was included in the box with a toy light up green lantern ring (yes, I AM that geeky) which is a couple sizes too small for me it turns out. I had seen the trailers for the new movie and was excited to go see it. I have heard some mixed reviews as the movie made it's official "green lantern carpet" premier Wednesday but decided I would go see it and make my own decision. The movie does a great job covering the background of how the Green Lantern Corps came into being and what it represents, an intergalactic police force of a sort. We meet Hal Jordan and find out he's a guy who lives recklessly and has the hots for the boss's daughter. Fortunately, she is into him too. There are some good "Dog fighting" scenes in the beginning where we get to see what Hal does well at, flying. Hal almost gets himself killed and manages to destroy a brand new fighter plane in the process, which at first the boss isn't too thrilled about. Some co-workers end up losing their job over the incident and come back to haunt Hal a little later on. Unbeknownst to Hal, one of the Corps finest warriors Abin Sur has been mortally wounded by the evil Parallax and has crash landed on Earth. Abin Sur tells his ring to seek out and choose well a replacement for him as he is near death. The ring's emerald energy finds Hal and whisks him away to meet with Abin Sur. When they do, Hal wants to save Abin Sur's life but Abin Sur stops him and tries to tell him what he can in his last breaths about what he is getting himself into thanks to the ring's choice. Hal gets some of it, enough to know he needs the lantern that's still back in Abin Sur's spaceship. Hal's friend picks him up and they go back to Hal's place. There's a funny scene where Hal is trying to figure out how to make the ring/lantern work. Abin Sur said to say the oath when recharging the ring but Hal has no idea what that oath is, he starts saying all kinds of funny oaths and finally the lantern decides to help him out a bit, zaps Hal and Hal starts saying "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, green lantern's light" and then realizes that is what he's supposed to say. He goes off to Oa a couple times after that and learns what the Corps is all about and even gets some boot camp training with a couple other lanterns including Sinestro. Hal learns about what it takes to be good at being a lantern and that Sinestro doesn't think he can cut it. Hal thinks he's right and heads back to Earth. It's only after needing to use his power to save Carol Ferris (the boss's daughter) and a Senator's life does he realize he may be cut out after all. He knows there is an evil causing problems on Earth and goes to the Corps for help. They don't seem to buy it that he's cut out for this nor that Earth is worth their time. They are more concerned with preparing for Parallax's eventual attack of Oa. Hal heads back to fight Parallax himself. He does battle with Parallax which is quite epic and lures Parallax toward a star knowing that the bigger you are, the easier gravity like that will draw you in and crush you. His plan works and Hal is finally accpted by the Corps. On a side note, Sinestro pleads with the guardians to use yellow energy (fear) against Parallax and is convincing enough to get the guardians to make a yellow power ring which at the end, if you stay long enough, you get to see him put it on and feel the power of fear... a good jumping off point for Green Lantern II. All in all, I would say this was a good, funny, action packed film with some good acting and manages to squeeze a lot of story-line into a single film. I think this is a great start to a string of sequels and would go see it again. A solid 4.5/5 stars.

I've had and enjoyed my Cr-48 "Chromebook" now for a few months and there's still one nagging problem with it. You can't stream Netflix on it! Google and Netflix have been working on this however at the time of this blog entry, I am still met with the message shown here that it's still not ready. This is something that should be remedied before the first Chromebooks go on sale officially or else caveat emptor.