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“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!”
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Me, my wife and my son watched the Green Lantern movie a few days ago. I really like movies of this type. Perhaps I still haven’t outgrown this kid stuff about superheroes and the like. My son of course is a Green Lantern fanatic. The first time he watched the Justice League series, he made Green Lantern his idol, not Superman. Superman’s not my favorite either. It’s Batman. My wife? None of the above. She just watched with us because there were no other movies in the other 3 cinemas that she liked.
The other superhero my son liked is Ben Ten. If you recall, Ben Ten also wears green. I don’t know what’s with this green stuff that my son likes. The Green Lanterns think green is the color of courage. Me? First thing I think when green is involved is money.
Green Lantern The Movie
I didn’t know much about Green Lantens’ history so I was kinda surprised to see Hal Jordan instead of John Stewart. Turns out Hal Jordan was the very first human Green Lantern and John is third.
Playing as the very first human Green Lantern is Richard Reynolds (and Blake Lively plays Carol). I haven’t read the original comic books about Hal Jordan so I couldn’t exactly tell if Reynolds fits perfectly as Hal Jordan. So far, I would say Reynolds plays the role cool enough. And that’s coming from a movie-goer, not a movie critic. And I really think people who want to check out a movie before watching it should read reviews made by ordinary movie watchers instead of reviews made by movie critics. Critics sometimes waste too much time on the technical side of a movie instead of just summing up the movie’s fun value to the general movie watching population. This is the reason why, if ever I do, I read the reviews only after I’ve watched the movie because if I do it the other way around, my movie experience is bound to be ruined.
Knowing Reynolds, I kept hoping he’d pour forth more of his brand of humor throughout the movie. I think he held himself at bay most of the time though. But wherever he displayed his funny antics in the movie, I liked it a lot. Then again, had he gone full throttle with his humor, the movie might turn into a comedy movie instead of the kind we want for such a superhero.
Now, my son is already babbling about the next Green Lantern movie. He talks about Sinestro and his new yellow ring. And he hopes to see John Stewart the next time around. Perhaps a movie of the War of the Green Lanterns would be very interesting. We’d be seeing both Hal and John there.
Should you watch it? Hell, why not? If you watch movies like Batman, Superman, etc., go ahead and watch the Green Lantern movie. Even if you’re not a fan of the guy (the superhero), I think you’ll still find the movie entertaining. Let go of any expectations and just connect with the kid in you.
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Powers of the Green Lantern Ring
- Animating: A Green Lantern can will things to move how he wants.
- Artificial Intelligence: Every ring has a connection to the Main Battery on Oa, which taps into an artificial intelligence. It acts as an “on-board computer,” telling the wearer what they need to know. It can either respond out loud, or silently directly to the wearer’s mind. The AI contains a large database of information that may be crucial to a Lantern’s success. The ring also translates nearly every language to and from the wearer (though they have difficulty translating profanity), which is why the Corps can communicate with each other. When the bearer of a Green Lantern ring dies, the ring will seek out a suitable replacement for their sector. The AI can be used to play a holographic playback sequence complete with colors across the spectrum based on information in memory banks. The ring can dictate when to pause or stop the playback should an interruption arise where the Lanterns undivided attention is needed. The AI can also alert the wielder of incoming threats or of attempts to manipulate the wielders construct by an outside party.
- Burglar Alarm: A Green Lantern can coat anything with the ring’s beam and thus, if anyone other than himself touches it, his ring will glow, alerting him to the possible theft.
- Communicator: The ring can act as a personal communicator between Green Lanterns. They have also been seen connected to telephones.
- Costumes: The wearer of the ring may create any costume they choose, based on their personal preferences, whenever they choose. The ring projects the costume over any clothes already worn at the time.
- Energy Projection: The rings can also project beams, form protective bubbles and force fields, and fire destructive blasts. Sometimes, depending on the wearer, the beams and blasts make sounds. Kilowog’s ring is one such example of blasts making sounds.
- Energy Constructs: The rings can construct anything the wearer can imagine from hard-light energy, as long as they are willing to make it. The more determined the wearer is, the more complex and intricate these things can be. The constructs can even be so complex as to form working machines, computers, and even people.
- Flight: The ring allows the wearer to fly in atmosphere or in space, and can achieve incredible speeds, moving from planet to planet in a matter of hours.
- Invisibility: The ring can make the wearer or anything else invisible.
- Matter Manipulation: A Green Lantern can use their ring to manipulate nearby matter, such as water, for various purposes such as a construct that acts like an energy construct but can block something yellow and may serve a purpose that an energy construct couldn’t perform.
- Mind Control: The wearer of the Ring can use it to plant post hypnotic commands or control a person.
- Mirages: The Ring can create mirages/illusions.
- Phasing: The ring allows the user to go through walls.
- Power Absorbing: In the JLA’s first fight with Amazo, it was GL who defeated him by drawing out all of Amazo’s powers. In Green Lantern/ Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances, Kyle defeated Parallax with SS’ power and Thanos with Oa’s energy by drawing out all that extra energy from them which made them unconscious. However he couldn’t hold all that power nor could his Ring like Hal did with Amazo’s powers, so that move isn’t often used with so much power.
- Probing: The ring can probe the Lantern’s or another person’s mind, allowing him to uncover memories or the person’s thoughts.
- Radiation: Besides light based radiation used to create the energy constructs associated with a Green Lantern, the ring can simulate various forms of radiation. One example of this is the ability to simulate the radiation of Green Kryptonite, a form of radiation that is harmful to Superman. However, this ability is no longer valid and has been retconned.
- Recharging: The rings need to be recharged by means of a Power Battery. Other large sources of power may be used to recharge a power ring, however effectiveness may vary. The internal power source of a Manhunter Android is, in effect, the same as a power battery, and can be used to recharge a power ring. During the JLA / Avengers crossover, a Cosmic Cubewas used to recharge a depleted ring, although this is not an ideal solution and is available if there are no other options.
- Ring Duplication: Each ring can duplicate itself, creating a second ring which may be given to another as a backup, for protection, or to help the lantern in times of great need. This duplicate ring is exactly like a normal ring.
- Temperature Control: The Ring can increase or decrease the temperature of anything, even something as large as stars, or even create bubbles of intense heat or cold, even down to Absolute Zero.
- Transforming: The ring can transform anyone or anything, be it into an animal, altering their state of appearance, or their size. Once Hal and Alan turned the two Flashes ( Barry and Jay) to light protons in order to free them from prisons.
- Electro-magnetic scanning: The ring can allow(through the use of x rays) the user to see through walls, without the people on the other side knowing. it can also scan along the Electromagnetic spectrum.
- Wormhole/Warps: The ring can open wormholes to cut down on distance.
- Time travel: The ring allows the wielder the ability to travel through time, though the process requires great willpower.
- Healing: A wielder can command a ring to heal him/her/itself of any injures incurred. It can also heal others.
- Energy twin: The ring can create an energy copy of the wielder which is connected to the ring wielder, any information the twin gathers is transferred to the wielder upon touch while others cannot see this twin apart from fellow Green Lanterns.
- Pocket dimension: Within the ring is a pocket dimension which can altered to the wielders specification. It can be used to contain opponents.
- Sub-routines: The power rings have inner programmings or mechanisms which can executed without the users permission. One such sub-routine is the autoshield. This shield automatically protects a wielder from external harm and has been proven to be capable of protecting the wielder from planetary level attacks.
source: http://www.comicvine.com/
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