Movie Review - Green Lantern

Based on the DC comics, the movie was directed by Martin Campbell and the screenplay was written by Greg Berlanti. The movie was released in the UK on June 17th 2011.

Many years ago, before earth was created, the Guardians of the universe, used the green-essence of willpower to create the Green Lantern Corps (the police force of the universe). However, the yellow- essence of  fear was also created. This fear-essence was known as Parallax. Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) of sector 2814 defeated Parallax, and imprisoned him in the Lost Sector (Sector 666) on the ruined planet of Ryut.

Many years later, Parallax gathered enough energy to eventually escape. After he kills four green lanterns he attacks sector 2814. Abin Sur's injuries are fatal. He travels to Earth, where he instructs the ring to find a worthy successor. The ring chooses Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds).

Jordan is transported to the planet Oa, where he is trained by other green lanterns. He encounters the Corps leader Sinestro (Mark Strong), who is not impressed that the ring has chosen a human. Sinestro tells Hal Jordan that he wreaks of fear, Jordan is angered by this and quits his training and returns to Earth.

Meanwhile, back on Earth Abin Sur's body has been discovered and Senator Robert Hammond (Tim Robbins) instructs his son, scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) to complete an autopsy on the alien life form. Whilst carrying out the autopsy, Hector is infected with some of Parallax's DNA, leaving him with telepathic and telekinetic powers, causing him to go insane.

Whilst attending a launch party for Ferris Aircraft, where Hal, Hector, the Senator and Hal's childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) are all present, Hector tries to kill his father. Hal saves both the crowd and Carol.

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Hal has a second encounter with Hector, where this time he succeeds in killing his father, and both Hal and Hector realise that Parallax is making his way to earth to destroy it.

Hal goes to Oa to plead with the Guardians and Sinestro to help him save his planet, however, they refuse. Hal Jordan, is left, not only to defeat Parallax, but also to overcome his fear, on his own!

This movie was 114 minutes of brilliant graphics and pure entertainment. While I was sceptical before going to see it as not many comic book films have met my expectations (besides X-men: First Class), Green Lantern certainly did. What was impressive, was that while there was no wasting time before the viewer was thrown into all the action, very little background was left out. All the important information was covered.

The graphics were phenomenal and it was probably one of the best 3D films I have seen of late. The viewer was able to imagine having the ring themselves and green weaponry was constantly flying out of the screen.

The acting cannot be faulted either, especially the lead, Reyonds while being easy to watch on screen (ABSolutely Gorgeous) he was also hilarious and often had the viewers in fits of laughter. Sarsgaard, while extremely creepy looking, often nauseating at times, portrayed the perfect villain. Lively, gave a solid performance, however, my personal opinion is that she just did not fit the role of Carol Ferris and should probably stick to her role as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.

Overall a fantastic production which receives 4/5 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! "

X-Men First Class

I have recently, being feeling rather lethargic, so I have indulged in weekends at the cinema, watching the latest craze of comic books turned movies - Being a comic book fan myself, I appreciate this craze!

X-Men First Class was a movie I had been anticipating for a while now, so when it was finally released I couldn't get to the cinema fast enough. Needless to say the movie did not leave me disappointed. It definitely met my expectations and possibly salvaged the disaster that was X-Men: Origins of Wolverine.

 The film takes us back to the beginning where the word, mutant was not used to describe someone with special powers, but rather a word that people feared; it meant that there was something wrong with you. We meet a young, handsome and charming Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), as well as a troubled Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), soon to be Magneto. They set about recruiting young mutants like themselves and are enlisted by the United States government to help save the world. However, Erik and Charles have very different intentions, which lead to some complications.

The graphics are impressive and the action scenes leave the viewer fully satisfied. The actors, considering the are not the biggest names in the industry at the moment, pull off a flawless job.
Although, the action scenes are brilliantly put together, there doesn't seem to be nearly enough - what is seen in the trailer is about it. The storyline, moves briskly and at times the viewer may be unsure of what the the point to this war is, this flaw may be overlooked though. Erik, has some ruthlessly violent scenes, scenes that have not been explored in the previous X-Men movies, taking the film to a more adult level, and not necessarily suitable for younger viewers.

Having said all this it is 132 minutes of pure entertainment for both the comic book followers and oblivious viewers alike. A film that answers previously unanswered questions and fills in the gaps. I highly recommend going to see this film, and if for nothing else I've said then go for the 10 second snippet of Wolverine!!!

Writer Without an Audience

I am currently a Graduate in English Literature and Journalism, and while writing is my passion and journalism is the career path I would love to follow, I have never been able to sit down and actually create a blog or a blog post for that matter. It was only recently that I realized why...

When it comes to writing a blog, it is not that I have a shortage of ideas, in fact my mind never stops working, but rather that I seemed to get "writers block" if you like, whenever I sat in front of my computer. I know, unheard of for an aspiring journalist, however, I found myself fearful of the reaction I would get over my writing, and whether or not people would like both my writing and me... A bit ridiculous, I know!

I realised that if I was to be a successful journalist, I would need to get over this and fast, because not everyone will like my writing or agree with me; but there may be just as many people that will. There is no point being a writer, if you have no audience, right?

So here I  am, writing my first blog post and as a start I thought I'd let you know a little bit about myself. My name is Shana Ray, I was born and lived in South Africa most of my life. When I was 19 I moved to the UK, where I have lived for three and a half years now. I love living in the UK, a country that has so much to offer, with both the fantastic City and Country life, cultural diversity and quality of life. I enjoy reading, sport (both participating in and spectating), music, art, theatre, movies as well as politics and global affairs.


I have very strong views and opinions about certain topics and I hope to share many of them with you, right here!