Tag Archives: Green Lantern film

Green Lantern – Rise of the Manhunters: Game Review

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Hey, who turned out the light?

My first thoughts when I got this game were not overly positive. I mean, movie tie-in games tend to be pants and synonymous with rushed deadlines, repetitive game play and pointless plots that neither push the console’s hardware, or push the player on the end of the controller to anything other than utter suicide. And lets face it, there are enough useless games out there without the need to resort to such attempts that are no more than cash-ins on an audience looking to ‘vividly’ re-enact their favourite moments from a flick that will inevitably end up on DVD in a bargain basket somewhere.

Rise of the Manhunters tries desperately to reverse this trend. Gosh, it tries so, so hard. But try as it might, it never comes to the point where it is truly spectacular or ‘an essential purchase’.

Developed by Double Helix – the developers behind Front Mission Evolved, G.I Joe, (yes, I see you laughing at the back), Rise of the Manhunters takes place shortly after the events in the movie. Hal Jordan (voiced almost persuasively by Ryan Reynolds) is the Green Lantern and the story takes place at the centre of the universe on the Green Lantern homeworld, Oa.

For the uninitiated, the Green Lantern Corps is an ‘elite police force’ created by the ancient guardians of the universe in order to protect it from evil. Each Green Lantern carries a ring which can channel and manifest their willpower into any object or mechanism they can think of.

You play as Hal Jordan, the most recent Green Lantern recruit and immediately find yourself tasked with stopping the Manhunters – an ancient race who are sworn enemies of the Guardians – from stealing their powers.

It is sad to see that the plot line from the movie has been thrown out of the window along with any back story. Yes, well, we all knew the big bucks cash-in cow would make some sacrifices didn’t we? What we have here is no back story, no continuation from the film and no ending. So what DO we have?

Well, gameplay-wise, what we have is basically no more than a basic hack ‘n’ slash, button-basher in the majority of the green palette. Yes, you have to time your combos. Yes, you have button combinations. Yes, you get to use your green ring, and yes, you have upgrades, But inevitably, it is wave after wave of the same thing.

The developers failed to work more variety into the missions and as a result, far too many of your ‘duties’ end up as systematically taking down robots or shutting down teleportation gates, and shamefully, besides the odd palette change, the majority of your enemies look continually similar.

There are some nice set pieces though. For example, the boss battles are quite nice, as are the flying sections which really make good use of the 3D effect. You also have the ability to collect XP from your fallen enemies which you can use to upgrade your powers and construct new weapons such as a massive baseball bat to send enemy projectiles back at them, a huge buzzsaw that can give multiple hits on your enemies or even turn yourself into a massive jet in the flying sections.

Another thing that this title brings to the table is drop in, drop out co-op play. So if you have a friend, you can both partake in some ring-blasting action (pun intended). Although the game only supports it offline, I found it really good to see. So many developers go for online play, but nothing quite beats that ‘Streets of Rage’ feeling you get with a friend when you are taking on the best of what the enemy has to offer.

I found the controls and movement to be a little dated. There is no sprint option for instance and even worse, no camera control, so this means there are set angles of play with no way of rotating the camera to see behind you. You do have a dodge button and quick attacks, but the enemies tend to circle round you and if you are caught in a corner, you have no choice but to fight your way out or watch as your life force gets blasted away.

Although it is fair to say you won’t be blown away by the graphics, as mentioned before, the game features 3D visuals and it is pleasing to see that this applies to all formats – the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360’s 3D can be accessed in two forms, TriOviz Inficolor 3D – which is usable on any standard TV with the game’s included 3D glasses – and stereoscopic 3D for ‘proper’ 3DTVs. While the 3D effects are not as dramatic as say Black Ops, there is evidently more depth and some nice explosions too. This is something I think that more games should do.

Although I have slated the sheer expense of 3D in the past, the fact is the cost of them is dropping. More movies (including Green Lantern) are coming out in 3D, so they’re bound to be out by Christmas on 3D Blu-Ray. Therefore the only thing lacking is the number of games, which can really make or break the market.

To sum up: How does this game compare to others in its genre?

It is here that I feel a little bit sorry for Hal Jordan and his green ring…

Equal to: Marvel Super Hero Squad: Infinity Gauntlet, Thor.

Better than: Lego star wars the clone wars, Fantastic 4 – Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Worse than: God of War, Castlevania – Lords of shadow, Bayonetta.

My Final Verdict –

For a movie tie-in, Rise of the Manhunters doesn’t do as badly as expected, but is still not worth the money – even on a reduced price tag. There are just so many games out there which do the job better. Granted it is not bad – it is just not that good either.

5.5/ 10

 

Six Things You Didn’t Know About Green Lantern

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1) There have been six Green Lanterns in total.

Although most people have come to know the Green Lantern as being Hal Jordan, there were five others. In the Cartoon Network’s Justice League cartoons, he is John Stewart – an African-American man. But the very first Green Lantern was the World War II-era superhero, Alan Scott, an army engineer who found a magic green lantern and made a ring that allowed him to tap its powers.

The other Lanterns are all members of the Green Lantern Corps. Obviously. you have Hal Jordan who received his from Abin Sur, who was hurt and later died from injuries when his spaceship crashed. Guy Gardner was second as a backup should anything ‘happen’ to Hal, until Stewart replaced Gardner on the sub’s bench. Kyle Rayner became the ‘last’ Green Lantern when Jordan became infected with the Parallax and went on a murderous rampage. And the last member of the Corps who became a Green Lantern for Earth is Jade, the daughter of Alan Scott, who was given one of the spare Power Rings.

2) Superman was going to be in the film at one point making a cameo appearance.

Following on from Marvel’s success at having cameos in movies, DC and the director were intent at having Clark Kent/Superman in the script. Originally, he had a cameo as one of the candidates considered to receive a power ring, but was cut out because the filmmakers didn’t want to depend on another superhero for a success. So much for The Man of Steel’s invulnerability.

3) There is a hidden scene at the end of the credits. Sorry, but I just wouldn’t be a man if I told you what happens.

4) Quentin Tarantino was considered to direct the film.

This is absolutely true and was scheduled as his big comeback film. Question is, could you imagine a Green Lantern film directed by him? A cross between guns, green lights, John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson and let’s not forget blood, exploding heads etc. Hmm. Can Green Lantern dance?

5) There are different-coloured Lanterns.

The Green Lantern’s background has been greatly expanded in recent years, to the point that there are now seven different Lantern Corps. Each is driven by a particular emotion — the Green Lanterns are powered by willpower, the Blue Lanterns is hope, the Red Lanterns represent rage, and so on. Sinestro, a character in the movie and comic books, inherits a yellow ring – driven by fear. Incredibly, in the comics, Blake Lively’s character, Carol Ferris, goes on to inherit a violet ring, powered by love, and later becomes Star Sapphire.

6) The movie could have been completely different.

There are loads of different scripts that they came up with for Green Lantern.. Out of all those, perhaps the one most interesting is the one which contained a cameo by Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern in history (whose powers were magical rather than cosmic). Scott was going to be the United States President, and near the end would reveal his own past as a Green Lantern to Jordan, and give him his blessing. He was later revised to become an agent of the Checkmate agency (the Checkmate membership stayed true to the comics), who would approach and offer Jordan membership. Later drafts finally wrote him out of the film, and replaced him with Amanda Waller. Shame? Yeah that’s what I said…

Green Lantern – Movie Review

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The light  burns,  but nowhere near as bright as it could have.

You can tell it is the summer blockbuster season can’t you? We have had one superhero movie a month so far and still got a couple more to go. None of this is a problem for me. I love a good superhero movie as much as the next child. When I took my Godchildren to see this film, one could almost say I was more excited than they were. I bounced into the cinema with excitement, flung on my 3D glasses with almost wild abandon and had the biggest bag of popcorn the girl behind the counter could create firmly in my lap.

The film started and it wasn’t like I was disappointed, just more like I expected more. You see, when so many films come out with people having special powers, a film needs to be unique to stand above what you have seen before. Otherwise, like quite a lot of the Michael Bay films, everything turns into something you have seen before.

To be fair, it is arguable that the Green Lantern is perhaps the lesser known superhero from the DC World and Martin Campbell, the director behind Casino Royale, does a good job with the opening sequence bringing those new to the Green Lantern world up to date.

Basically, throughout the universe exists a galactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. Created by the Guardians, each member has a power ring, which grants the bearer the ability to create anything their mind imagines. When the guardian’s ancient enemy – a huge all consuming yellow cloud known as Parallax – is released and begins to feed on fear, Green Lantern Abin Sur (played by Temuera Morrison), takes on the threat and in the ensuing battle is gravely wounded. He pilots his ship to the nearest habitable planet so he can send the ring off to choose a worthy replacement.

Enter Hal Jordan (played by Ryan Reynolds), a test pilot whose brash and arrogant attitude lands him in all sorts of trouble and whose recent failures almost cause his employers to go bankrupt. In short, he is one step away from being a bum. It is after a bar brawl with some of his ex-colleagues that incredibly, the ring finds him and zap, the real story begins. I say the real story because it takes a whopping 40 minutes to get this far and before this, although there are special effects, things are far from interesting.

Once the film does get going, it does so with gusto and we see some interesting dynamics played out. While the ring chose Hal, Abin Sur’s other pupil, Sinestro (played by Mark Strong), sees only weakness in Jordan. And with Parallax threatening the universe and the existence of the Green Lanterns, Jordan has to overcome his fear and desire to run away from responsibility and commit to being a hero.

Ryan Reynolds does a good job as Green Lantern. He certainly looks the part and I think if anything, the script lets him down. Some of the arguments and some of the things that his character does just doesn’t make sense, whether he is on the road to being a bum or not, and it is these barriers which stop you from empathising with him or feeling anything at all for what is going on.

Blake Lively plays the lovely Carol Ferris, Hal’s co-pilot, co-worker and budding love interest. She is very charismatic on screen, yet strong-willed and feisty. In many ways you believe she is the one to bring Hal round to taking on the responsibly he has been given. I don’t mind saying I could just look at her all day and not say a word, but that would be rather stalker-ish of me.

From the start, there is a great deal of respect for the source material. DC, the producers, and the director stay close to the mythos of the comic book. This is a good and a bad thing. The characters, names, and places are pretty much all there, the effects, whilst not Avatar quality, are fairly decent and it is good to see the realisation of characters such as Kilowog, and Abin Sur looking and sounding every inch their comic counterpart.

The film does suffer from over use of CGI in places. For example, the homeworld Oa just looks like a giant screensaver. Only Parallax looks genuinely scary. As for the flight sequences – well actually, you get no feeling of flight whatsoever and most of the battles just seem average.

3D has its place in the movie and truly comes into its own when Jordan uses his ring and the power of his will is created on screen. Other than that, 3D effects are sparse and to be fair, the special effects are good enough without it. The problem is, that despite all the special effects, I was never truly left in awe by the Green Lantern’s power, I never truly believed in Hal Jordan’s cause and never truly felt like he was up against the odds or that he couldn’t win. If anything, I only felt annoyed by the length of time it took the filmmakers to get to the point where they could create a scenario big enough for him to believe in himself.

I know my Godchildren enjoyed the film tremendously, but compared to the other summer releases I would say that Green Lantern is a lot less involving than Thor and nowhere near as good as X-Men: First Class. Having said that, it might not be the worst superhero movie of the summer, after all Transformers and Captain America are both just round the corner.

My Final Verdict
Go watch it, but only if you really have to.

7 / 10