Despite all of the special people and fun places I came to Hong Kong to see, today really revolved around Green Lantern (2011) which opened here this morning.
Let me first say this: despite playing Green Lantern with a rusty cast-iron red (!) lantern and a ring from Cracker Jack box as a child, DC's Green Lantern just doesn't entirely fill me with the kind of joy that Captain America and The Thing and other Marvel characters do.
That said, I was looking forward to the film and here's my first reaction: the problems with this movie -- surprisingly! -- have little to do with Ryan Reynolds!
How can a film with so much exposition be so friggin' confusing?
Problems with Green Lantern (2011): The dialogue is as stilted and forced as a comic book from the 1960s. The subplots are poorly set up and they remain confounding time-wasters. The whole Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) plot is unnecessary; who needs a second villain when you've got the planet-devouring Parallax bearing down on Earth? Add to that the fact that Sarsgaard vaguely camps it up a bit and the effect is just ridiculous, like a mincing "Star Trek" villain.
Positives about Green Lantern (2011): The 3-D is acceptable and enjoyable in some spots. Reynolds seems to be striking a different tone here but, as others have already noted, he's not Robert Downey, Jr.. There is a sense of the cosmic here and that's a quality sorely missing from a lot of these superhero films; Thor (2011) looked sillier, frankly. The finale, once Sarsgaard is out of the picture, is cool and seems quite true to the character of The Green Lantern.
Before the film, I went back to Ippei-An only to find that the kushiyaki is not available at lunch. Oh well. I got a curry with pork tonkatsu and I got gyoza as well.
And then I had the egg pudding. Almost as good as a similar dish that I had at Fernando's in Macau nearly two years ago, this dessert was sublime. And it was only about $3.50USD!
I went to HMV today to grab Let The Bullets Fly (2010) and it was only about $11USD! I didn't get too much this time.
If only there were still HMV stores in America and if only I lived in a country where Suede still got this kind of respect!
