Green Lantern

Green Lantern was a man....no, wait...he was a Lantern man....no maybe he was just a Lantern....(yes, that was totally and poorly stolen from Homestarrunner.)
It's difficult to say anything bad about Green Lantern because it just tried so dang hard to be awesome.  That and the fact that every other critic has already used up all the negative words. 
So here's something surprising......
It isn't THAT bad.  It isn't good, it isn't great, it isn't terrible-awesome.  It just IS.  It is literally an hour and 45 minutes of popcorn cinema.
The only fair accusation I think you can levy on this film is that the special effects were not up to snuff.  To make a movie that involves hundreds of different species and epic outer space sets, not to mention all the 'powers' that a Green Lantern ring can conjure up, you need a LOT of awesome effects.  Where the sets and the powers are concerned, you have them.  Where the alien species are concerned...well, they are hit-and-miss.  Then the moment you get a human with CG directly affecting their person....yeah, that is where the movie looks really, really terrible.  The special effects around Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong (Sinestro) when they are in their Lantern outfits is atrocious.  Half the time when they're flying it looks like someone Photoshopped their faces onto a piece of CGI footage.  Then during fight scenes, it is painfully obvious when they switch from full CGI to partial.  This makes what is supposed to be the film's most epic moments incredibly distracting and downright mediocre.
As for the plot, well, it's not that great.  I don't know how hard it is to make an origin story interesting, but whoever wrote this script didn't know either.  Every major plot device is painfully choreographed, and there are no surprises whatsoever.  In fact, if you don't figure out how the final bad guy is destroyed roughly 50 minutes into the film, then I am jealous of your childlike sense of wonder.
I liked Peter Sarsgaard as the nominal earthly bad guy, but they took so long to develop him that it felt like two origin movies in one, and he went out with such a whimper that the whole endeavor just seemed like a complete waste of time.
The acting was okay, but in no way impressive from anyone.  The best thing I can say about it is that nobody stunk up the joint.
The most interesting thing about my experience with Green Lantern was that the audience loved it.  The cinema-goers gave it their all.  They were laughing at all the right points, even ooohing and ahhhing when appropriate.  It was obvious that I was one of the few cynics in the audience.  This is what I had been hoping for since I started this project.  Unfortunately, I think it is too late for this grumpy bastard to be swayed by everyone else.

Ultimately, Green Lantern brings nothing new to the table.  Every point of this origin story has been done better by Marvel or Batman, and the points that were supposed to be unique -- the ring's powers and the epic special effects -- were undone by technology's failure.  Yes, the movie is set up for a sequel, and yes it will probably get it.  Hopefully they will work out the kinks and make it far less muddled.
So go check this one out if you love DC properties.  It's still better than Catwoman.  Personally, I would rather watch the fan-made trailer starring Nathan Fillion on loop for 105 minutes, or better yet, just go check out the Green Lantern: Emerald Knights cartoon movie that came out last week...oddly enough also starring Nathan Fillion.