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Green Lantern Hero's Journey

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When I was told that I needed to rewatch Martin Campbell’s attempt at Green Lantern I sighed and began to laugh a bit hysterically. Visual storytelling, whether bland or riveting, gives the viewer an everlasting emotion that is linked to the film itself. For me Green Lantern is my least favorite film of all time. This does not mean that it is the worst movie of all time, I believe Tommy Wiseau’s The Room wins the award by far. However, Green Lantern came out as I was just getting into comics, and it was not enjoyable to watch my favorite superhero fly around with terrible CGI, let alone a CGI suit. However, when rewatching the film I forgot about all that and focused on the content I was watching. Right at the beginning of the film there is a dog fight simulation scene involving Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds, Carol Ferris, played by Blake Lively, and two drone planes. After the fight it leaves Hal Jordan uncontrollably plummeting towards the ground as he can not keep his emotions together. During this …show more content…

I found that the movie, to the step, follows Joseph Campbell's discovered narrative called the Hero’s Journey. There are twelve steps to the Hero’s Journey and Hal Jordan goes through all twelve of these steps. For example, the story has to begin in an ordinary world. In Green Lantern Hal is just an uncle and a fighter pilot trying to live his life. Hal’s call to adventure was when the ring from the deceased Abin Sur chose him to join the Green Lantern Corps. Hal’s refusal of the call occurs when he attempts to make the ring and lantern work by saying an oath he does not know. Hal becomes frustrated and gives up for a bit. Steps four through twelve are all also clearly present in the story. The Hero’s Journey is the most basic form of storytelling and I find it a redeeming quality that this movie did have a type of structure and was not just a jumble of scenes thrown

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