“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!”

So a question I’m getting a lot at the moment is, “Who the f%^$# is Green Lantern??!” as well as, “Why the hell are you so retarded whenever you talk about him?”… both reasonable questions.

If you’re living in the dark ages of superhero fandom, or were one of those kids who played cricket and soccer at school or smoked at the bottom of the field with the “rebels”, then the chances are you don’t know or understand the answer to either question.

I was probably about 10 years old when I read a Green Lantern comic for the first time, and I was instantly hooked. I knew about Superman, Spiderman and Hulk, but Green Lantern was just much cooler than any of them. I think I related to Green Lantern (Hal Jordan in particular) more, with his cocky attitude, weakness for pretty girls (yes even at age 10), and general desire to do good and save the universe. He also had an awesome outfit with a wicked cool symbol on his chest. There was also something really intriguing about his “superpowers” which resonated deeply in my personality, but before we get to that let me start by explaining the whole Green Lantern fiction in a paragraph.

An ancient race of little blue bald aliens with big heads and great power called the “Guardians” worked out how to wield the green spectrum of light as a weapon against fear and tyranny in the universe. Because their numbers were few (and the universe is a big place), they decided to recruit sentient beings who had the ability to overcome great fear from different sectors of the universe and bestow on them each a ring which could harness the green energy through imagination and willpower. They called this intergalactic police force “The Green Lantern Corps”. Effectively with enough will, focus and imagination Green Lanterns can create constructs of green energy that can do just about anything. The rings are also “programmed” to protect their wearers and provide other powerful abilities like flight and phasing. In various times of need the Guardians recruited humans from earth, the most famous of which is Hal Jordan, military test pilot. There are thousands of Green Lanterns in the Corps of which only four have been human.

Hal Jordan is in my view the perfect superhero. He is not the boy scout, unrealistically perfect Godlike being that Superman is, neither is he the pessimistic manipulative cynic that Batman is. He is a regular guy with a regular job and all the usual worries around love and relationships, both with females and with family. He is given access to amazing potential which he never asked for and is constantly trying to improve himself and his skill with the ring. What really separates him from the rest is not that he can move planets or create big green dragons, but that with or without the ring he has the character to face his fears and exercise enormous courage in the face of adversity. His tenacity, willpower and imagination make him my favourite fictional hero of all time – yip, even better than Jesus

This Friday (17 June 2011) the premier of the movie Green Lantern will show in South Africa. I had been predicting for many years, and hoping like crazy, that someone would do a Green Lantern movie in my lifetime – not only a Green Lantern movie but particularly a Hal Jordan Green Lantern movie. When I saw the trailer months ago for the first time, needless to say I was ecstatic, and have been ever since! What I’ve seen of the two official trailers so far have not disappointed. I have every reason to believe that this may be the greatest superhero flick (Marvel or DC) that has ever come to the big screen. The CGI, casting, script and general production look amazing, and it seems they’ve gone to every effort to stick to the comic script and details exactly.

I will be watching this movie on Friday with a group of my best friends, then the following Friday with another group of good friends (in costume) followed by a Green Lantern party, then the Friday after that again with my kids.

If you have never heard of Green Lantern till right now, then I hope this will be enough to convince you to go see the movie, but I suggest for a richer experience that you go down to your local comic or Incredible Books store and read a Green Lantern graphic novel before you do!

Director Kenneth Branagh really went the extra mile to keep the characters, atmosphere and locations true to the Thor we all (or at least some of us) know and love from the comics. Thor’s outfit was from the ‘Ultimate Thor/Avengers’ arc which was slightly disappointing only because I went to some trouble to create myself a Thor helmet which I proudly wore around the mall for the movie trip, only to discover that Thor wore no helmet at all throughout the film and a whole pile of youngsters probably thought I was in the wrong cinema or something.

In general films portray a slightly, if not tremendously watered down version of a comic book mythology, which is not surprising when you’re trying to squeeze 30 or 40 years of intricate story telling into just under two hours. Thor I felt was different. The movie incorporated an enormous amount of the original fluff from the comics and even added certain elements that improved the buy-in-ability of the whole fiction. In the movie they downplay the ‘God’ nature of Thor by using, among other things, one of my favourite sceptical quotes by Arthur C Clarke – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Effectively Thor and his race are really advanced aliens that were worshipped as Gods by less sophisticated societies in the past (Vikings). The whole thing was far more ‘sciencey’ than ‘magicky’ – which I appreciated. Even his body armour was a type of nano-morphing-metalic-skin of some sort.

This movie had it all. For the guys – cool gadgets, one liners, mass destruction, flying tough guys, beer drinking and awesome mixed fighting styles, not to mention the lead actress Natalie Portman… droooooool!!! For the ladies – well, a topless Chris Hemsworth, a smiling Chris Hemsworth, Chris Hemsworth in a cool Thor outfit, etc..

The comedy timing was great! I laughed out loud regularly to the annoyance of a few folk sitting around me. There’s a particularly cool moment where the human Chris Hemsworth becomes Thor and Natalie Portman’s character is, shall we say, impressed. I won’t give it away.

As has been the build-up in the Hulk and Iron Man movies, there were the usual references in Thor to the existence of… well, Hulk and Iron Man! And with Captain America coming up it is clear that there are plans afoot to assemble the Avengers soon, and I absolutely can’t wait!!! Under any other circumstances I’d be telling the world how DC is way cooler than Marvel, but for today, congratulations Marvel – job well done!

This movie is a must see for absolutely everyone.

Several friends I have a fairly high opinion of told me this was a movie worth watching and definitely among the scariest movies they had ever seen. My experience was quite the opposite. I found it dull, predictable and frustratingly obvious and inadequate in its scare strategy.

I can understand how religious, superstitious and credulous people could be taken in by this fragile deception, (I guess I’ll have to admit later that this does include 80% of everyone alive), but I can’t see how any rational, skeptical, thinking person could do anything but laugh at the silliness of the whole thing.

Let’s break the nonsense into a few bite sized chunks…

1. The “I deal in Ghosts (Dead People) not Demons (Malevolent Spirits)” expert would have had me spitting out my tea and rolling on the floor laughing. Then on top of it all he has a friend who specializes in “demonology” who is unfortunately out of town. I could write for hours on the delusion of people who call themselves experts on subjects that have no basis in fact or evidence. Woomeisters don’t impress me at all.
2. Isn’t it convenient that one of the couple always had the video camera in hand. So let me get this straight – if you heard growling in your passage and saw things moving around the house… in fact your girlfriend is being thrown about by an invisible force – the first thing you’d do is go get the camera and film the event?! This aspect of the movie irritated me the whole way through it.
3. Let’s not forget our friendly neighborhood “Demon”, (supposedly a “malevolent spirit”), whatever that is. Let’s assume for a minute that a “spirit” was real and made from stuff not even similar to electrons, protons or neutrons. Suppose such a thing is completely intangible and undetectable by any scientific means, which is what all the woooo experts will tell you (because there is simply no evidence for these things); then how is it that such a thing could interact with our molecules and throw us around; not to mention all the other questions this raises like: How did they come to be? Why would they make ‘footsteps’ (or any sound at all)? Why would they ‘look’ like us, with arms and legs – or have goat hooves? Why would they care to open doors a little or move chandeliers? Believing in demons is about as stupid as believing in flying spaghetti monsters, gods or unicorns.
4. If this demon really was as “malevolent” as it turned out to be in the last scene, then why wait till the last scene? Why not just kill the guy in broad daylight on his first date with the demon possessed girl? I almost guessed perfectly what would happen on each new night time recording. It was entirely predictable.
5. Of course the main scare technique employed in the movie is the illusion that the viewer is watching a “home video” and therefore a piece of “real life” or at the very least a Hollywood portrayal of a “real life” event. If of course you believe this, then the movie will certainly frighten you, because you think all the insane nonsense that takes place in it has happened to real people somewhere – and was even captured on video. You may even think it was some sort of documentary. If you believe this, you probably also believe that the illuminati rule the world and the attacks of 9/11 were orchestrated by the US government. Knock yourself out.

I have seen scary movies, and this was not one of them. This was practically comedy. It may have been a lot scarier if the “demon” was consistent and seriously malevolent from the beginning. It may have been more believable if the woman didn’t go upstairs to brush her teeth shortly after being attacked by a demon in the same space. It may have been more interesting if they actually filmed the wow sex they had instead of hours of people sleeping.

Movies that scare me have to do with what humans can do when they are deluded – movies like: “Population 436″, “Saw” and “Seven” among others.

What are your scariest movies?

Enter the Dragon – Robert Clouse (1973… of course I didn’t watch it then!)

Bruce Lee kicking ass in his own special way! Every time I saw a Bruce Lee movie I became a raving kung fu master for a few hours and practiced my technique on my sister.

Pete’s Dragon – Don Chaffey (1977)

One of Disney’s first full length features with real actors interacting with animated characters. The dragon was seriously cool and cute.

Wizards – Ralph Bakshi (1977)

This movie blew my mind!! It’s a seriously weird and dark futuristic fantasy with strange animation, negative photo effects and a fascinating story. A must see!

Superman (the movie) – Richard Donner (1978)

The one that started them all! Christopher Reeves will always be the only Superman to me. I’ve wanted to be superman ever since. I used to love collecting the superman stickers off the Pepsi bottles.

The Dark Crystal – Jim Henson (1982)

One of my top 5 movies of all time. An epic fantasy adventure done entirely with puppets and robotics (not muppets). The story was fantastic and the production was ahead of its time.

Tron – Steven Lisberger (1982)

The first sci-fi I really enjoyed. People get sucked into the ‘internet’ and end up fighting sentient viruses that look like badly dressed people with killer frizbees… OK, so you need to see it to understand it. This had some ‘Matrix’ concepts long before the Matrix.

The NeverEnding Story – Wolfgang Petersen (1984)

Who didn’t love this movie?! A classic fantasy tale with one of the most memorable theme songs ever (after Rocky’s “Eye of the Tiger”).

Labyrinth – Jim Henson (1986)

OK, so Jim Henson rules!! Another masterpiece with puppets and actors in the form of David Bowie and (sigh) Jennifer Connelly in her first major role. This also has my favourite soundtrack ever – performed by David Bowie.

Willow – Ron Howard (1988)

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this movie, starring Val Kilmer in one of his best performances ever, this movie has everything: love potions-action-adventure-wizards-swords-comedy-short people-even shorter people-trolls… you name it.

Please send your list and share your memories!

The Village (M.Night Shayamalin: starring Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver)

I think anything by Shayamalin is brilliant. His stories twist and turn and leave you with a sense of, “hmm, not quite what I expected, but wow!” This is not a horror despite the picture they used to advertise with. The Village is a wonderful story about how humans come together to form safe and loving communities but then fall into the trap of control and deception. It looks at censorship, leadership, culture, society, religion and a host of other human traits like courage and love. Shayamalin casts all his movies superbly.

Michael Collins (Neil Jordan: starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn and Julia Roberts)

This movie inspired me! It is an historical look (back to 1920) at the early days of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and one of its leader’s, Michael Collins (played by Liam Neeson who instantly became one of my favorite actors). I was particularly impressed with how effectively this man organized and communicated to an underground resistance army almost entirely without the use of technology using a small group structure. As with all movies of this type (Brave heart, Rob Roy etc.), I was also moved by his personal bravery and determination.

Taare Zameen Par (Aamir Khan: starring Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary)

I had not seen many Bollywood movies and incorrectly assumed they were all musical action-love stories with repetitive plots – boy was I wrong!! Every time I see this movie I cry my eyes out. It is a moving story (brilliantly acted) about a boy with dyslexia (and possibly HDD) who is misunderstood by everyone at school and at home and finally, on the brink of suicide, is rescued by an incredible (and also dyslexic) teacher. There are so many kids in this type of situation today – this movie should be mandatory viewing for all parents and teachers. A must see.

The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski: starring Keanu Reaves and Laurence Fishburne)

Don’t watch this movie for the great acting, because there is none. I loved this movie because it was a revolution in the way movies did special effects, but most importantly it was the first movie that really tackled the question, “What if everything we know is wrong?” It also stirs up philosophical questions like, “Can we be sure that what our senses tell us is true?” and presents the concept of an ‘online’ existence separate from our physical self, which we’re now starting to see with apps like 2^nd Life.

Luther (Eric Till: starring Joseph Fiennes)

The dramatic story of the German priest, Martin Luther (date 1520), who all but single handedly stood against the Roman Catholic Church which ruled the western world through fear and manipulation. His actions resulted in the formation of the Protestant Church and eventually led to political reforms that have changed the world forever. I was deeply moved by his conviction and bravery. There are many other themes that come through in this movie like how one group can see the actions of a man as divisive rebellion and another group sees those same actions as positive reform – often only time can tell.

What movies changed your life? Leave comments!