I'm not a gigantic Green Lantern fan, but I've always liked the character and the idea behind him. Most of my exposure to GL was through the JLA cartoons/movies and the First Flight movie, but I went into Green Lantern with moderate expectation. Not too high, but not to low either.
I absolutely hated the movie, and for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I thought that Hal was an asshole, who reminded me of every cocky, arrogant pretty boy that I've ever went to school/worked with. The fact that he is an ace pilot, banging the general's daughter, gets away with insubordination, and STILL gets rewarded with super powers did not set things off on the right foot as an introduction to a character we are supposed to empathize with. The fact that Hal doesn't really grow and change into less of a douchebag by the end of the film doesn't help.
Contrast this with Thor, who starts off as an arrogant, cocky pretty boy, actually gets PUNISHED for it, and then learns to become a better person by the end, and learn some humility and empathy for humans.
Secondly, the villain in GL is more sympathetic than our hero. He may not be perfect, but his desire to be accepted and loved by his father grounds him, and you feel bad for him when he fails. The unrequited attraction he has to Carol(?) is also something many of us have felt in some way in our lives, further sympathizing empathy. He is also given powers, but they, of course, mutate and make him gross, because, you know, he's the bad guy. But all throughout the movie, I wanted him to wreck Green Lantern's shit, because I felt sorry for him. I never once felt sorry for Hal, and just wanted someone to knock that smug grin off of his cocky face.
Thirdly, we kept hearing about how Hal was afraid, but we are never really showing Hal being afraid of anything. He is, in fact, overly confident in everything he does. There is not really any moment of self doubt, uncertainty, or, any hint that perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the hero will fail (despite us knowing that he will, of course, prevail). He doesn't even have a problem mastering his powers. He is just so damn GOOD at everything that the viewer never goes along with the notion that he is struggling with "Fear." And, because of a movie where Fear is the primary theme, we are also never shown a moment where Hal almost succumbs to that Fear (maybe being tempted to take up the yellow ring himself, and almost doing so, before overcoming it).
The constant repetition of that theme while not showing us was grating.
GL is a really cool character, and Hal Jordan, when portrayed in other DC stories comes off as a really good guy, even if he's a bit overly confident. He doesn't fall into douchebag territory. I still like GL, and would love to see him done right in film, but that first attempt was just a poorly executed film, and definitely a poor GL film.
Also, no "space cop" montage sequence was a bummer. It would have been fun to see Hal and the Corps going on patrol across the galaxy. I mean, sector 2814 is pretty damn big...
