As a hardcore Green Lantern fan, the movie was going to prove difficult to review objectively.

When it was revealed to be a critical failure, complete with a 26-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 175 reviews, it got even more difficult.

And when the movie ended up taking in just a little over $53 million in its opening weekend, proving that the oversaturation of Marvel movies had hurt it, it just got downright depressing. It will be hard for the movie to make back its $200 million budget, and the releases of “Thor” and “X-Men: First Class” just weeks before “Green Lantern” went to theaters did not help. “Thor” made $65 million its opening weekend, and “X-Men: First Class” made $55 million.

Still, throwing all that negativity out, “Green Lantern” is legitimately a good movie and certainly better than other summer offerings like “Bridesmaids” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”

The real dilemma with “Green Lantern” is its timing. Green Lantern, as a character, requires a lot of explanation, at least with the background carved by the comics written by Geoff Johns, which served as the template for the movie’s background.

It does not help that, again, thanks to Marvel’s assembly line production of comic book movies, “Green Lantern” is about the 15th superhero origin story movie created since 2000.

The story requires a lot of explanation, and, therefore, the first movie was basically sacrificed to setting the table. At least half of the brisk, 105-minute runtime is dedicated to telling the origin story. Green Lantern Hal Jordan probably does not even get the ring as fast as people would expect.

Perhaps the film’s biggest negative is the screenplay. If Johns had just written the screenplay and been done with it, it would have been vastly improved. Instead, some brief instances of Ryan Reynolds humor are peppered throughout, most teeth-grindingly awful when Reynolds, as Jordan, attempts to come up with the Green Lantern oath out of nowhere. “I pledge allegiance to a lantern,” he says, leaving the audience groaning.

Despite the fact that Reynolds and co-star Blake Lively, as Ferris Aircraft’s Carol Ferris, are probably miscast just to get people to watch the movie based on name recognition of the actors, both have their moments.

Reynolds is a brash, cocky guy in the movie, but so is the character of Jordan. Lively maintains the stubborn strength of Ferris, and her only missteps are when she rarely lets herself just become the love interest. Lively as Ferris probably suffers the most from an inadequate screenplay. Some of the lines she has to say, like telling Jordan, “You have the strength to overcome fear,” are hit-the-nail-on-the-head terrible. But the screenplay also does not just cast her as a damsel in distress, like some thought from seeing the trailer.

The rest of the cast is excellently chosen. Mark Strong as Sinestro turns in an understated performance that should cause audiences to become intrigued by where that character could go in a potential sequel, plans for which have been put in jeopardy by the disappointing opening weekend take.

Geoffrey Rush as Tomar-Re, an alien Green Lantern who welcomes Hal Jordan to Oa and introduces him to the mythos, is also excellent. That is the type of casting that just feels so right for a long-time comics fan of the character. Rush’s voice fits the beaked, alien GL so well.

But the real standout from the cast is Peter Sarsgaard as villain Hector Hammond. Instead of just loving evil or even wanting to take over the world, Hammond simply has daddy issues, with father Sen. Hammond (Tim Robbins). Sarsgaard plays this to the hilt, revealing the development of his telekinesis to the audience but not to the other principle characters until necessary. Seeing Hammond’s mind when he sees other people’s memories is spellbinding.

All in all, “Green Lantern” is not the best superhero movie ever, meaning it’s no “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” or “Watchmen.” But it’s better than the majority of the Marvel movies. It’s a strong effort in the genre, and even viewers with no knowledge of Green Lantern should walk away with a strong primer on the character.

The only problem is the movie is essentially just that: a primer, a beginning. It was to set up the real meat and potatoes of a second movie with Green Lantern’s main villain, Sinestro.

Unfortunately, a rough screenplay and questionable main casting might have squandered that opportunity.