Within this summer of some excellent superhero movies like Thor and X-Men: First Class (based on characters published by Marvel Comics), there at least has to be one negative standout and in this case, it is based on a comic book from Marvel’s rival: DC. As many will know, there aren’t many films in recent memory that have the DC logo as Batman and Superman are the ones that always pop up. So with DC attempting to bring their other creations to the big screen, we now have a man using green fluorescent lights (in 3D).
Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, an irresponsible test pilot who receives a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe. Meanwhile, an evil cloud (Galactus, anyone?) known as Parallax is trying to destroy the universe by essentially sucking the life out of everyone.
Despite the comic book-influenced premise of the first ever human to be part of the Green Lantern Corps, the film itself doesn’t live up to that terrific premise. For starters, the origin story is derivatively straightforward to the point it almost becomes lifeless, which is surprising for those who are familiar with director Martin Campbell’s back catalog from James Bond to even Zorro. Script-wise, there are times that we are entering into Phantom Menace territory as many of the dialogue scenes is expedition but no depth whatsoever, so the actors do seem lost through out the film, which at very best is an effects show.
Although there are some visually-stunning setpieces within the planet of Oa (Green Lantern HQ), the curse of The Phantom Menace continues to appear as the more we see the CGI-laden environments as well as characters that could’ve been extras for Monsters Inc., it starts to become a distraction from the story which itself is oddly dull.
As someone who was just starting to like Ryan Reynolds (from the evidence of Adventureland), I felt the cockiness from his earlier annoying work is expressed in his performance as Hal Jordan who seems like a poor imitation of Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk. From recklessly responsible plonker to simply savior of the universe, there’s not much to care about the first human Green Lantern. While Gossip Girl‘s Blake Lively is just eye candy, the best performance and perhaps the best aspect of the film is the always-excellent Mark Strong as Hal’s hard-bitten trainer Sinestro, as shown in one massive crowd sequence, he just dominates the screen.
Epic in scope, but that’s about it as the poor script is overshadowed by the over-CGI setpieces which though look beautiful, the film just runs out of steam by the time Reynolds knows the true meaning of being a Jedi… I mean lantern!
DIRECTOR: MARTIN CAMPBELL
STARRING: RYAN REYNOLDS, BLAKE LIVELY, MAR STRONG, PETER SARSGAARD, TIM ROBBINS
RUNTIME: 114 MINS
COUNTRY: USA
Film Rating: 
