Green Lantern

Green Lantern is BAD!!!!  I don’t say this lightly as I try to find something good in every movie I watch.  I realize the time and investment that a studio takes and that people put their lives, careers, and fortunes on the line to give us a 2 hour block of movie magic.  I also realize that my love of super hero movies unfairly bias me to appreciating a mediocre movie more than I probably should.  The reverse of that is that I am probably too harsh on super hero films that don’t live up to my expectations.  All this I am aware of yet I am still comfortable in saying that this was just flat out BAD.

                I wondered how this could fail.  I love the character Green Lantern.  I think Ryan Reynolds was perfectly cast as the lead, Hal Jordan.  The movie invested the proper amount of money to ensure that the production was top notch.  I had the firm belief that after the Chris Nolan Batman franchise, the studios understood what it took to make a quality super hero movie.  Yet fail they did.  This was a $150 million waste of time that I will be amazed if it produces a sequel (unless they totally reboot it like they did with the Hulk).   This just shows that no matter what the star power or special effects, it’s still the story that makes the movie.

                The thing that is so frustrating is that the movie is very faithful to the comic book story line.  Even the details and back stories are there.  The story just doesn’t deliver.  For the uninitiated (or perhaps ‘disinterested’ is the better word), Green Lantern is a cosmic superhero.  A group of immortals who live on the planet OA tapped the fundamental force of the universe millennia ago.  The power is the green energy of will.  The Guardians, as they are called, created an army of transpecies warriors known as the Green Lantern corps who can channel the force of will through emerald rings.  These Green Lanterns patrol their sector of the universe, acting as beat cops and protecting the universe from evil.  One of the Guardians went rogue and accessed the opposing yellow power of fear and was corrupted by it.  The power of fear grew so great that it threatened the universe until the Green Lanterns trapped him (if this sounds vaguely like the Force from Star Wars, I will say that Green Lantern was created well before Star Wars). 

                The rogue Guardian is known as Paralax and after his escape from his prison he is bent on revenge.  Only one mortally wounded Green Lantern escapes the initial encounter with Paralax and makes his way to earth to find someone worthy of the ring.  This is where our hero/scoundrel test pilot Hal Jordan comes in.  He is bequeathed the ring by the dying alien with the counsel that he has been chosen and to recite the oath. Ryan Reynolds is always a pleasure, but his trademark humor and ironic quips seemed very out of place here.  I was amazed how calmly everyone accepted the existence of aliens and magical flying superheroes.  Perhaps the public was aware of other superheroes that they didn’t mention in the movie.

                Blake Lively plays the requisite love interest alluringly.  She is a fellow test pilot and aeronautical executive (not a bad resume for a 24 yr model).  She is fun to look at, but that is it.  Her conflicted love interest between Hal and her job seems forced at best. She walks around looking good.  Mark Strong plays a fellow Green Lantern and future villain, Sinestro (how could you not end up being a villain with a name like that?).  He adds a welcome Shakesperean weight to his role.  He has one of my favorite voices in films today.  The true acting standout was in a character that I really didn’t care for.  Peter Sarsgaard plays the odd ball scientist, Hector Hammond.  Hector is infected with Paralax’s power early on and becomes his earthly vessel.  I confess that I wasn’t smart enough to fully understand the connection with Paralax or Hammond’s purpose in the movie, but Sarsgaard took the role seriously and gave a great performance.  He was really the only character with any depth.



                My opinion is that, with the exception of Batman, many of these DC characters were created so long ago that they are no longer relevant.  Chris Nolan reinvented Batman for the modern era, but recent films like Superman and now Green Lantern try to re create the square jaw all-American hero in a more ambiguous world.  The Dudley Doright model doesn’t connect with the audience like they did in the 1940’s.  I still believe good writing can make it work, but it does have to adapt to the sensibilities of the world we live in today.  No longer can studios just throw dazzling special effects and expect people not to care about the story.  In fairness, Green Lantern is a hard movie to do without coming off cartoony given the cosmic nature of the story.  Still, I will stick to the belief that a good writer can make any story work.  Daredevil was the most ridiculous concept for a super hero ever and the writing talents of Frank Miller made it a literary force to be reckoned with in the comic world.  This movie shows what Hollywood execs, who have no understanding of what makes comics fun and interesting, will come up with.  Star power and big budgets with big special effects.  Story is an afterthought in their minds.

                I give this film * star (and only because so much was invested in it)