I'll preface this with saying that I haven't read the plethora of Green Lantern comics out there, but as I continue to educate myself on the character, I can honestly say that the movie does not live up to the writing or the drama in those great books!
Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as test pilot Hal Jordan, who is chosen by the Green Lantern Corps to be the first human to wear a powerful ring and defend the universe. The movie is directed by Martin Campbell who has rebooted the James Bond franchise twice (Goldeneye and Casino Royale) as well as The Mask of Zorro.
The opening of this movie is a brief history of the Green Lantern Corps and the villain Parallax, from there we are witnessed to the escape of Parallax by some alien astronauts and then the selection process begins. The initial trailers to Green Lantern looked quite horrible; the CGI just did not look complete at all and ridiculous. Thankfully for the finished film they darkened up the green and energy coming from the suits which make them look a bit more plausible. That's really only one of the few highlights of the film.
Ryan Reynolds does an okay job at portraying Hal Jordan, but his demeanor and leading man qualities did not convince me that he was having doubts about himself being apart of the Corps. The moments where he was expressing his self doubt to Blake Lively, who only serves as eye candy, are really tough to get through. Its one of those times where someone should be screaming "ACTING!" at you. This self pity became contradictory often because directly after those scenes Hal Jordan would be doing something very heroic and with out fear, that was completely opposite of how he was "apparently" feeling.
Pete Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond, who after performing an autopsy on Abin Sur, comes into contact with the yellow power of fear. His figure is transformed into a Hunchback of Notre Dame type and is played off in the movie as Jordan's doppleganger. I see what they were trying to do in showing a parallel between these two men and how having this great power thrust upon them affects their lives, but Hammond's story feels more fleshed out than Jordan's. Pity I couldn't get fleshed out journey's of both men.
Mark Strong who plays Sinestro is pitch perfect! I wish he was more of the villain in this movie, I think it would have proved to be a better movie overall! I really disliked Michael Clarke Duncan as the voice of Kilowog, Jordan's fight instructor, because you could tell it was him! I hate that someone actually thought "oh this character looks like it could be voiced by a big black guy", yea let's get him! I mean have some originality with your voice castings please!
The home planet of the Lantern's is called Oa. It's truly something to behold, you can tell most of the time was spent on the design of getting that right and not the story. Shame, again, I couldn't have both.
The training sessions Jordan goes through on Oa after becoming a Lantern are pretty cool. The ring that the Lantern's possess can create anything their mind thinks up through will power; the stronger your will, the stronger your creation. So you have this ring that can create anything and the movie really underuses this ability. The end fight between Jordan and Parallax was entertaining but the power to create things from sheer thought didn't reach its full potential! I'll be honest that the effects for the creations where really good, but still I wasn't wowed.
Despite my negativity, I was honestly childishly entertained. There are some redeeming moments in this movie and of course the very heavy CGI action takes my thought away from the lackluster story. This is due to my low expectations going into the movie. Another movie that I would always compare to Green Lantern, trailers wise, was this summer's THOR. Both movies were trying to break new ground in the superhero genre by meshing two worlds together. THOR I believe is the victor in this case, mostly because in that movie you had sets and things that set the actors apart from their environment; not to mention interact with. Green Lantern suffers from having way too much CGI. I understand Oa is an alien planet and all, but does the rock have to be CGI? I think some practical sets for the planet of Oa could have helped ground the movie a bit more and helped with the power of the Lantern's on Oa and on Earth.
Green Lantern is a very lazy superhero movie. It gives us the cliffnotes version of the heroes journey and thus makes Hal Jordon's character development really cardboard and like I said earlier contradictory. This movie had the potential make break new ground with a superhero who powers are defined from the get go as alien, but the motivation and work was not there to comfortably mesh these two worlds together so that I could care for the characters and marvel at the scope.
If you have kids, take them, you'll enjoy it for what it is, but then forget it soon after. But I suggest a matinee, DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE!
I hope the next Green Lantern movie, if there is one, is a reboot.
Dueces,
StuntmanBob
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