by Brian Long
Yes true believers; it’s the summer of the superhero. This year we have four (count ‘em: FOUR) superhero films. One of which is DC’s attempt to show the world that there’s more to them than just Batman, which brings us to Green Lantern. I’ve always believed that the worst thing in the world is wasted potential, and that’s exactly what this movie serves up for its audience. It’s a shame because it’s clear that director Martin Campbell (who brought James Bond back from invisible car purgatory with Casino Royale) had a strong vision for the world of the Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds does a fair job playing cocky Hal Jordan who gets his higher calling from the dying Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison-Hey! Jango Fett!) to join the ancient peace keepers the Green Lantern. The film nails the huge scope of the Green Lantern mythos. The Green Lantern home planet of Oa, as well as its thousands of alien members is rendered in glorious CGI along with some impressively creative constructs coming from each members ring. Whenever the movie embraces its space opera and comic book elements it shines. And then the rest of the movie happens.
When Hal is out of costume he’s a bit of a jerk off, kind whiny, and frankly unlikable. While the Hal Jordan of the comics has always had a Maverick from Top Gun swagger, he always balanced that with an ability to back up his boasts with a “never give up, never take shit” attitude. Compare this to Movie Hal Jordan who quits the Green Lantern Corps because the training is hard and Sinestro (a painfully underused Mark Strong) is mean to him. This all takes place after being on Oa for a whopping ten minutes.
The screenplay stunk of an attempt to emulate the Marvel comic formula of jerk turned good (Iron Man and last month’s Thor) but fails because the jerk in question lacks any charm or any sign of heroism until the final moments of the film. This has frequently been the problem of adapting DC versus characters to film. Writers are often trying to find ways to make the heroes “relatable” without realizing that, frankly, DC characters aren’t supposed to be relatable. When Stan Lee created the core characters of the Marvel universe he set out to create a pantheon of heroes that people could see themselves in; Spider-Man has money and girl troubles, the X-Men are hated by society, the Hulk has a literal emotional demon lurking inside of him. Marvel characters are who we are, while DC characters are who we wish to be.
Take 2006’s Superman Returns, in order to make Superman more “relatable” the film features Superman’s illegitimate child and Lois Lane not giving him the time of day. Which leaves us with a Superman who mopes around, stalks Lois and doesn’t do anything, well, Super. Contrast that with Nolan’s Batman films. Hey, Green Lantern, Superman, you know who has problems? Batman. You know what happened to him last movie? The woman he loved got blown up. BLOWN. UP. You know what he did after that? He put on his cape and kicked the bad guy’s ass. It’s that indomitable spirit that has made superheroes into our new mythology and when that is taken away it can completely destroy a film.
This review turned into a bit of a tangent, so lemme slap a star rating on this and give it 2 out of four stars. There’s definitely half of a good movie here, but not enough for people who aren’t huge Green Lantern fans to feel really satisfied with.
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