Green Lantern Review [2]

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 06.22.2011

How much willpower does it take to sit through this woefully misguided adaptation of one of DC's greatest heroes?

GREEN LANTERN (2011)



Directed by: Martin Campbell
Written by: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, and Michael Goldberg
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, Blake Lively, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett, and the voices of Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan
Runtime: 114 Minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action.



I am a Green Lantern fan, and I’m fairly sure that means I wasn’t the target audience for Green Lantern, the movie. I understand there’s an odd disconnect with that statement. But, really, what else can I think after having seen the film, which at times seems to have been made with the specific goal of annoying long-time fans of the character.

It didn’t have to be this way. It could have been the movie fans like myself have been waiting years to see (I mean, it sure as hell had a better shot than the once-threatened but thankfully never delivered Jack Black Green Lantern comedy). A lot of the right elements seemed to be in place, including a general plot that didn’t initially arouse any suspicion.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot whose life is dramatically changed when a dying alien bestows upon him the ring of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar peace-keeping force led by an ancient race of aliens known as The Guardians. The Guardians have managed to harness willpower itself and turn it into a weapon – the rings of the Green Lanterns. Jordan is the first human to ever be inducted into the Corps (a first that doesn’t sit well with lead Lantern Sinestro, played by Mark Strong), but the momentousness of the occasion is overshadowed by the fact that his induction comes at the same time the Corps is being threatened by Parallax, a former Guardian who decided that fear was more powerful than will, and is now on a planet-eating spree with the eventual goal of destroying Oa, home planet of the Corps. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Jordan also has a home-grown menace to deal with back on Earth, as scientist Hector Hammond – an old acquaintance of Hal’s, played by Peter Saarsgard – has become infected by Parallax, transforming him into a maniacal, big-headed monster with psychic abilities. Jordan is uncertain he is even worthy of his newly-bestowed powers, but must find it in himself to accept his destiny and battle these two threats, while at the same time wooing (and/or just trying to stay on the good side of) his former flame and current boss Carol Ferris (Blake Lively).

That actually sounds like the plot description for a pretty good Green Lantern origin movie, but this isn’t it. I really don’t get it. The reason Green Lantern is the first non-Superman or Batman related DC hero to finally make it to the big screen clearly has to do with Geoff Johns’ incredibly successful run on the book since taking it over with Green Lantern: Rebirth. Johns’ critically acclaimed run has vaulted the character to the upper echelon of the DC universe, and is considered by many to be THE best superhero book on the shelves today. And yet, at some point, the makers of the movie obviously decided NOT to go with Johns’ serious, epic space-opera tone, instead settling for a corny, lightweight action-comedy that at times feels like it’s straight out of the ‘80s or early ‘90s, before superhero movies started to matter again.

What is even more frustrating is that Johns was involved with the film, listed as an executive producer and allegedly guiding the project so as to ensure a future for DC filmed properties. I can only assume, therefore, that Johns was SO eager to help create a hit film that he fell victim to “we know better than you do” studio executives, who probably kept assuring him that there’s no place for his kind of storytelling in a big budget action film, and he should just sit back and let them do their jobs.

How else to explain the multitude of bad decisions made in this movie? For instance, why replace the truly scary visual design of Parallax from the comics with a giant turd cloud with a head (I guess maybe they thought it worked out really well when Fantastic Four 2 did the same with Galactus)? Why include Hector Hammond as a villain if he is only going to serve as a brief second act distraction, and you’re barely going to acknowledge his past history with Hal and Carol (it almost feels like they got to a certain point in the script and said “oh shit, we forget to say they all used to be friends! Well, let’s just have them recognize each other at a party, that’ll do it”)? Why have the origin of the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps simply told to us in a bit of lame opening exposition (and then later unceremoniously downloaded into Hal Jordan’s head), rather than have Hal and the audience discover this information together on OA? Well, that last one I can actually answer – because the writers are lazy.

The same can’t be said for the special effects technicians behind the scenes, who clearly worked their butts off on this film. But at what cost? And I mean that in both senses of the term. If you’ve seen any footage, I don’t need to tell you how artificial the film’s computer generated worlds and costumes look. I suppose they were going for a stylized reality, but I found it continuously off-putting throughout the film. At times, it looks like Ryan Reynolds’ head is just floating around inside an animated film. Just a month ago, Thor proved how much you can accomplish with real costumes and practical sets. Using the same approach with Green Lantern wouldn’t have affected the story one bit, would have been less expensive, and wouldn’t have been as distracting.

Still, I should get back to the writing, because my concerns about the FX are small potatoes compared to the script issues. Nothing sums up the film’s obvious problems more than its complete mishandling of Oa and the Green Lantern Corps. What separates Green Lantern from other superhero books is the idea of an interstellar police-force, one with hundreds of characters and a rich, complex mythology. Sadly, this is given just the slightest of attention here – don’t believe the ads, which make it look like a significant portion of the movie takes place on Oa (home planet of the Corps), or that other great Lantern characters like Kilowog and Tomar-Re are given their due. Reynolds spends barely any time on Oa before quitting the Corps in a huff and flying back to earth (and if he quit, why exactly was he allowed to keep the ring?), returning only for a quick meeting with the Guardians near the end. This means that very little time is spent with other Green Lanterns.

It’s a terrible decision that hurts not only the Hal Jordan character (wouldn’t it have been more interesting to see him discover his heroic side with help from fellow Corps members, instead of from his boring friends down on Earth?), but also makes the Corps seem ultimately pointless. The way the movie tells it, the supposed “best” members of the Corps are almost instantly slaughtered when they first encounter Parallax, until Hal Jordan – who has been a Lantern all of two days – comes along and essentially tells them they have been doing their job wrong for centuries, and then proceeds to single-handedly defeat the giant monster that the entire Corps couldn’t handle. So why are we supposed to care about these guys again?

The character this hurts the most, not surprisingly, is Sinestro, which is too bad, because Mark Strong really does seem to have been born to play the part. But although we are told he is the Corps’ greatest member, we don’t really get to see him do ANYTHING over than give a few speeches. What’s worse is the film never gets into the Jordan-Sinestro relationship. Judging by the terrible, un-motivated scene during the end-credits, the filmmakers clearly wanted the next film to be about Sinestro’s betrayal of the Corps and his ascension to Jordan’s arch-villain, but didn’t they realize they were robbing that storyline of its depth and emotion by failing to give the two characters a relationship in this movie? I mean, seriously – there are four credited writers on this thing. How did none of them realize this was a major issue?

I feel bad for Strong, but he’s not the only actor wasted here. I’ve already mentioned the film’s poor handling of Hector Hammond, which is even more of a shame given that Peter Sarsgaard’s over-the-top, “eh, fuck it, this is stupid but I’m at least gonna have fun” performance is one of the film’s few highlights. It would have been nice to have seen the film treat the character with the importance and screen-time the performance deserved. Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett are apparently both on hand just to pick up summer paychecks, but neither fully embarrass themselves. And despite a number of reviews stating otherwise, I didn’t even find Blake Lively all that bad in this (though, that being said, there was also absolutely nothing about her performance that got me excited about potentially seeing the Star Sapphire storyline brought to screen later).

And then, of course, there’s Ryan Reynolds, who for the umpteenth time in his career does a very good job playing Ryan Reynolds. Look, I didn’t hate him in the role, and there are even occasional flashes of the Hal Jordan I know and love in his performance (most of them before he actually gets the ring). And there's a particularly funny moment making fun of the ridiculous notion of superhero masks that I think Reynolds was the perfect guy to deliver. But he is eventually undone by a script that often treats Jordan like a whiny loser who needs to be told he can be a hero, rather than the brash, cocksure hero of the comic (which is surprising, since the latter would actually be a far more natural fit for Reynolds’ typical demeanor). I’m still not sure Reynolds was exactly the right choice for this part (as cliché as it might be, I’m still sticking with Nathan Fillion), but in the end the problems with the film are no fault of his own, and I would have been more-than-happy to give him another shot in a sequel (provided there was first a near complete overhaul of behind-the-camera talent).

Alas, judging by the poor word of mouth and unimpressive opening weekend numbers, it seems questionable whether we will ever get that sequel. And yet, despite my Green Lantern fandom, I am not that disappointed by that fact. They had their shot, and they blew it. Neither the writers nor director Martin Campbell “got” Green Lantern. Campbell is often a dependable (if unremarkable) director, but he seems in over his head with this one. I get the feeling he has no natural affinity for the character and his universe, or even the genre; the film usually feels like it is being made by someone who trying to replicate what they think a superhero movie should be. There’s a fairly obvious difference between Campbell’s work here and movies like Iron Man, X-Men: First Class and Thor - movies made by filmmakers who actually love the source material and are keen to honor and protect it.

There are brief – very brief – moments here and there when this feels like the Green Lantern movie I’ve waited years to see (like when it says “Green Lantern” during the credits, for instance), but overall this film is such a colossal disappointment that I feel weary and worn-out even now, sitting here remembering it in order to write this review. I realize most of my complaints are coming from a Green Lantern fanboy perspective, but truthfully I think it's a bad movie on a number of levels. At a time when the superhero movie genre has been risen to impressive heights by a number of well-done films, Green Lantern is a depressing throwback to the era of studios trying to cash in on the names without really taking the time to examine what makes them special. There was a lot of talk before the movie's release about how its mix of humor, heart and space-action would make this DC's version of Star Wars. Who knew they were unfortunately referring to The Phantom Menace?

The 411: There is perhaps no other comic-book superhero more deserving of a great film than DC's Green Lantern, which makes this colossal misfire an even bigger disappointment. A team of decent actors can't overcome distracting FX, terrible plotting, and flaccid direction. I'd say "better luck next time," but after this depressing entry, a "next time" seems like something of a pipe-dream.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]