Green Lantern
When it comes to the superhero movie, times have changed. During the 70s, 80s and 90s, DC Comics ruled the multiplexes with fantastic adaptations of their comic books. Meanwhile…Marvel Comics churned out nothing but bunkum. DC gave us a couple great “Superman” movies (Reeves not Routh) and “Batman” films (Keaton not Clooney) as Marvel eked out a direct-to-video version of “Captain America,” a direct-to-oblivion version of “The Fantastic Four” and turned “The Punisher” into a terrible Dolph Lundgren vehicle.
For the last few years, however, the marvels at Marvel have been releasing stellar films almost bi-weekly (“Ironman,” “Thor”) while DC has been resting on Chris Nolan’s vision of “Batman”. DC’s latest attempt to regain a share of the booming superhero market is the new action flick, “Green Lantern”. Sadly, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Modern Marvel Movie and has about as much charm as “The Punisher”- the terrible Thomas Jane vehicle.
Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a fearless, crackerjack fighter pilot who is a bit of a maverick with the ladies (“Top Gun” pun very much intended). He works for a defense weapons company along side his ex-flame, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively). During a weapons demonstration that goes smashingly wrong, we find out (through cheese-soaked flashback) that Hal is haunted by the death of his fearless, crackerjack fighter pilot father. What to do? Our hero is flawed.
One evening, Hal is picked up by an energy orb and transported to the wreckage of a spacecraft were a dying purple alien entrusts upon him a fancy green ring and a fancy green lantern that acts as a ring recharger when the ring needs recharging. As the bearer of the ring, Hal becomes a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a sort of cosmic cop force sworn to protect their sector of the Universe by harnessing the power of will. Or will power. Or whatever.
If that seemed like an abrupt shift in the synopsis, that’s because erratic storytelling is one of many shortcomings of “Green Lantern”. There are long, drawn-out expository scenes that drag on, and then the film skips and skims over seemingly important information. The movie is a sort of cinematic manic-depressive. Up one minute, down the next.
Not that the premise wasn’t promising. The full-tilt fantasy and science fiction elements should have been refreshing and much of the imagery could have been yanked directly from the books. But there are too many computer generated creatures looking too cartoony and you never believe that Hal is sharing the same space with them. Also, when Hal learns to use his powers, he generates weapons out of thin air. The effect is too similar to what Jim Carrey did in 1994’s “The Mask” and even though “Green Lantern” predates that material by decades, the result is ho-hum and familiar (and hard not to chuckle at).
One final nit pick that has very little to do with nearly anything. When Ryan Reynolds wears his mask, he looks distractingly like Ben Stiller. Not a criticism, just an observation.
“Green Lantern” falls flat at nearly every angle. Peter Sarsgaard tries to pull off the “quirky bad guy” role with his work as Hector Hammond but it never gels. His makeup in the last act of the film makes him look like a rejected criminal from Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy”. Call him “Melonhead”. So instead of being invested and engaged in the climactic confrontation, I was thinking to myself, “Look, it’s Ben Stiller vs. Melonhead. In 3-D, no less.” Not the reaction the boys at DC were aiming for, I’m guessing.