Green Lantern has seen a bit of a roller-coaster in regards to the perception it's broadcast. The casting of Ryan Reynolds was met with praise by some, skepticism by many others. The first image of the suit seemingly was berated, then praised. The first trailer has awful CGI and none of us are willing to give it a chance...the second trailer convinces us we might be wrong. At the moment, reviews of Green Lantern are essentially negative - and they might be for good reason - though I have a feeling this is going to split us all down the middle once more.
As always, the bad news first.
THE BAD NEWS:
My main criticism of the movie is one that I see a lot of films falling victim to. Though I personally would have no problems sitting through a 5 hour film, I know that that is not feasible for everyone (including the theatres which would lose money). However, this film suffers from some missing time which in turn hinders the development of key aspects. For instance, those that were looking forward to some solid interaction between Sinestro and Hal are going to be gravely mistaken. The two have basically 3 short scenes with one another and that's it. There's even less for Hal and Kilowog. In fact, Hal's entire training is just one scene, which results in the feeling that everything is rushed. Hal Jordan goes from struggling to create constructs to doing it all perfectly at the drop of a hat? Impressive learning curve, but it is not as impressive of a story to tell. That lack of a transition means we can't take the journey with him.
The same applies for the concept of overcoming fear. Whereas Batman Begins (yes, another comic book film being compared to BB, don’t groan yet) sets up and fully lays out the metaphor of fear being a primary motivator and plot point for our protagonist, with Green Lantern, we're simply told this and expected to accept it. Hal Jordan, a guy who tells us in an awful dialogue exchange that the reason that he isn’t fearless is because he’s afraid (now you can groan), spends the majority of the film taking risks and acting like he’s fearless. We’re told by numerous characters, repetitively, that they can sense Hal’s fear, but we’re only shown that in one scene which frankly comes across more as the playful irresponsible guy losing track of his current situation via ADHD as opposed to him being paralyzed by fear.
In regards to the villains, the lack of time spent in building them up means that every scene Hector Hammond is in requires it to have been set with the purpose of a specific cliché. His scenes are a bullet point list. Introduction, initial incident, obtains power, freaks out, oh by the way he loves the girl, here’s the dad, now he’s a bad guy, that about wraps him up. The subplot of him against his father is so small that it almost makes no sense being in the film other than for the one solitary emphasis of how supposedly evil he is.
Parallax on the other hand isn’t even given a proper motive. Fear somehow corrupts you into an evil person and then you kill. That’s it. The audience is told that yellow = fear, fear = evil, with an addendum of “you know the rest”. Parallax exists in about the same capacity as Galactus does in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer in terms of character, which is not a compliment. I think it’s a shame that this first film was wasted on an octopus-looking Parallax when that could have been a central plot point of a sequel surrounding the Sinestro Corps. Granted, I wouldn’t want a whole film dedicated to the Tattooed Man, but still it seemed a bit like throwing all your eggs in one basket with nowhere to build.
Which brings me to the idea of what is epic and what is not. I got the sense throughout this film that they tried to give off the impression that EVERYTHING was to be taken as an epic moment as opposed to knowing which ones truly had the potential behind it. I lost count of how many scenes involved a close-up of someone’s face just to watch their eyes open. Once you’ve seen it for the third time, you know the fourth time it’ll do the same thing. The few moments that should have felt glorious were brought down by the proximity of lesser moments that they tried to convince you were more than what they were.
THE GOOD NEWS:
Now for the good news. In one regard, they surpassed my expectations when it comes to the visual effects. I was hesitant at first to jump on board when the CGI looked a little flakey on the first trailer, but they’ve cleaned it all up for the finished product. Though you could naturally tell that the suit Reynolds was wearing seemed just a little bit off, other aspects of the effects department were spot on. The constructs in particular were very fun and it was nice to see a wide range of choices. We had the classic shapes like the protective bubble and the fist, but also some more intricate ones. I’m sure they were challenging to pull off in a realistic sense, yet they accomplished that.
My criticism about the Parallax appearance and lack of development aside, I did like the adjustment in making Parallax a corrupted guardian as it gives them a purpose in the film. This shows that they have personalities, even though we only see one personality in this particular film amongst them, unfortunately. The very idea that one of them is not infallible means that they’re not all the robotic dictatorial hive-mind that they appear to be. Future installments of the series could elaborate on this.
Though it may not be a strong positive, as once more, it could have used additional time to give it a firmer foothold, the relationship between Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris is passable. At the very least, it’s nice to see a superhero film where they don’t try to force the idea of the generic love interest being able to get one up on the villain in a way that the hero can’t even do. If we take Carol at face value of being a bright young woman who is somewhat skilled at flying, she does nothing outside of the realm of possibility. They kind of beat you over the head with her being upset about Hal, but if you want to argue a case for them, you could say that her love for Hal is so intense that it can be a subject of the sequel (in a capacity I’m sure you’re all aware of).
FINAL VERDICT:
Green Lantern is a decent superhero film, but it is not a “good film”. There is literally only one Academy Award I could see it having the chance to be NOMINATED for and that’s Best Visual Effects, as the acting, the script, and even the score aren’t on par. Will your average audience take note of that? Most likely not. This means that it will be easier to please that crowd than those that look at films under a microscope and dissect them. Comic book fans may criticize some changes of the film (like Parallax looking more along the lines of an octopus than a weird insect), though some may like those changes (like myself enjoying Parallax as a guardian). True movie buffs will have less respect for the film, and rightfully so. Much like the rest of Green Lantern’s public opinion so far, I can see this being a film that splits people down the middle. The only question is which side you’ll be on.