Director - Martin Campbell.
Stars - Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong & Peter Sarsgaard.
DC’s third major comic book film after the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, sandwiched by the flop that was Superman Returns leaves us pondering on how the adaptation of the Green Lantern will unfurl.
We are thrown into space where three aliens in astronaut style suits are on course for research or some seemingly acquitted expedition, until they fall into a trap by the villainous entity that is Parallax, who grows on others fear. After seeing this scene alone, it is merely brevity in reference to its huge budget, but justifiably as the CGI is inspired. Parallax then hunts down his subjugator, A member of Green Corps, (an interplanetary guard ensemble who live on Planet Oa) Abin Sur, however he fails in his attempt and a scathed Abin Sur flees to earth, to meet his successor as he must pass on his heroic callings and super powered ring, which can create anything one wills, in an illuminated green form.
Meanwhile scenes on earth show a young man by the name of Hal Jordan played by Ryan Reynolds, in his 3rd comic book character depiction. We are introduced to Hal as he wakes up late with his catch of the previous evening as he rushes of to his aviation practise but does this superhero pilot his way out of the saturated comic book movie box office?
Unfortunately the Emerald Knight is darkened by its many flaws, first the major cast member are miscast as funny man Ryan Reynolds is just too cocky to be considered likable, disparate to the Marvel Comics’ Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. Peter Sarsgaard’s character is akin to the ‘Freakshow’ of the Harold and Kumar films, but much of the blame falls to the writers, which there were many of, and did a very fragmented job as many came in to pick up the pieces of their predecessors.
The characters were unimaginably poor, for a film which had such few action scenes, you would imagine, deep character development with a bourgeoning story all amalgamated with moving dialogue. Instead you get the formulaic Hollywood lines that somehow flatten the already one-dimensional characters.
Blake Lively merely portrays the efforts of the make-up and wardrobe departments, as the films eye-candy, her mediocrity will have the audience from ‘The Town’ questioning why she deserved the hype in the first place. Geoffrey Rush plays Tomar-Re mentor to the guileless Hal Jordan. Like all others, a lifeless character resulting in Rush’s vocal contribution parallel to a droning audiobook narration voice-over.
Mark Strong depicts Sinestro, a member of Green Lantern Corps who is fundamentally incredulous over Abin Sur’s inexperienced successor. Mark Strong undoubtedly gives the strongest performance of the cast portraying Sinestro with a leading yet cunning presence.
Unfortunately, the criticism follows right on through many departments of the production. The score is at times cringe worthy too, especially within a scene where Kilowog (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan) is pitilessly training Hal Jordan to some tawdry ringtone-like hip hop instrumental.
The CGI is surprisingly impressive and maintains the interstellar edge well, although at times it looks like something out of a 6th generation games console, especially when it comes to the look of the Guardians albeit that the appearance was heavily moderated and filtered down from the promising concept art, which teased many of the fans.
The major problem with Green Lantern is the noticeable inconsistencies in its plot and characters, and the fact that it attempted to draw concepts from so many other comic book movies, the long scenes that bridge the action scenes were wasted as opposed to the suspenseful The Dark Knight, or the emotive Hulk. The humour was just ill-aimed unlike the calculated yet charismatic delivery of Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr.
All in all it’s a film that can’t find its own identity and fails at using too many formulaic methods of Hollywood film making and instead becomes a difficult 1 hour and 45 minutes for both fan and average movie-goer, falling abundantly short from fulfilling the comic book adaptations bright potential.
Icarus Conran is a freelance journalist with experience in writing and editing. To get in touch please contact via
[email protected]