Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard
Director: Martin Campbell
Rating: 2/5
In the world of comics, there’s always war between the giants of Marvel and DC. But while Marvel has more heroes than you can shake a stick at, what comes to mind when you think DC?
After Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman, you start running out of household names. It takes a much deeper knowledge to get to The Flash, Aquaman and the latest to hit the big screen, Green Lantern. So does he light up the room, or just leave everything looking slightly sickly?
The Green Lanterns are an intergalactic police force, keeping the universe safe from evil by wielding rings of enormous power. When their top warrior Abin Sur is fatally injured by the all consuming evil of Parallax (a rather nasty individual), he must crash land on the nearest planet to pass on his ring of power.
Conveniently enough, that’s Earth. There the ring chooses Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), a cocky, self sure but gifted fighter pilot. When selected, he’s transported by the ring to the planet of Oa, the home of the Green Lantern corps.
He must learn how to use its power to save Earth and his childhood friend and sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) from Parallax and the scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), who’s driven evil by the aforementioned big bad.
Somewhere in the Green Lantern universe there lays a great film. Unfortunately, this defiantly isn’t it.
Green Lantern feels like a superhero film from a decade ago. While the special effects budget has increased, it’s still weighed down by TV levels of writing.
It’s a feeling that riddles the whole of the ‘on Earth’ sections of the film, with hackneyed dialogue, some bizarre music choices and inconsistent and plodding storytelling.
While Reynolds and Lively do their best, striking up a half decent rapport, they can’t elevate a script quite a lot worse than the best TV dramas, let modern movie standards.
Hal Jordan’s also not a great character, made worse that his enemies are so woefully weak. Sarsgaard’s mad scientist is simply annoying and Parallax is less imposing than the average rain cloud.
What was needed, and briefly touched on, was more time on Oa. What’s given is a great start, but that’s all it is, a brief taster for what should already have been there. The few minutes spent on the emerald world are defiantly the film’s high point.
With Marvel now the dominant force during the summer movie months, DC needed to score big with Green Lantern. Sadly, it’s more like an own goal and while not really bad, is a big waste of potential.
Green Lantern is out now
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Green Lantern