Plot: A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
After Marvel delivered two strong comic book films in the summer of 2011, it would be nice to say that DC followed up with an equally engaging entry with the first cinematic outing of one of their signature characters, Green Lantern. Alas, that is not the case. While not a dud, Green Lantern comes up wanting in the comic book film sweepstakes, full of promise and failing to deliver on a significant portion of that promise.
Green Lantern introduces us to test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), who finds himself in a less than ideal position early in the film: he has crashed an expensive jet for his company, Ferris Aircraft, and most likely cost them a major military contract. He is disturbed by memories of his father, also a test pilot, who died flying a mission. He attempts to seek comfort in the friendship, and possible courtship, of longtime confidant Carol (Blake Lively), and when that ends with him walking away from her attempts to reach out to him, a major unexpected life-changing event lands, literally, in front of him in the form of Abin Sur (Temura Morrison), an alien from another planet who is a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Hal is selected by Sur's green power ring to take his place in the Corps, and Hal discovers that the Corps is a group of over 3,000 beings who have harnessed the green power of will to combat evil and keep the universe safe.
On the Green Lantern's home planet of Oa, Jordan quickly clashes with the leader of the Corps, Sinestro (Mark Strong), who believes humanity in general, and Hal Jordan in specific, is not strong enough to take on the mantle of the Green Lantern, and at first Jordan, uncertain of himself, agrees. But outside forces intervene in Jordan's decision to turn down his super powers: Abin Sur was assaulted by the creature Parallax, which is comprised of the yellow energy of fear, and was infected by some of Parallax's evil. When the body of Sur is discovered by the military, they bring in xeno-biologist Hector Hammond (Peter Saarsgard), who turns out to have some part connection to both Hal and Carol, to examine the remains of Sur. During his work, he is infected by Parallax, and quickly begins mutating into a force of destruction that is luring Parallax to Earth to consume it, and only Hal can combat it.
If Green Lantern has one major problem, it is that the screenwriters fail to capitalize on much of the meat of the story. There are so many elements in Green Lantern that have the potential to give it depth that when it fails to use them properly, it proves the film's undoing. Countless plot threads are introduced and then largely go nowhere. Hal's haunted memories of his father seem to be a big deal early, but taper off before the running time is even half over. The relationship between Hal, Carol and Hector is put on minor display for a few scenes, but are seemingly mostly window dressing to the plot to pay off some later scenes, and the plausibility of them all knowing each other, as awkwardly introduced in the film, seems a bit far-fetched as well. The list goes on and on, as the script mostly skirts by these ideas, never plumbing their depths, and then just moving on to the next scene. What results is a film that has a great deal of good material just under the surface, but the cover holding it back never comes off.
Ryan Reynolds proves an able lead in the role of superhero, with his usual charm and light touch working in the film and the character's favor. Despite the fact that the script doesn't really delve deeply into Hal as a person, Reynolds manages to get us to root for the character as much as possible even without the necessary depth to back it up. Blake Lively is a fetching actress, to be sure, but, as with so much else in Green Lantern, her simmering romance with Hal is thin and lacking, and her scenes have their charm at times, but you don't find yourself investing in their relationship. Peter Saarsgard does his best in the role of Hector, allowing us to see the wounded man that Hector wants to be presented as, but here, even more than any other of the leads, the film really drops the ball. Saarsgard's performance is strong enough that even as underdeveloped and underutilized as Hector is, there is a still a palpable degree of menace to him. Green Lantern may be the first comic book film where the villain seems like an afterthought, and Saarsgard proves how much of a missed opportunity Hector is.
Green Lantern isn't without its moments. The visual look of the film, especially in scenes set on Oa, have a degree of scope that proves effective in making the Corps sufficiently alien and opening up the film to the realm of space opera, which seems hard to come by these days. Also, the script and dialogue at times has some fun with the more traditional comic troupes, especially the idea that someone wouldn't recognize a person who was wearing what amounts to a harlequin mask over their face. Those jabs at comic book movies make you wonder why the screenwriters couldn't devote the effort they expended in tweaking the genre to also flesh out the story and characters more.
Green Lantern is hardly boring, and operates well enough at times as fetching eye-candy, but the film undercuts itself so often that it can only be described as a missed opportunity. It is difficult to predict whether it can manage to bring in enough bucks to justify a sequel, but if it does, perhaps someone will learn from their mistakes with this outing and deliver an entry that mines the material the second time around.
C
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