Watching Green Lantern Tests Willpower – movie review

I walked into Green Lantern attempting to have no expectations. I found this really hard to do, because I find the comic book series this film is based on to be one of the silliest of the DC Universe. I’ve never been attracted to the idea of an army of green-clad superheroes who can create anything using their magic power rings that are controlled through willpower. How do you adapt that to the big screen and have it not be ridiculous?

It’s a ballsy move to try, to be sure. I give everyone involved in the project huge props for even attempting it. Whether or not the final product works could go either way, depending on the expectations of the individual viewing it. All I can do is give my perspective, which unfortunately is a negative one.

The story goes that millions and millions of years ago the Guardians of the Universe formed the intergalactic force of good called the Green Lantern Corps. Each member, or “green lantern,” is given a sector of the universe to protect. They do this protecting with the green color of will. One of the Guardians desired to control the yellow color of fear, and it consumed him, becoming a being of pure fear called Parallax. Parallax mortally wounds a lantern called Abin Sur, who crash lands on Earth and bestows his power ring to Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). He’s a reluctant superhero but eventually gets his act together to take on the threat of Parallax.

The Green Lantern has a heavy mythology. There’s a lot of information to take in, and this was something I saw coming and knew was a necessity. If this is going to work at all you have to go all out. Some things are going to work better than others. There are logistical hiccups, but those are easier to forgive than some of the other more glaring issues.

The characters are mostly two-dimensional. Hal Jordan in particular was poorly written as a main character. His back-story is rather crudely shoved into the narrative with oddly placed, rapidly shown flashbacks. It’s perhaps the most forced character moment I’ve ever seen. Hal’s love interest Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) is just as boring and perhaps a bit more confusing. I couldn’t tell if she liked Hal or didn’t, because it was like she changed her motivations every scene she was in. At least Lively is fun to look at. The only interesting character is Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), but his potential is quickly wasted. As soon as his features became deformed, I stopped wanting to see him. His makeup work was really bad.

The special effects in the film were uneven. Sometimes they looked good, particularly the giant mass that is Parallax, but mostly I felt like I was watching animation you might find on a TV show. I expected things to look better for a high budget superhero flick like this one. Some of the aliens looked almost cartoonish. It was like they decided 80% of the movie HAD to be computer generated, and because of that they ran out of money to make everything look good. Some parts felt unnecessary. Even Hal’s mask is CG. Why? There’s so much that’s fake that it stands out like a sore thumb. When you watch a movie using CG you shouldn’t be able to look at it and say “That looks fake.” I thought that at least once every other scene. The 3D might as well have not even been there; it didn’t really help or hinder it.

DC has been planning to use Green Lantern as a starting point in their attempt to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the hopes of making a Justice League movie. If Green Lantern is any indication of what that franchise would be like, I would stay clear of it. It’s missing the quality character development that Iron Man had when it launched the Marvel franchise. And if I’m being honest, DC has way more bizarre superheroes than Marvel. Most of Marvel’s characters are by-products of science experiments gone wrong (except Thor, obviously), whereas DC has Green Lantern, Superman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. Only two of those people have nothing to do with aliens. It’s harder to relate to all these characters with intergalactic origins. I like my heroes as real as possible.

I can’t even say this movie was a disappointment, because I was subconsciously expecting it to fall short. And make no mistake, from my perspective it falls short. However, if you’re a fan loud noises and ridiculous action, you just might enjoy Green Lantern where I didn’t.