Green Lantern (***)
Directed by: Martin Campbell
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong,
Angela Basset, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison, Taika Waititi, Geoffrey Rush
(voice), Michael Clarke Duncan (voice)
Seen: June 25th 2011
*** Out of ****
Green Lantern doesn’t necessarily take comic book movies to the same
soaring heights as The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, or Spiderman 2, but I
believe it does the genre more good than bad; which is more than Spiderman 3 or
Thor could say. In context of the story the dialogue is believable, the plot acceptable,
and Ryan Reynolds gets some good mileage off a few jokes and injects his
character with some honest feeling – or what one would expect from confronted
with this specific happenstance.
The Green Lantern Corps was created by the Guardians - who may or may
not be as intelligent as they’d like to believe - to protect the universe’s 3600
sectors, one Green Lantern per sector. They command the green power of Will, with
only their imaginations as limitation. The very powerful and highly malevolent entity
Parallax, who commands the yellow power of fear, was imprisoned in a lost
sector by one of the most respected Green Lanterns ever, Abin Sur (Morrison). But
Parallax escapes, and after destroying entire planets and killing 4 Green Lanterns,
he goes after Abin Sur, and catches him by surprise. Abin Sur is mortally
wounded, but escapes to earth. Here he activates his ring to search for a
worthy successor, and it finds Hal Jordan (Reynolds), who now has some big
shoes to fill as the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps as he is transported
to Oa, the Green Lanterns’ home planet. He meets various other Green Lanterns:
Sinestro (Strong), the leader of the Lanterns; Tomar-Re (Rush), Hal’s teacher;
and Kilowog (Duncan), his battle trainer.
Abin Sur’s body is discovered by the US government, and under Dr. Waller (Basset), scientist Dr.
Hector Hammond (Sarsgaard) is called in to investigate. He is infected though,
and soon enough he’s a monstrously deformed and yellow-eyed Parallax agent
wielding dangerous telekinetic powers. Meanwhile Hal is having trouble fully
committing to his role as Green Lantern, and it’s only when things start
getting heated that he’s spurred into action, producing some interesting use of
his green-ring superpowers as Parallax descends on earth in an ominous, tentacle-touting
black cloud.
Ryan Reynolds’ irrepressible self is hard to contain, and he is in
great form yet again, balancing the serious with the humorous as the title
character. Mark Strong is quickly becoming a singular character across almost
all of his movies, but he injects his character with conviction and believability,
and Peter Sarsgaard is menacing and creepy enough while we wait for Parallax to
reach earth. Even though Carol Ferris (Lively), Hal’s romantic interest, is
portrayed as an important character (and is rather beautiful), when all is said
and done you don’t really remember her as much more than a side character next
to Tim Robbins as Senator Robert Hammond, Hector’s father; and Taika Waititi as
Thomas Kalmaku, Hal’s best friend.
Green Lantern is very entertaining, the special effects are pretty
decent, and while the movie falls short of the better superhero movies, it is
far better than Thor was earlier this year, and for a mindless afternoon or
evening of relaxed viewing pleasure you can’t go wrong here.
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