Green Lantern
What is it about the DC Universe that Warner Bros. can’t quite crack when it comes to bringing DC Comics’s gallery of superheroes to the big screen? True, there have been flash-in-the-pan triumphs such as Richard Donner’s “Superman: The Movie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” films, but for the most part, the studio’s attempts at the genre have been, sadly, lacking when compared to the successes Marvel has delivered with their franchises.
The first non-“Superman,” non-“Batman” superhero to come to movie theaters, “Green Lantern,” doesn’t instill me with much hope that Warner Bros. will ever get things right. The film, directed by “Casino Royale’s” Martin Campbell, has a compelling origin story to bring to life, and an ideally-cast Hal Jordan in Ryan Reynolds, but for some reason it just doesn’t work as much as audiences will want it to.
As with so many superheroes-to-be, Hal Jordan has daddy issues. His father was a pilot for the Air Force when he died in an accident when Jordan was young, and now Jordan flies as well. His approach is one of reckless arrogance, but he’s a pilot in the movies– that shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising, to nobody more than Jordan, is that the ring of the Green Lantern Corps chooses Jordan when its current bearer, Abin Sur, crash lands on Earth after the alien presence known as Parallax (which feeds on the fear in lifeforms) mortally wounds him. Is Jordan really capable of joining the Corps? The Corps’s leaders, such as Sinestro (Mark Strong), are uncertain of a human’s chances as a Lantern, and Jordan’s lifelong friend Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) has her doubts as well, even after Jordan’s debut as a Lantern on Earth (not dissimilar to Superman’s in the original Richard Donner classic). But we are told that the ring doesn’t make mistakes in choosing a Lantern; whether it’s battling Parallax or a rival scientist who comes in close contact with the fear of Parallax (Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard), Jordan will have to prove himself worthy of the honor.
The screenplay, by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, and Michael Goldenberg, follows the same formula of many other superhero origin stories before it, especially “Superman: The Movie” and Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man.” This is both a good and bad thing; the tone is lighter than we’ve seen in some recent superhero films, but the film also struggles with keeping with a consistent tone for the too-brief 105 minutes. For all the majesty and awe of Jordan’s time on Oa, and the playful tone of his training with fellow Lanterns Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush), there’s the silliness of Hammond’s transformation into an agent of Parallax; this is Sarsgaard’s lowest moment on-screen, a far cry from the strong character work he delivered in “Kinsey” and “Jarhead.” But narrative tone isn’t the only problem the film has: for a $200 million dollar production, with a director as skilled as Campbell and a cinematographer as talented with digital camerawork as Dion Bebbe (“Chicago,” “Miami Vice,” “Memoirs of a Geisha”), the film looks like a movie that ran out of money before it could be finished. This is an ugly film to look at a lot of the time, whether you’re watching in 2D or 3D, which is a shame, ’cause there’s as much potential for a visual feast as any superhero movie since “Superman.” Oa should look as majestic as Krypton did, and yet, it looks like something out of a cheap sci-fi film. How did that happen?
All that being said, “Green Lantern” remains a solid narrative entry into this world, especially when it comes to the relationship between Jordan and Carol. Lively, the “Gossip Girl” and “Accepted” actress, lacks the strong personality of Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts; she’s closer to Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson, who was failed more by writing in the first “Spider-Man” than by her talent. But Lively’s scenes with Reynolds have an effortless chemistry that makes their bond palpable– I do want to see where they could take these characters in future films. And Reynolds is terrific as Hal Jordan; as it was with Christopher Reeve and Tobey Maguire, the producers went with an actor capable of keeping things light even when the story gets to its darkest moments. They didn’t need an actor like Christian Bale or Hugh Jackman, able to access their dark side at the drop of a hat, but Reynolds shows enough of a dramatic weight that one can see him able to tangle with deeper themes and storylines if given the opportunity. Even if the film he starts Jordan’s journey out with isn’t perfect, I think even the harshest critics of “Green Lantern” would have to agree that Reynolds makes you care about this character and how he becomes this iconic hero.
