Introduction:
I'm a Lantern Fan:
You may already know from reading my review of Buried that I really like Ryan Reynolds. What you may not know is that I am a comic book freak with an inclination toward the Green Lantern and Spiderman (my favorites from each of the major labels). When I heard that this movie was coming out I was excited at the idea of seeing one of my favorites on screen, and fearful about how wrong it could go.
From an early age I loved the concept of the Green Lantern, a being who is purposefully chosen to be a hero. This is a major difference from many heroes. Normally, heroes and villains fall into one of three categories:
- Born with powers (Superman, Doomsday)
- Gain powers through some sort of accident (Spider-man, Hulk)
- Have no powers, but have the will, determination, and resources to fight/commit crime (Batman and Joker)
But Green Lantern was chosen, because he had the necessary willpower within him to use the powers of the ring, and over come fear. The powers he has are limited only by his imagination and his ability to focus his will, even in the face of great danger.
There have been many lanterns, through out the history of the series but Hal Jordan is the go to. He was the first Green Lantern during the Silver Age of comic books (a reinvention of the superhero universe that tended toward, science rather than magic as the source of power for most heroes). The virtues of the Green Lantern Corps are noble, their powers intriguing and I can't help but like them.
Just as a note I will only write that information that comes from the movie in discussing the film itself.
Comic book Movies:
The other caveat I have is that it's hard to pinpoint what makes a comic book into a good movie, and unfortunately DC didn't hire Christopher Nolan to handle all of their movie titles. Nolan understood something important in the writing of the Batman reboots, you don't write the movie just for fans. You stay true to the material, and you write a movie that a person who knows nothing of the comic can enjoy. So far he's the only person to ever really get that. His movies require no background knowledge of the material, they are self-contained and will do everything you'd expect of any other movie.
Comic book movies in general depend on one thing: Branding. You know the name so you go see the movie. They cram a bunch of characters and names into the plot to keep the fans happy, and build everything else around action and sex appeal, largely ignoring the actually defining characteristics of the universe and the established rules. In my opinion some of the worst offenders of this process have been: DareDevil, Supermans 3, 4 and Superman Returns, GhostRider, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Spiderman 3, Electra, X-men 3 and both Fantastic Four movies. I've seen each of these movies more than once and for each of watching I couldn't enjoy it. I'm sure there are others I wouldn't like, because they aren't good movies. They may be cool to watch, and neat to see if you know the characters, but the stories simply aren't good, and with film being the most narrative of all forms of media, the story needs to be good. They don't all need to be The Dark Knight but closer to that than what they are.
In Theaters:
I don't have this movie with me to go through and verify and reflect the way I do with other materials I review so give me that credit if you notice something I said that differentiates from the movie.
With all of that said let's get to the review.
Setting:
The movie is split between two major locations: Coast City, a fictional California city meant to be something like Los Angeles or San Deigo, and Oa, the home planet of the Green Lantern Corp located somewhere near the center of the Universe. It should be noted that in this universe the colors are important. There is an Emotional Electro magnetic Spectrum that includes Green for will power, and Yellow for fear.
Characters:
Heroes:
Hal Jordan:
Let's start with the hero, Hal Jordan. Like his comic book counterpart he is a cocky self-assured test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. He has followed in his father's footsteps. He is also haunted by the memory of his father's death in a flight related accident. This fear continues to plague him professionally and is one of the only things that keeps him from being truly the best pilot out there. He is clever and imaginative enough to beat a pair of AI driven jets that are supposed to be unbeatable. It is his willful drive to never give up that most qualifies him to become a Green Lantern when Abin Sur (an injured and dying Green Lantern) lands on Earth and the ring chooses Hal to be his successor.
Thaal Sinestro:
He is the leader from among the 3600 Lanterns. He is a noble individual. Sinestro is controlled and in command at all times. When the Parallax begins to threaten Oa, however, Sinestro begins to succumb to fear. Sinestro rides out with a group of Lanterns to meet the threat head on, and barely escapes with his life, having seen the monster plant fear in their hearts and feed off of it until they were dead. Though Jordan warns that you can't come back from fear, Sinestro Parallax's power. This leads him to push for the forging of a ring that can harness the yellow power of fear, he wants to master fear, which he believes will give him the power to defeat Parallax. (more on this concept later). He goes from a point of controlled confidence to fearful begs to forge the yellow ring.
The Guardians:
These are some of the oldest being in the universe. They are immortals who were the first to understand the emotional electro-magnetic spectrum, and they chose to harness the most powerful force in the universe, the Green energy of willpower produced by all sentient beings in the universe. Using this power they create the planet Oa, and found the Green Lantern Corps assigning one lantern to each of the 3600 sectors of the universe. They are beings of great power and wisdom and among the lanterns they hold the greatest reverence.
Villains:
Hector Hammond:
Hammond is a xenobiologist and professor at a local university in Coast City. He is recruited to examine Abin Sur's body, which was recovered by the government. He is accidentally exposed to some of Parallax' essence in the body. This begins a transformation in his body. The fear he has of failure, being unloved by Carol, being second rate to his father (behind Hal) and of being looked down on by everyone feeds the growth of Parallax's power and connection with him. He becomes fixated on his fear of being alone and seeks to claim Carol for himself. Eventually Parallax uses him as a puppet trying to get him to kill the Lantern before Parallax arrives at Earth.
Parallax:
At some point in their history, The Guardinans entertained the idea of harnessing another power of the spectrum, fear, but they found it too unstable to capable of overpowering the user. But one of them was not convinced and tried on his own to harness the power, the result was that the yellow energy began to control him, transforming him into a monster that was empowered by feeding on the fear and life force of other sentient beings. Many years ago Abin Sur along with the rest of the Guardians imprisoned Parallax hiding him away. Unfortunately, as often happens when you try to hide your problems, he resurfaces, seeking his revenge on Abin Sur. Fatally injuring him, then turning his eyes on Oa. Hector Hammonds accidental bond to Parallax draws the creature to earth. Seeking to destroy the ring of Abin Sur, which imprisoned him.
Civilians:
Carol Ferris:The up and coming operator of Ferris Aircraft and love interest of Hal Jordan. They've dated before, but Hal has always run from commitment.
Plot:
The story focuses on the Hal Jordan accepting his role as a hero, when he has avoided responsibility most of his life. The Green Lantern Corp itself is threatened very directly and seeks to fight against this threat. Hal's resolve is ultimately tested by the threats of Hector Hammond and Parallax. He must learn to conquer his fear within if he is to defeat the villains who have embraced the power of raw fear.
Critical Analysis:
Themes:
Will and Fear
The primary theme of the movie, as well as the comic, is that Will Power is a powerful force. That fear gives power but that it comes at the loss of control. Parallax and Hammond are each reduced to monsters by the embracing of fear. The Guardians, the Corps, and Hal must all learn to conquer fear in their hearts if their power is to be at it's greatest. Carol expresses it by telling Hal that what the ring saw in him wasn't that he was without fear, but that he had the ability to overcome that fear, and that is a mark of a great Green Lantern.
Responsibility:
Hal has dodged responsibility at every turn. He keeps from committing to family, work, or anything else, but when the ring selects him, he begins to realize that this is something greater than himself. It is the direction his willful nature has needed all along. He embraces not only the power of the ring but the responsibility that comes with it.
Music:
The score was well done. Rising and falling with the action. A score is only as good as the movie it's attached to (with the possible exception of Chariots of Fire). The movie wasn't dark or intense enough to require a Hans Zimmer, nor was it triumphant enough for John Williams. created a solid score, complementing the story being told and the visuals that we are given.
Acting:
normally this is the one that kills a comic book movie, overacting tends to run rampant in these sorts of movies, but honestly The acting in Green Lantern was great, with maybe one exception.
Ryan Reynolds:
I was nervous when he was selected. I like him, but he didn't strike me as a good Hal Jordan... that is until I reread some of the comics. Hal is cocky, witty and all the things that Reynolds sells best. My concern was that this would require being serious every once in a while, but as with movies like Smokin' Aces, Definitely, Maybe, and Buried I was shown once more that Reynolds (despite his history of being a good looking smart alek) is a very good actor when called upon. He delivered the inner struggle of Jordan, excellently. I have thought many times that surely there was another actor we could have gotten to play the lead, and there may be, but this was a stellar job.
Peter Sarsgaard:
Could you pick a better character to be a mad scientist? I think not. He captures the steady decline of Hector Hammond in a way that makes it believable, but oh so creepy. He's never what you'd call normal, but Sarsgaard shows him to be an innocent, all be it quirky, scientist is rotting from the inside out.
Mark Strong:
Once again an actor who nailed his part. He was noble and respectable. In some media Sinestro is treated like a high-toned sniveling character, the sort of character who would never gain the admiration of the Corps. Strong delivers a performance that shows his serious character and his desperation to defend the corps at all costs. Strong showed that he understood the character when he said, "[Sinestro] is a military guy but isn't immediately bad. It's the kind of person he is that lends himself to becoming bad over the course of the comics being written, but initially he’s quite a heroic figure."
Blake Lively:
Admittedly I'm not a fan of her. I've seen her in a few different things and none of them convinced me she would be good for the role. I still feel that some beautiful, serious actress out there could have beaten her performance, but she did well. In the overall cast she is the only weak member. Her performance isn't abysmal, but I never really buy it when she is being serious or showing meaningful emotions like sadness, love or fear. The rumor that Eva Green, Keri Russell, Diane Kruger were all considered makes me wonder why none of them got the gig.
Writing:
Like most things writing can absolutely kill a movie, and the writing for this one certainly caused some internal bleeding. As a fan I have complaints about the discrepancies with the source material, but earnestly, few of them matter in a movie sense. The integrity of the material was kept in tact. The real problem is that this writing didn't make for a good movie.
Imagination:
We need some. This movie is based on the premise of a character who is only as powerful as his imagination, but we see very little of it come out. There are very few uses of the power ring. The race car track was a good one, and manifesting jets to pull him away from the sun was clever, but those were the only moments that got me thinking, "Man his imagination is limitless." A machine gun turret against an amorphous cloud creature is just foolish. I blame this on the fact that few characters powers require the level of creativity we encounter with the Green Lantern. This is not to say that those characters don't need people to be creative. Batman's gear and how he uses it is nothing short of creative. The same with Superman or Spiderman utilizing their intellect in conjunction with their powers.
Not only do his manifestations (ya know his powers), lack creativity, but the best we can conceive of is that the interstellar being (a former guardian and immortal with all the wisdom and knowledge that involves) doesn't know that the suns gravity could pull him in! I was hoping for something epic. The comic has a great idea for this part, bring in the Guardians and the Corps! This is the only place where I have to make that wholly annoying statement, "The original story was better." If you don't have an idea that trumps the original, stick with it.
Pacing:
You know you're in a poorly written movie when the exposition is more enthralling than some of the battles. A long segment was spent establishing (somewhat poorly) the relationship between hal and his family, we didn't need this, we never see these characters again and any connections we make with them are wasted. In fact we only really have this scene to plant the idea of a race car track in our minds while Hal talks to his nephew. Now pacing is a joint issue that exists between the director and the writers, consider this a shot at both.
Dialogue:
Much of the dialogue was uninspired and cliche. There were jokes, which landed more often than not, but this isn't a comedy. It almost feels like these writers knew how to write for aliens, but not for their own species. The dialogue among the lanterns and the Guardians is crisp and functional, but land on earth (that place that you're from, Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Mark Guggenheim, and Michael Goldenburg) and the writing becomes so ridden with cliches and aphorisms that it felt like I was transitioning between two different movies. In truth it was the opposite of what I felt in Thor, I was always wanting more time with my own kind in that movie, this one made me long for Kilowog and Tomar-Re just to hear some decent chatter.
Narration:
I've already alluded to this, but let me make it clear. The exposition of the story was excellent. The opening dialogue and the later story of how parallax came to be, were both portions of this movie I enjoyed. The story was told well in these moments, but this only further frustrates me that most of the human characters can't say anything in a compelling fashion. If the intent was to show how undeveloped we are in comparison to these more ancient races I think all the writers really did was show how underdeveloped they are by comparison to good screenplay writers.
Direction:
Martin Campbell directed Mask of Zorro, Golden Eye, and Casino Royale. This brings me to my question: "Why was the action so disappointing in this movie?" I read the comics, and have watched cartoon imaginings of these characters that each result in more compelling battles than this. The training fight between Sinestro and Jordan was a good one, but few other fights/battles had me concerned about the outcome. The battle between the group of lanterns and Parallax was interesting because we were seeing that the lanterns had come up against an power they couldn't easily overcome. Once again Earth seems to be the problem, because once we are there the villains seem so inept. Hector Hammond's giant brain benefits him nothing in his short fight with Hal, and Parallax has nothing other than size and intimidation to benefit him. Why not have him gain control of Carol and use her life against Hal. That would be compelling, but simply having her be present doesn't concern us.
That said Campbell's visual direction and his ability to bring a good performance out of his actors (excepting my opinion of Miss Lively) were top notch. The feel of Oa, the vastness of space the look of the green energy were spot on as were the performances of our principal actors.
Final Thoughts:
I like this movie. Some of that is fanboy, loyalty and some of that is the simple fact that I can't discard what I liked about it, because of what I didn't like. This movie doesn't unseat The Dark Knight as my favorite Super Hero Movie. It doesn't even break into my top five (Spiderman, Superman, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man), but it's nowhere near the bottom 5 either (X-men 3, Spider-man 3, Electra, Fantastic Four 2, Ghost Rider). It's the biggest box office success of the summer, nor does it deserve to be. It is truly an average super hero movie, which would have been fine a few years ago, however the current atmosphere for comic book movies makes this movie to little too late.
Marvel on the war path to dominate the genre with The Avengers and all of it's build up films (two of which you'll note in my top 5), and Christopher Nolan is redefining the genre altogether with his Batman reboot. I'm sorry Green Lantern, but you've got nothing on those guys. It was fun. If you make a sequel I'll show up, but if it sucks I may need to blow up the WB studios.
Ti Voglio Bene,
-matt
