Two out of
Five stars
Running time:
112 mins
Disappointing superhero movie that delivers a couple of decent set pieces but is ultimately let down by a laughably poor script, some extremely dodgy editing, a lack of humour and a non-committal performance from Ryan Reynolds.
What's it all about?
Directed by Martin Campbell, Green Lantern is based on the DC Comics character and stars Ryan Reynolds as cocky test pilot Hal Jordan, who's still secretly haunted by the death of his father in a plane accident. After his latest stunt gets him grounded, Hal finds himself surrounded by a strange green light, which takes him to a crash-landed spaceship where a dying purple alien (Temuera Morrison as Abin Sur) tells him that the ring has chosen him and hands him a glowing green ring and ... um ...a lantern.
When the ring transports Hal to the planet Oa, he learns that he has become a member of an inter-planetary peace keeping force known as the Green Lantern Corps and that the ring enables him to create anything his mind can imagine. Meanwhile, an evil entity known as Parallax is planning to destroy the Earth (using the power of yellow) and when earth scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) becomes infected with Parallax's powers, he goes after Hal's on-off girlfriend, fellow test pilot Carol Ferris (Blake Lively).
The Good
Reynolds is an extremely likeable actor and he's great casting on paper, but in practice, it seems like his heart isn't really in it and he frequently has a pained expression on his face. Sarsgaard however, really throws himself into it and is basically the best thing in the film, while there's reliably decent support from Mark Strong (as Lantern Corps leader Sinestro) and Lively acquits herself nicely as Carol, even if she isn't given all that much to do.
To be fair, there are a couple of decent action sequences, but there aren't enough of them and the finale is flat-out confusing.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the film is roundly scuppered by a laughably poor script (try sitting through that first flashback scene without giggling) which combines shockingly bad dialogue (“Oh no! Yellow power!”) with a plot that feels awkwardly rushed, as if wanting to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. It's also glaringly obvious that large chunks of the film are missing; one particular scene has Hal appearing out of nowhere, with no set-up whatsoever.
On top of that, there's a painful lack of humour throughout and, well, the less said about Michael Clarke Duncan voicing a character called Kilowog, the better.
Worth seeing?
Green Lantern is something of a disappointment, thanks to a truly dreadful script, a lacklustre lead performance and a veritable hatchet job in the editing. See Thor again instead.