Review: Green Lantern

On one side of the cinematic spectrum lies Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life; a film of so much beauty and grace. At the opposite end of this spectrum, buried under fifty feet of crap is Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern; a film so caught up in its dazzling 3D special effects (and they are impressive) that it is completely and utterly devoid of the real reasons why we go to the cinemas.

The film opens with an unfamiliar evil in the universe, Parallax, representing an unprecedented danger powerful enough to destroy civilizations and to defeat the Green Lantern Corps’ finest warrior, Abin Sur. Gravely wounded Abin Sur travels to the nearest inhabited planet for the replacement process. Enter Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, an arrogant test pilot who becomes the first human ever chosen into Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic brotherhood sworn to bring peace and justice throughout the universe. With the death of Abin Sur, a great light has gone out, and in the face of impending doom Hal Jordan is faced with the burden of being Earth’s only savior.

Peter Sarsgaard plays scientist Hector Hammond who during an autopsy on Abin Sur’s body becomes infected by Parallax’s DNA, giving him powers of telepathy and telekinesis; unfortunately at the cost of insanity and one giant forehead. The beautiful Blake Lively also stars as the Jordan’s long-time love interest, Carol Ferris, who unlike most superhero love interests is able to identify her significant other through his gimpy little superhero mask.

With Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern we are given a film that feels like a cheap carbon copy of superhero films of the yesteryear; offering elements of comic books movies we have all witnessed before while at the same time lacking in any form of originality. Ryan Reynolds’ cocky comedic charm isn’t put to best use here, in a role that would seem like a match made in heaven. The presence of both Peter Sarsgaard and Tim Robbins is also well wasted.

The general concept behind The Avengers film is actually pretty unique and points will certainly be given for the attempt, but the greatest concern is that the majority of the films tied into this upcoming marvel onscreen reunion leave much to be desired; with Green Lantern out-dueling The Incredible Hulk as the worst one of all. The film has no real climax and no sense of urgency, in fact for a super hero movie it really is quite dull, and at times excruciatingly painful. The film favours special effects over script; cool in-cohesive action over story; and lame one liners over character growth. Further proof that expensive special effects can’t make a movie, but lack of an original screenplay and an assortment of lousy uninspired performances can certainly break one.

Christopher Misch

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I've always loved movies, but it wasn't until under the tutelage of Professor Garry Leonard at the University of Toronto that my passion for the industry became an understanding of an art form. With a specific fascination in both the western genre and Asian cinema in general, I am of the view that good movies are either enlightening or entertaining, and if you are truly lucky they are both.