Green Lantern
I will preface this review by saying that I am not a comic book geek, I know nothing of the origins of the Green Lantern and I was horrified that Ryan Reynolds was being given the lead role in a superhero film.
I should also mention that after seeing the trailer for the film I wasn’t really expecting much.
The basic storyline is this: Cocky fighter pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds) has huge issues living up to the memory of his pilot dad, but one night stumbles on a dying alien who gives him a magical ring – a ring that chose Hal – a ring that will help Hal save Earth. After flying off to a distant planet to discover that he’s one of thousands of chosen Green Lanterns, Hal decides to give up and go back to his normal life.
Of course trouble follows him and he has to man up, face his past and his fears and save earth.
It’s a really bad mash up of Top Gun meets SuperHulkSpiderman and surprisingly the only thing that gives Green Lantern any remotely redeeming features is Reynolds portrayal of the Hal character.
Green Lantern is full of missed opportunities. We’re shown a glimpse of a magnificent world full of amazing alien life forms, but only offered a speech that is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Then we get to see Hal’s combat training – designed to help him unleash his imagination fueled abilities, it’s a rare spark of magic, that is extinguished all too soon for a non-sensequal story-line that throws unnecessary plot elements – like Tim Robbins disposable character – at you for no apparent reason other that to elongate the film and supposedly cut back on CGI costs.
In short, Green Lantern is the worst comic book hero film since Jonah Hex.
FILMGUIDE rating:
Reviewed by: Jonathan
