Finally got the chance to catch Green Lantern in the cinemas with the girlfriend this evening. As per my previous post, this was one of the few movies that I really looked forward to this summer as I've recently developed great respect and admiration for the green-clad ring-bearer of the DC Universe.
Off the bat, I have to say I was impressed by this movie. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a great movie, or a "wow" movie, to quote the girlfriend. Then again neither was it a flop by my measure.
The movie is an origins story of Hal Jordan (played by Ryan Reynolds)as he goes through life from working as a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft, run by Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) to becoming one of the greatest to ever wear the emerald ring on his middle finger. It also introduces the rest of the Green Lantern Corps, including drillmaster Killowog (voiced by Michael Clark Duncan), the wise Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush), and Corps leader Sinestro (Mark Strong). It also gives audiences a first glimpse of the green light of willpower's worst enemy, the yellow light of fear, as symbolized by the evil entity Paralax.
Now let's get to the opinions, insights, and reactions:
Reynolds acquitted himself pretty alright in this movie. His portrayal of Jordan and Green Lantern, while being a bit of a departure from how the character is traditionally portrayed in the comic books, was serviceable. He brought the charisma and quirkiness that he usually brings to any role to the character, making him more palatable to audiences who wouldn't really know who Hal Jordan or Green Lantern is. I caught myself questioning why he showed signs of being scared early on but later remembered that since this was an origins story and they had to show a "journey" of accepting the role of being Green Lantern, it made his earlier activity okay. Yes, he doesn't have the gravity of a Christian Bale (Batman), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), or even Nathan Fillion's voice (he does the voice of the WB cartoon version of the superhero), but his levity and playfulness adds a different kind of character to the DC superhero.
Lively is just as pretty as a brunette as she is blonde, if not even more so. And her delivery of Ferris is a nice tidbit to add on to for later movies. In the comics, she becomes a member of the Star Sapphires, who are the Corps of the Violet light of love, and her show of affection for Jordan throughout the movie was enough fodder for the Violet light to come and find her in sequels of this movie. When the cast for this movie was first announced, I never would have figured Lively to be the one to be picked to play Ferris. In my mind, she was just too young to play the character, especially opposite Reynolds. But with her acting proved me wrong, as she did quite well, showing that she had what was needed to pull off the character effectively enough.
Mark Strong, while not getting as much screen time, also did well as Sinestro. His delivery of the character added the gravity that Reynolds couldn't with Jordan. I actually imagined Sinestro to have a higher-pitched voice but the low timbre of Strong's voice worked well as the captain of the corps. It's just pretty sad that they left out a pretty telling detail that was in the GL mythos regarding Sinestro, which had a huge bearing on his future. I guess that's what poetic license entails. The way this movie portrayed him, you neither felt for or against the character, and it made you less emotionally attached to him in anticipation of sequels that surely have already been planned even while this movie was still being developed.
One more weak point in the film was a lack of a convincing-enough opponent. Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) was lined up to be the first opponent of Green Lantern but just wasn't able to do enough to credit being the perfect "arch-enemy." He already had the shared history with Jordan, and as I've discussed in previous posts this seems to be the formula that has been followed in superhero stories after Unbreakable hit the movie houses. He also used the supposed exact opposite power of the superhero's, the yellow light of fear. But the story of the movie just didn't work to make him a really convincing enemy that Jordan couldn't handle easily. The only other enemy in this particular movie was Paralax. But despite his supposedly being the embodiment of the yellow light, Jordan - a rookie and supposedly coming from one of the weakest races - easily handled it as well. But stay until right before the credits and you will see the great arch-enemy that Green Lantern will have for possible sequels.
Another glaring weak point of the movie was also Reynolds' lack of gravity. Having read the more recent comic books of Green Lantern - the ones leading to Blackest Night, I know that Hal Jordan, while he was headstrong and sometimes too "courageous," was still a pretty serious guy. He carried his father's death around with him and that was the reason why he had to be brave, why he had no fear of death, because he couldn't care about living. That was also the reason why he and Ferris never worked out - because he never really cared.
The girlfriend and I discussed this and the comparison with Robert Downey Jr. in his portrayal of Tony Stark was made. RDJ was able to pull off the happy-go-lucky character while maintaining gravity because of the fact that he was RDJ. It is something that comes with some more experience playing serious roles or a better mastery of the craft. Reynolds' attempt at the happy-go-lucky character just comes off as happy-go-lucky because he lacked the mastery of making the serious moments really compelling enough for the performance to merit a "great" label.
But with Reynolds' performance and the way the story was constructed, this detail was lost. Because the beginning part of the movie had to show a character who was at the starting point of his journey of growing into the hero he needs to become, they sacrificed that and showed a happy-go-lucky guy which, by the way, McAvoy played perfectly as well in X-Men: First Class. I mean, even in Jordan's first scene, you already knew that he was going to portray the character on the lighter side.
The direction was pretty humdrum. I didn't really feel the journey that Hal Jordan's character went through. It sort of just happened. Director Martin Campbell could have pushed for a more serious treatment of the Hal Jordan character from Reynolds, but only seemed to succeed in mellowing down his boisterous personality. He was able to get good performances from Sarsgaard, but then again, that's Peter Sarsgaard we're talking about, and Lively.
As for the story itself, as a stand-alone, don't care much for the comic book source except that I'm using names from it, kind of treatment, I guess this is okay. While they did borrow some elements from the Secret Origin series of Green Lantern and probably some of the other books that I have not had the pleasure of reading, they sort of did another re-telling of the Lantern's story as well. I personally think that a direct adaptation of the Secret Origin story would have been a better translation a la Zack Snyder's 300, but then again I don't know how much the fanboy in me has made that opinion biased. And let's face it, Christopher Nolan was able to adapt the Batman title uber-successfully into Batman Begins and Dark Knight. That's probably why I think that the story for this one is okay.
The pace of the story left me wishing that they would have taken their time in telling it. It seemed as if the movie was rushed along and the story had to be told in less than two hours (running time was 105 minutes as per imdb.com). So instead of getting in-depth regarding Jordan's fear stemming from his father's crash - something that wasn't quite explained - we get a rushed explanation during a conversation between him and Ferris. We also didn't see the growth of Jordan into a more powerful wielder of constructs, as his training was limited to less than ten minutes. Sinestro's struggle with the choices that he made and the ideas that he put out there was also rushed, and we never really get a clue about the festering change in his character... it just happens.
Now with regards to production value, I was quite impressed. A friend even told me that it looked really good on 3D. While the costume really left much to be desired, I liked the design of the lantern itself. Also, the CG was nice - from Killowog and Tomar-Re to the constructs.
All in all, I would have to say that this movie is just as my title says it is: neither a bright movie that wowed me, nor a dark flop that pushed me to stand up and leave the cinema. Compared to other superhero and comic book to film adaptations, this one doesn't rate against the Batman films I mentioned above or Iron Man. Then again, I would think that this fared well than Iron Man 2, Watchmen, and Superman Returns. It didn't have the whoah factor of the upper movies, but it did its job in telling the story better than those in the bottom.
Moving forward though, the comic book reader in me would like to see better adapted comic book superheroes, being more faithful to the text and really working out a story that keeps the essence of the characters of the mythos.
Grading this movie, I would have to break it down to the following elements: Acting - 3 of 5, Direction, 2 of 5, Story - 2 of 5, Production Value - 4 of 5. Overall, that gives this movie an average rating of 2.75 out of 5.
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