Off Topic Review: Green Lantern

Warner Brothers and DC Comic's latest entry into the Superhero genre, is a fun summer movie but lacks the emotional depth of Nolan's Batman films or the recent X-Men: First Class.  It is most similar to the first Iron Man film except without the awesomeness that is Robert Downey Jr.

One of my big issues with this genre is the why they go about introducing the heroes.  The origin story often, serves multiple purposes, it is targeted at those unfamiliar with the character from the comics, it has the make the character accessible to these new viewers.  Often because it is Hollywood the origin story also has to do more then that, we usually get some combination of three elements.  (1) Tragic event, (2) introduction of a love interest, (3) how the hero got their superpowers.

This often takes a lot of screen time in many films before we jump into the action and adventure that you go into the movie looking for.  If Green Lantern does one thing well early in the film, it is the scene with Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) and how he loses his father.  The way the scene is set, it shows both Hal's fearlessness as well as the emotionally traumatic event that shapes some of his personality issues that we see in the adult Hal Jordan. 

The love story in Green Lantern focuses on Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), complete with a jealous wannabe lover in Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) . Reynolds and Ferris maybe two of the most attractive people on the planet, but their chemistry and the story line of their love felt lacking in this film.  I think it would have been better served showing the three characters as children together instead of just referencing the fact that they all grew up together. 

One of the most disappointing parts of the film was Tim Robbins performance as Senator Hammond.  It felt like he was just cashing a paycheck, but that may have been partly his fault and partly the writing. 

Mark Strong does a very good job as Sinestro, however the fate of the character in the film while not a surprise was not foreshadowed well enough through the course of the movie.

The special effects were very good and I really enjoyed the scenes in space and on the planet Oa.  I also really enjoyed Reynolds comedic touches, the lantern scene was pretty funny. 

For Star Wars fans there are a couple familiar faces.  Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) plays Green Lantern Abin Sur and Savage Opress (Clancy Brown) provides the voice of Parallax. 

In the end, Green Lantern is a fun summer movie ride but a rather middle of the pack entry into the superhero genre of films.