Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins
Directed By: Martin Campbell
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Green Lantern is about an test pilot named Hal (played by Reynolds) who stumbles upon a dying alien who bequeaths him with super powers in the form of a green ring and a green lantern. When an autopsy performed on the dead alien infects Dr. Hector Hammond (played by Sarsgaard) with the evil yellow fear blood of Parallax, the evil force that killed the alien, the alien battle comes to Earth. Now Hal must learn how to use his new super powers to save Carol (played by Lively) by battling Hector - and ultimately Parallax - to save Earth.
I thought that this movie had a lot of aliens for the sake of aliens. Let's make them purple skinned with funny ears... and make others with big heads. And let's have an ultra tall and skinny one. Purple aliens with green uniforms? I didn't like it. I really don't think aliens with purple skin are going to put themselves in green uniforms. That just doesn't go well. They certainly wouldn't win any alien fashion contests. I thought the inter-alien tribunal was incredibly hokey (cue the big headed aliens). If those aliens were the smartest of the bunch, why couldn't they create a more comfortable conference area? I am, of course, joking... but only because those scenes made me realize that these were actors in costumes and not cool aliens in a big budget much anticipated movie.
Hokey aliens aside, I guess I had issues with the whole Green Lantern super power ability. First, if there were thousands of Green Lanterns, why did the dying Green Lantern have to pass along his ring? It made me think he was the last of his kind, that he had to seek out a successor in order to save the universe. Second, what was with having to create stuff to fight with? Hal only had to think of a weapon and his powers would create it so that he could fight with it. Um, how about just think your opponent dead then? Or think of placing a poison or explosive inside your opponent and have the fight be over in two seconds? Why go through all those different weapons when your power is your imagination? Jeff would say that if I wrote movies, they'd be over with in ten minutes... and would be boring. "Here's the hero. And now he saves the day. It's not that hard." I guess I had a hard time getting into the swing of the movie and the battle scenes because there was a very big part of me that knew Hal had to succeed. He couldn't die. When you know the star isn't going to die, you know the outcome of the movie.
Since the underlying basic plot of the movie didn't suck me in, my mind was free to think. That's never a good thing. So many questions! For starters, why was Hal a pilot but not in the military, particularly if his father was? Do non-military pilots really get to fly planes that expensive and regularly mock dog fight? I assumed he was in the military but when I found out he wasn't, it bothered me. The opening dog fight reminded me a lot of Top Gun. Speaking of Top Gun, is Tim Robbins (who had a small role in Top Gun, hence the "speaking of") really old enough to be Hector's father? Peter Sarsgaard looked to be 40-ish, a full 10 years at least older than Hal. While that was fine, it bothered me that part of the plot seemed to hint that Hector, Hal, and Carol grew up together. With the age difference, I couldn't see that.
This movie left me feeling disappointed. It just didn't gel together. Perhaps it was because most people who become superheroes don't go running to tell their friends. It's their secret. Granted, every superhero does tend to have one that knows his secret (Lois Lane, Alfred) but Green Lantern/Hal seemed to have a lot of inside people. Of course, I did like that a mask didn't really "mask" his identity. Finally a movie that addresses that! Perhaps I wasn't lured in because the plucky sidekick (the computer programmer, natch) wasn't plucky enough. The programmer did start off with some spunk (rooting for Hal during the test flight) but his much needed quirkiness and humor failed him during later scenes. Perhaps the quirky sidekick was outshone by the quirky superhero. No one can deadpan like Ryan Reynolds! Perhaps this movie disappointed me because there were so many other "green lanterns." It didn't seem like a big deal. I mean, why did Hal have to save Earth? There were hundreds of other Lanterns that could/should have! Maybe because Hal's super powers were a little hokey (see two paragraphs above). I liked the idea that he had to learn to fight, had to learn to his powers but although he didn't seem to do very well with his ten minutes of training, he still went to battle the biggest, scariest villain that even the other Green Lanterns wouldn't fight. He couldn't even take down scrawny little Hector who only had an ounce of the bad juice in him. Carol gave one helluva pep talk but I don't think it gave him the power - the will - to take on the baddest of bad.
Okay. So I've said a lot about what I didn't like about this movie. I should mention the things I liked. I liked Blake Lively. I don't watch Gossip Girl so I've seen little of her before this movie. She had a smart, strong, tough, and determined character. She wasn't a helpless damsel but she wasn't bitchy, either (which, sadly, a lot of the tougher female characters tend to be which always bothers me). I really liked her with brown hair. Very pretty. I loved Ryan Reynolds. Seriously, no one deadpans like he does. Such sarcasm... wrapped prettily up with charisma. I just wish he had an ounce of more oomph. It all just seemed too easy for him. He was supposed to be a flawed character but his charm made that hard to see. I did like the movie's message - that will is mightier than fear. Fear is an awesome weapon but will conquers all. I also liked that fear gets replaced with courage.
One tip: Stay to the middle of the credits for a "suggestion" that there will be a sequel.
So, in sum, disappointing movie. I was really thinking this movie was going to be fun and well, good. It's not horrible. It's just missing that extra zest that could have made it really good. Maybe the aliens weighed it down. Ah, purple aliens in green uniforms. So sucky. Like I said, it's not a horrible movie. But it's not great, either. It was fun. But nothing more.
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