
Now that Green Lantern has finally landed, it's become depressingly clear that the most epic thing about this movie is its lacklustre execution and the ease with which the whole story slips from memory on leaving the cinema. The film is not without its fleeting charms, but any strengths find themselves completely outmatched by a plot so bereft of drama that events seem to unfurl in a dull green blur.
Early signs provoked a wave of cautious optimism from fans. Ryan Reynolds looked good as Hal Jordan in the trailers, Martin Campbell (director of GoldenEye and Casino Royale) was at the helm, and early footage showed off fancy effects shots of the Green Lantern homeworld Oa. You can even look at my own summer movie preview for a prime example of the doomed hope that was circling around Green Lantern a couple of months ago.
But from the outset, the film starts to unravel. Instead of introducing us to Hal Jordan and establishing the characters who will accompany him on his journey, we're subjected to a barrage of exposition explaining the background of the Green Lantern Corps, which many eons ago split the known universe into three thousand-and-something sectors, with a Green Lantern assigned to protect each one. We also make the acquaintance of Parallax, a bubbling mass of evil yellow space diarrhea that feeds on fear and serves as the film's main threat. The creature was imprisoned by legendary Green Lantern Abin Sur, but has now escaped, sending a dying Abin Sur haring off to earth to find a suitably square-jawed human replacement.

Green Lantern's main offender is a clunky, often embarrassing script that introduces characters to push the plot or provide motivation for Jordan before unceremoniously jettisoning them without another mention (Angela Bassett's utterly anonymous government agent Amanda Waller is a prime example). Jordan's own character arc is hardly gripping either, amounting to little more than the standard "be handsome, overcome fear, live up to dead dad" trope that we've seen time and again in superhero movies.
The script also fails to inject any urgency or drama into proceedings. Jordan's trips to Oa, which should always have been the film's crown jewel, are insultingly brief, relegating fellow Lanterns like Sinestro (Mark Strong), Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush) and Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) to living mouthpieces, explaining the Lanterns' powers and history. Key scenes are often bizarrely edited, leading to a steady flow of jarring, incongruous moments.

Ryan Reynolds' turn as Jordan is really the only performance worth analysing, given that most other characters are completely side-tracked by the script. He's typically charming and witty, and does well despite the limitations foisted on him by the script; after all's said and done, Reynolds is the most enjoyable element of the film by some margin. Blake Lively's performance as love interest Carol Ferris is so flavourless that one can only pity the actor, who was so impressive in The Town last year, for the gaping hole where her character should have been. Peter Saarsgard's Hector Hammond goes from mild-mannered nerd to scenery-chewing bollock-head with such speed that he loses all credibility, a problem compounded by the complete lack of grounding for the character, or his pre-existing but completely unexplained relationship with Jordan and Ferris.
With Green Lantern, all the raw materials seemed to be in place for a superhero adventure that offered something different from all the scowling men in capes and tortured teenagers that have populated summer blockbusters of the last five years. Unfortunately, it's a sad disappointment from start to finish, with only Reynolds' strong performance and a couple of stand-out action scenes enlivening an experience that feels more like a cobbled-together collection of scenes than a coherent, confident film.
Satisfaction Score: 4/10
Interest Score: 3/10
Click here for an explanation of the Satisfaction/Interest review scores.
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