Movie Review: ‘Green Lantern’

By Don M. Ventura

There is an art to the adaptation of a comic book to film.

So many elements go into making a successful motion picture, but for an adaptation it’s all about how and what the filmmakers choose to adapt. And for me, this is where Green Lantern fails.

I got the sense that the filmmakers used the source material as a license to throw in everything without concern for what the audience would accept as the film’s established reality. The movie slavishly throws Green Lantern mythos at us that finally, as a filmgoer, you choose to accept it or not. I did not.

Once Hal Jordan first appears as Green Lantern to save the day—Hector Hammond has just caused a helicopter to crash land at a public function—it occurred to me that there was a distinct laziness to the filmmaking. There was no sense of awe or suspense to the scene. It was as though director Martin Campbell said “Here’s your hero doing something heroic… be amazed!”

Strong is simply brilliant as Green Lantern Corps member Sinestro.

But there was nothing amazing or awe-inspiring. And there needs to be. Think of any great superhero film for that opening moment when the hero first appears. When Superman saves Lois Lane from the helicopter (heretofore unmatched), when Iron Man lands in the Middle Eastern town to save its residents, or when Peter Parker swings on his first web to catch the man who just killed his uncle. There is nothing in this picture that can hold a stick to these hero-defining scenes. We’re simply asked to accept that our hero is a hero and move onto the next scene.

Green Lantern is a tough nut to crack. I’ll admit it. I was excited and shocked when the second clip from the film came out a few months ago and it became clear that the story seemed to wholeheartedly embrace the source material. Unfortunately, it does so to a fault.

There was near faithful adapting in this adaptation. Again, think back to other film’s and how they tweaked certain characters so that they maintained their essence but with enough believability intact. In Spiderman, Peter Parker uses organic web-shooters instead of constructing a similar device because it might have seemed ridiculous on film (we’ll see how Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man film approaches this). In Superman, Lex Luthor is a criminal mastermind, but he doesn’t fly around with rockets on his ankles or try to defeat Superman from the belly of a robot. There is finesse to adaptation. It’s knowing what to keep and what to put aside.



There is no spark between Carol Ferris (Lively)
or Hal Jordan (Reynolds).



The will of green power. The fear of yellow power. Parallax. Oa. The Green Lantern Corps. Abin Sur. The Guardian of the Universe. I fully realize that these are all the things that make up the Green Lantern mythology—but in a live-action film, the filmmakers have to root things in some sense of reality or everything you’re building has no foundation.

The film opens in another galaxy with the story of Green Lantern Abin Sur’s (Temuera Morrison) capture of Parallax and the creature’s eventual escape and deadly pursuit of Abin Sur. On Earth, test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) crashes his plane (to the detriment of Coast City’s economy) and is in hot water with his bosses at Ferris Aircaft (namely his employer and former squeeze Carol Ferris, played by Blake Lively). After the attack by Parallax, Abin Sur crash lands and his ring chooses Hal to become first Earth-born Green Lantern.

Hal soars to Oa where he meets up with Tomar Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush), Killowog (voice by Michael Clarke Duncan), Sinestro (Mark Strong), and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. Back on Earth, scientist Hector Hammond is infected by Parallax’s yellow power and becomes a telekinetic monster.

At the film’s center are two excellent performances. First Mark Strong is perfectly cast as Sinestro. The guy naturally commands power. I would have preferred to see a story set in space which featured Hal and Sinestro in an ill-willed partnership. It would have made what the filmmakers clearly have planned for a follow-up to be all that more tragic. Peter Sarsgaard plays Hector as a pathetic loser who goes insane with power. Sarsgaard understands the fine line between over-the-top villain and goofy and stays their comfortably.

It’s up to Hal to stop Hector from murdering Carol and prevent the destruction of Earth by Parallax. This film also suffers from the same mistake as 2003’s Daredevil film—there’s too much going on. Where Daredevil felt like a movie designed to begin a franchise, I got the sense that the filmmakers were trying to establish a Green Lantern series of films. But it would have been more effective to stay simple and pare down the story to its most essential of elements.

Green Lantern fails as a dramatic piece as well. There is no sincerity to the relationships in Hal’s life. There is no spark or believability in his relationship with Carol. A visit to his family’s home where he consoles his nephew (who was afraid he had been hurt in the plane crash) reeks of artificiality.

Filmmakers sometimes lose sight of something. Showing something to an audience is not the same as making your audience believe. I won’t believe that Hal Jordan cares for Carol Ferris because he kisses her and tells her so. I won’t believe that Green Lantern is a hero because he stops a helicopter from crashing into dozens of innocent people. The filmmakers are assigned a task to present their story in a believable way.

My recommendation to Campbell? Go back to Richard Donner’s original superhero film in which he made us believe a man could fly.