Tom Reviews "Green Lantern"

Tom's Corner:




Green Lantern
(2011, Martin Campbell, dir)

Ryan Reynolds, if broken down into percentages, would be about 45% abs, 35% sarcasm, 15% bright white teeth and maybe 5% acting ability. I have been trying to figure out how, aside from Van Wilder, he keeps getting cast. This movie is no exception. But he's not the only problem with Green Lantern. Journey with us, to the center of the universe (or at least the center of this movie), to attempt to figure out just what went wrong.

I think the first thing that needs to be pointed out is that just as too many chefs spoil the soup, too many screenwriters spoil the script. This movie feels like two different movies: Hal Jordan, smarmy test pilot, and Green Lantern, guy with awesome power ring. Reynolds “turns off” during the scenes he's using the power ring for heroic deeds, becoming a humorless cipher (though I'm not sure if this is the fault of the actor or the script). Also, why does the script call for GL to wait so long to react? Things are being destroyed, people are dying, and you, Mr. Reynolds, have a costume that appears on you with a thought, yet it takes you about a minute of ho-hum CGI for you to do anything about it. Also, Parallax. You all knew I was gonna go there, if you've read a GL comic. Comic book crash course time! Parallax is a fear entity. He possesses you and makes you his host, utilizing the powers of the yellow fear energy (I've always assumed fear was yellow because when you're really afraid you piss yourself) to make you stronger and tougher than you were, and you can shoot energy. It's possible to fight an entity like this in the flesh, and it IS powered by fear, but come on, a giant space octopus? Is it wrong of me to assume they could have done better? It wasn't scary looking, it was just...cheesy.

The inclusion of Hector Hammond was just to give Hal something to fight on Earth. In the comic, Hector was a big ole head with a teeny little body, thanks to meteorite fragments. It looked like they were trying to go there, but it just didn't work so well.

There was some good. The special effects, at least when they pertained to the Lantern constructs, were well done. The other members of the Corps were wonderfully diverse and I saw a few of my favorites in the shots. They were also voiced well, with Michael Clarke Duncan and Geoffrey Rush turning in excellent performances. Blake Lively turns in a decent performance as Carol Ferris, but she really isn't given enough to do (if there's a sequel, she will, but that's another story). Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett turn in wonderful performances, but both could have been better utilized.

Unless you're a big Green Lantern fan, you'll want to give this one a pass. Apart from the awesome Lantern special effects and alien CGI, the movie was just missing something. It feels disjointed, like two movies mashed up...badly.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:

Preview: Justice League #1 Digital Comic
Preview of Green Lantern: The Animated Series

THREE DISC BLU-RAY/DVD COMBO SPECIAL FEATURES:

Same as above, plus:
Theatrical Feature & Extended Cut Films
Maximum Movie Mode with PiP
Ryan Reynolds becomes Green Lantern
Universe According to Green Lantern
Deleted Scenes