Cocky pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) receives a wish ring from a dying alien and is therefore enlisted in the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns.
Green Lantern is an old superhero, he was born in the fifties, with an even older concept. Probably is not easy to adapt him to a modern concept but certainly the people who did make this movie failed completely and on many different levels in this Endeavour.
The main mistake is to make this story an origin story, we lose time and precious budget money in a top gun like sequence just to establish that yes Hal Jordan is a cocky test pilot but he has also his problems, mainly dad’s issues.
This probably stems from a desire to replicate Spiderman formula but really is a blatant mistake. Hal Jordan is a plain character, he is like superman, created in a more innocent age. Is origin is defined by what he does not by what he is like Spiderman. This is not the selling point of the character. His selling point is his power. He got a power ring, he can do anything and fly into space.
Now of course is possible to modernize a character and invent a new interesting origin and problematic personality. Is even possible to do it right I suppose but the filmmakers here really did a lazy and approximate job. They introduced dad issues, a nephew, a brother, a whole family and forgot about everything after 20 minutes.
Also the comedic sidekick is introduced in the form of a geeky friend then almost forgotten for the rest of the movie.
A lot of time is devoted to our hero relationship with the token female Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) but alas the role is underwritten and the performance of the TV actress underwhelming.
Not everything is so terrible tough.
The secondary villain is the terribly outdated Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), basically he got psychic powers and so he is saddled with an enormous head, but the role is imbued with a strange B movie charm. He is a direct descendant of the creature from the black lagoon and when he complained that Hal Jordan got the cool power ring while he got the ugly head I couldn’t help but cheer for him.
The space scenes are really good. All the Oan stuff (Oa is the head quarter of the Green Lanterns) is interesting. We see there a glimpse of the movie they could have made. I still think that a movie about Green lantern going about in the space doing stuff could be really fun. We don’t need origin stories or psychological problems to root for somebody. Jack Sparrow doesn’t have one, neither James Bond. Can you imagine a movie where the young James Bond talks about how he was bullies at school? Terrible!
The CGI of course is excellent, very well made with seamless transition. The visuals on space and in the alien planets are gorgeous. Probably the main selling point of the whole movie.
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