The Blackest Night for Green Lantern1

by Damon Martin

The opening words of the Green Lantern oath, but unfortunately for the filmmakers of the movie that hits theaters nationwide today, they lost sight of how to do a decent job of turning a comic book into something worthy of a big screen (and the accompanying big ticket price).

Green Lantern (starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Saarsgard, and Mark Strong) hits on a few key elements that have made its comic book counterpart one of the biggest and most popular titles in the DC Universe, but director Martin Campbell along with writers Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Mark Guggenheim missed the target overall with their film.

The story opens with hotshot pilot Hal ‘Highball’ Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) showing off his skills as a test pilot alongside longtime love Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) before running into Abin Sur, one of the over 3,000 members of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic space police force that protects the universe from anyone that would do it harm. A reluctant Jordan is given a green power ring from the dying alien and is told that the ring chose him. He is then whisked away to the planet Oa where he is to meet the rest of the Green Lantern Corps and be trained in their ways.

The film’s plot is loosely based on the 2008 series “Green Lantern: Secret Origin” by writer Geoff Johns, which retells the story of how Jordan became a Lantern. The filmmakers picked out some genuinely good parts of Johns’ brilliantly plotted storyline, but failed to expand on many things that made the comic series so groundbreaking.

While Jordan is on Oa, he is greeted by greatest Green Lantern of them all, Sinestro (Mark Strong). Sinestro is smart but condescending towards Jordan, who is simply a human, a very young and immature race of creature. Strong does a great job playing Sinestro, and seems to be the one actor who truly studied the comics to understand what is at the heart of the character.

Meanwhile, the biggest threat to Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is a world eating entity known as Parallax. Without spoiling anything for the non-comic readers who are watching this film, this is one part the filmmakers royally screwed up. The CGI creature that is Parallax is an uneven and poorly rendered version of the entity that it’s based on from the comic series. Imagine if you will the smoke monster from Lost but not nearly as cool and much more cartoonish in execution.

The script tries to pack in as much story as possible into the 2-hour movie, which at its core is one of the biggest problems. Much like the Marvel disaster that was Daredevil, the Green Lantern filmmakers decided to jam the majority of the major storylines from the comic books into one film, and they do so in a very poor manner.

The acting in Green Lantern is pretty forgettable, which could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Reynolds has his moments, but then stops on a dime and becomes a completely different person three-quarters of the way through the film. Blake Lively, while beautiful and striking as Carol Ferris, is essentially a background character. Saarsgard appeared ready to steal the show as Hector Hammond, but, since the film fails to establish the key backstory of the relationship between his character and Jordan and Ferris, he just ends up looking foolish. The best part of the film actually comes after the credits role. For any hardcore fan of the comic book, that will be your best geek out moment of the entire film.

In the comic book world, Geoff Johns managed to make the Green Lantern one of the most vibrant and complex stories ever told. Unfortunately the filmmakers couldn’t capture an ounce of that outside of the brilliant performance from Mark Strong as Sinestro.

While sequels may be in the planning stages for the Green Lantern franchise, the first film could end up scuppering the series altogether. Opening weekend numbers will likely be strong, but if you’re going to spend $10 on entertainment this weekend, go buy Green Lantern: Secret Origin instead. Or if you’re hell bent on catching a movie with a good story that’s a fine example of how comic books can come to life, check out X-Men: First Class.

After all…