Z/Web

Who comes up with this drek? The feeble trailers had me worried but I was still hoping that this might be better than it looked. Sadly, it’s much worse. I don’t know much about the Green Lantern superhero and this has some interesting aspects to it: Green Lanterns are part of an intergalactic peace-keeping force with one member selected to guard each of the 3,600 quadrants of the universe. That is different and cool, especially when we get shots of unusual-looking aliens and inter-species mingling. The basic origin story has our hero, an arrogant death-defying irresponsible win-at-all-costs fighter plane test pilot who is selected by the Green Lantern ring as the replacement Green Lantern when the old one dies. Parts of that story I really liked. But from there it falls apart. The biggest problem is the vague villain, which is a bizarre unseen force that feeds on fear and swallows entire planets with its black smoke-like being. He’s threatening the entire universe because even the Green Lanterns can’t stop him. I don’t know who came up with this villain, if he’s in the comics or what, but it was a lame choice for the film. It’s too abstract, and the intergalactic nature of the story is much too big for a first film. Aspects of the philosophical debate between “fear” and “will” were interesting, but only hinted at instead of properly delved into, and the action felt forced. Of course that’s not the only problem. The actress who plays the pretty girl in the film is pretty, but horrible at acting. In each scene she’s like a different person. The first time we see her she’s the Bitch. Then she’s the long-loved childhood Sweetheart. Then she’s the love interest. And so on. Every performance is one-note and bizarre. I cringed at every scene she was in for I didn’t know who she was. Part of that could be the mediocre writing, but she still should have known to give some variance to her character. (Her “anger” scene was really unconvincing — I kept thinking she was joking and going break out in a “just kidding” smile at any moment. It baffled me when I finally decided she was apparently supposed to be legitimately angry.) Ryan Reynolds as the lead is okay — certainly buff and he brings a bit of charm and even emotion to the role — but the character is still too one-dimensional. His test pilot character was much more interesting than once he put on the Green Lantern suit and became a superhero. Then he was just boring. That’s really the key problem: with such an abstract conflict (a fear creature) and a simple origin story (dying alien hands him magical ring), there isn’t anything special about the people or events. The conflict is vague and smoke monster special effects are underwhelming. Throw in weak writing and bad acting and a film that’s not sure what it wants to be and you’ve got a real mess. I think this safely goes down as the worst movie of the year so far. Lots of potential, but just wasted.