Beware My Review..Green Lantern's Might!

I waited until a second screening of 'Green Lantern' to post my review because I wanted to make for certain that I was watching the same movie as everyone else.  As far as I can tell, I was.  Yet I still do not fully understand all the negative criticism thrown at this film.  I say I do not fully understand because 'Green Lantern' is not without its problems, but it is far from the incoherent mess some would have you believe.  I really enjoyed it.  And if you can buy into an intergalactic Corps of superheros watching over the entire universe, and suspend your disbelief, then you should at least be halfway there.

For one thing, maybe my expectations were lower than most.  This was perhaps my least anticipated movie of summer what with all the other blockbusters bombarding theaters these days.  I also confess my general lack of knowledge of the Green Lantern comics.  Everything I know of the Lanterns, I learned from the DC Comics Encyclopedia.  Also, I have never enjoyed much Ryan Reynolds.  I generally assume any movie starring him will be full of smarmy lines, and a loosely drawn character that more or less brings the same cocky persona to each new film.  Thing is, this is a film that works so hard to show you that he is supposed to be cocky and spouting off sarcastic dialogue but doesn't really succeed; and I found him to be a pretty decent fella.

Let's get the issue out of the way right now.  The movie has come under fire for having four, count em', FOUR writers.  That is perhaps two or three writers too many.  Several characters spend a great deal of time telling Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) what a cocky jerk he is but he never really comes across that way.  I don't think that's the fault of Reynolds' performance, I think the screenwriters were trying too hard to force a change between how Hal starts out and how he ends up.  But I think Ryan Reynolds gets it right.  He takes what is a loosely drawn character on paper, and expresses a range of emotion that the movie intended, but the screenwriters didn't provide.  Hal is fearful, yes, but he is also a good guy.  In a movie about the power of will vs. fear, why try and do more?  His struggle is to overcome fear, not a bad case of cocky prick.

There are a couple plot points and characters that need more room to breathe.  The film runs a brisk hour and 55 minutes, but feels a bit overstuffed.  I could have done with twenty minutes more development and thirty minutes less exposition.  And if you think those are the same thing, look them up because I'm pretty sure the writers did not.  For instance, why does Sinestro lecture Hal on his weaknesses and unworthiness to be a lantern, only to seemingly give in to that same weakness on a whim later on?  Details that I'm sure the avid followers of the comics know, but are lost on general audiences.  Mark Strong's portrayal of Sinestro certainly provides some gravitas to the Oa passages of the movie, but they come off feeling a bit disjointed.

Aside from a stiff performance by Blake Lively as the comely Carol Ferris, everyone else does a pretty good job with the uneven writing.  There are certainly some quality lines here, but with four people contributing it makes it hard to sort them all out.  I really liked Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond but felt his introduction waxed just this side of awkward and the film needed to spend more time establishing where he fits in with Hal, Carol and the other best friend Tom.  Hammond isn't "wasted" though, as many reviews claim.  He simply and complexly works as a human viaduct for the ultimate threat to the universe, Parallax!  This of course leads to a great many effects sequences, almost all of them rendered in CG.

'Green Lantern' has been directed by Martin Campbell, the director who brought two of the best Bond films to the screen with 'Goldeneye' and 'Casino Royale' and the really slick new 'Zorro' pictures.  The action in those movies is fairly practical; done with stuntmen and rigs and really great camera work.  Here, Campbell is charged with breathing life into an impractical film and he mostly succeeds.  Much has been said about the millions poured into 'Green Lantern' to polish the challenging special effects.  Whether it looks like $300 million worth is up for debate, but generally it all looks pretty cool.  Really, it would have to considering that the Lantern Ring given to Jordan allows him to harness his imagination and make manifest anything his heart desires.

I'd be interested in seeing a longer cut of the film.  I really had a good time with this one and I imagine the blu-ray will look astonishing.  With a couple less writers, it would certainly be a more focused story that doesn't bite off more than it can chew.  Perhaps Warner Brothers got ahead of themselves after the success of another DC Comics property that Christopher Nolan shattered expectations with.  $300 million is a lot to bank on a lesser-known hero than the Dark Knight.  But you know what?  It isn't all that bad.  Maybe the producers didn't think one writer would have enough imagination or will to dream up something really awesome.  Good thing Hal Jordan puts them in their place with that nifty ring.