Movie: Green Lantern

• Director: Martin Campbell
• Release Date: June 2011
• Writers: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green
• Run Time: 105
• Genre: Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

Tagline: One of us… becomes one of them.

Review: Let me start out this review saying that there is a lot that Campbell gets right with Green Lantern. Firstly the casting, always of utmost importance in a superhero film, is solid. All participants make the most of their roles, with Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan a particularly inspired choice. This is the type of role Reynolds was born to play, and he clearly understands the journey Jordan takes over the course of the film. Bringing his natural charm to elevate the character above the by the numbers troubled hero Jordan could have been, hes the best thing about the whole film. Supports are good too, with Peter Sarsgaard wickedly creepy as Hector Hammond, and Mark Strong as Lantern Corps leader Sinestro making the best of smaller parts. Its also nice to see Campbell keeping it Kiwi with roles for Temuera Morrison and Taika Waititi, although both are underused. Campbell also nails the look of Green Lantern, and the delicate but masterful use of color shows his visual expertise as a filmmaker. Freed from the restraints of a realistic setting, Campbell really lets loose with his great visual style in scenes that take him away from Earth. Too often superhero films are hampered by the perceived need to keep proceedings grounded in reality to give mass audiences something to better relate to, and much like Marvels Thor, the sci fi heavy sequences set in far off fantastical locations offer refreshing variety. It is however spectacularly geeky, and as much as certain core fans will undoubtedly be crying for more of this style in future comic adaptations, conservative studio thinking is likely the reason well never see a Green Lantern movie set entirely off Earth.

Green Lantern, despite all it has going for it visually, falls down at the story level, perhaps an effect of having four writers working on the script at various times. Adding originality to an origin story is always going to be a challenging task, and the story spends too much time on build up before rushing to a conclusion, which ultimately seems a touch too easy. Obviously Warner Bros. are counting on the success of the film to launch a new franchise, so therefore Jordans triumph was a foregone conclusion, but Campbell does not spend enough time developing the threat presented by the films villain, and as such when the confrontation comes it never feels like anything is really at stake. Its an exciting sequence while it lasts, despite its overly obvious terrorism parallels, but its just over much too quickly, and the colossal visual scale of the villain which Campbell reaches for is unmatched by the battle itself. There is an uneasy balance between the small scale human story and the epic overarching plot, and unfortunately Green Lantern comes off as unsure of what exactly it wants to be.