Brian's Review - Green Lantern

The light from this lantern is disappointingly dim.

Released: 2011
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy

It's officially been a Hollywood fad for some time now: superhero movies are cash cows and they saturate the market more heavily than butter in a Paula Deen recipe. I can't deny their appeal and have to admit that as far as fun, action blockbusters go, I'm consistently excited when I see a new entry being advertised. While not my favorite DC superhero by any stretch of the (very nerdy) imagination, Green Lantern is still an icon of vast importance in the comic book world, so my hopes for this film were high (or as high as they can get for a superhero movie). Plus, Christopher Nolan did manage to exceed all my expectations with his reboot of the Batman film franchise, winning some major points for DC's corner. Perhaps I set myself up for disappointment, but "Green Lantern" ended up being especially mediocre for a movie with such a rich mythology to base itself upon. Although "Green Lantern" attempts to mimic the technique that other recent superhero origin films have utilized to update themselves into pertinence, it does so rather unsuccessfully, lacking any true originality or creativity; the writing feels sloppy, rushed, and drab. Characters who traditionally play pivotal roles in DC lore are briskly introduced without any explanation or true background, and are then quickly killed off or diminished in an equally unceremonious fashion, serving essentially only as filler pieces. The dialogue comes across as dry, shallow, and witless, with even the snarky charm of Ryan Reynolds barely having any impact on a cast of characters incapable of spewing out anything but prefabricated cardboard. Geoffrey Rush even lends his vocal talents to the movie, doing the best he can with a patchwork script seemingly written by a team of middle school geeks, but his efforts barely make a difference, due to a very minuscule role. There are some enjoyable action sequences here, and some pretty decent effects, although the entire experience drips with such an overbearing amount of cheese that many of the fight scenes are dissatisfying and underwhelming. With an unfortunately anticlimactic and just plain unexciting plot, shallow dialogue, and an unintentionally corny atmosphere pervading throughout, the only things holding this film together are some entertaining digital effects, pulse-pounding set pieces, and a deep mythos to fall back on; without these aspects, this would be another highly-avoidable movie, but with them it's at least tolerable enough to watch from start to finish. If you're a comic book fan, you might be down to strap on some green, glowing tights and fly into outer space alongside "Green Lantern," but everyone else will probably want to wait for a different hero to take up the mantle of justice.

Rating (out of 5): 2.5