Green Lantern: 2 out of 5 stars
Writers: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, Michael Goldenberg
Director: Martin Campbell
I really like Ryan Reynolds. I mean, I really like Ryan Reynolds, probably more then I should. I’m one of the very few Americans who watched ABC’s Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place even though the name was incredibly stupid, because I found Mr. Reynolds so damn funny and entertaining. I’ve tried to see every movie he’s made. So, I was super excited when I heard he got the role of Green Lantern (even though he would have made a much better Flash). This was going to be his big break out role. He was going to get all the credit and fame he deserved… And then I went and saw the movie.
Green Lantern is a movie failure of epic proportions, further proving that when it comes to comic movie adaptations, Marvel is light years ahead of DC. The plot is so scattered it’s hard to care for any of the characters. The writing is so clichéd and browbeating it makes you sick to your stomach. If I heard one more speech about overcoming fear and the power of will I was going to throw my soda at the screen. The tone is so uneven it’s no surprise that there were four credited writers. It’s hard to take a movie serious that has no sense of identity. Was it a sci-fi flick or a super hero story? Was it a type of serious bildungsroman or a cartoon violence filled action movie? It seemed as the theory was put everything possible into a two hour movie and everyone will leave happy seeing a little of what they wanted. We all know this actually leads to everyone leaving really pissed off. The only thing the movie has going for it, bring this back to Ryan Reynolds, is the acting… well, some of the acting. Blake Lively was totally forgettable, as are almost all female leads in super-hero movies. Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett were horribly stiff and awkward, which might have played fine if this was a comical take on Green Lantern but I couldn’t help feeling that I was supposed to be taking the whole thing very serious. This leaves Mr. Reynolds, who put in a very Ryan Reynolds effort, not much range but plenty of snark to keep me entertained, and Peter Sarsgaard, who is one of the most underrated actors out there. I’m not sure I’ve seen a bad Peter Sarsgaard performance. This guy makes any movie he’s in that much better just by his presence. I guess what I’m saying is, this movie was a one star if you take Sarsgaard out of it.
The unfortunate thing is this character had a lot of potential. This is one of the big DC properties with a great origin and a great history. It allows you to explore more sci-fi storylines then the typical super-hero. The possibilities were unlimited what they could have done and I think that is where they tripped up. Instead of focusing on a good story and letting all the possibilities play out over the course of a movie franchise, they tried to cram as much information and action as they could into one movie. I knew the story and the Green Lantern Corps background and I still felt overwhelmed. It was argued that Warner Brothers was comparing this movie to Batman Begins when it decided to green light a second movie, a movie that under whelmed in its opening week box office but blew up when the second movie in the franchise came out. Here’s the difference Warner Brothers, Batman Begins was a well made movie with a solid story that didn’t try to overachieve. Word of mouth helped Batman because when people left the theater they told their friends how good it was. There is no way that is going to happen with Green Lantern. I guarantee Green Lantern 2 is going to flop worse then this horrible movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment