The Green Lantern
Review by Sean
Lynch
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The Green Lantern
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A lot has been made about the superhero movie genre hitting saturation point this year. Between X-Men First Class, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man 2 and The Green Hornet (and we haven't even started on the "spoof" superhero movies like Griff The Invisible), it's a hard theory to argue against.
However, unlike "the dark years" of comic book adaptations in the early 2000s (Daredevil, Ghost Rider, My Super Ex Girlfriend),
audiences have been lucky so far in that the quality of each superhero
film of the last year or so have been of the highest standard.
We
are literally living through a Golden Age for the comic book film
genre, with franchises being injected with originality, texture and
tone - so the idea of "over exposure" hasn't really been an issue.
Sadly, those in the know forgot to inform the makers of The Green Lantern.
Set
in a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force
has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are
called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep
intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him
superpowers.
They also all wear standard issue superhero suits
and team colours. They may be bunch of aliens, but that doesn't mean
they can't be organised.
However, things go pear shaped when a
new enemy called Parallax (who looks kind of like a scrotum covered by
clouds) threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe,
their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest
recruit, the first human ever selected : Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds).
Cue
daddy issues, self doubt, some sexual tension between Hal and his
female boss (who is both far too young and pretty to be in the position
of power that she is in) and some CGI aliens and you've got yourself
one... lame... superhero movie.
Here's the thing : The Green Lantern isn't a bad film, it's just an incredibly average one.
It seems like it's come directly from the "Fantastic Four : Rise Of The Silver Surfer" school of superhero movie film making.
It
ignores all of the advancements comic book flicks have made in the last
decade and delivers the bare minimum to get it across the line. With a
price tag of over $200M, if you are going to do a half assed job, then
what is the point of making it in the first place?
Problems vary
from poor casting (Reynolds, despite his best efforts and abs, can't
draw people into cinemas), to bare bones scripting (Peter Sarsgaard is
excellent but is literally given half a character to work with) to some
of the best examples of "pointless CGI" ever put to film (I'm looking
at you Green Lantern face mask!).
Whereas The Dark Knight was groundbreaking, Iron Man was genre defining, The Green Lantern is simply wading through the scraps of films that didn't work ten years ago (let alone now).
The Green Lantern is
a hollow, empty, horrifyingly familiar experience that is proof once
again that money doesn't solve the worlds problems - change does.
2.5 out
of 5
The Green Lantern
Australian release: 11th August,
2011
Official
Site: The Green Lantern
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins, Taika Waititi, Temuera Morrison, Angela Bassett
Director: Martin Campbell
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