MOVIE REVIEW: Green Lantern (2011) ***

Talk about your highly anticipated summer movies! I attended SDCC (San Diego Comic Con for the uninitiated) last year…that was July of 2010 for those keeping score at home…and found myself inundated with "Green Lantern" this, and "Green Lantern" that. I didn't read the comics, and always kind of thought the character (and the whole Green Lantern Corps. actually) were pretty dumb, so I didn't pay too much attention. I thought it was kind of cool to walk the floor and just see folks like Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong hanging out, signing autographs…can only wonder what the experience was like for poor Blake Lively…all those overweight mouth breathers skittishly sliding photos of her over to get signed, too afraid to speak or make eye contact, because to gaze into the eyes of a beauty such as her would be to stare into the heart of the sun…


…or so I assume.
Anyway, "Green Lantern" was everywhere. It was unavoidable. And the promotion did what it was supposed to, it created a buzz around the movie. I heard nerds orgasming to each other about how awesome this movie was going to be. I even remember thinking to myself after seeing a trailer that the flick actually looked really good and exciting.


Fast forward a year. "Green Lantern" has officially hit theaters worldwide, and what has been the consensus? Critics hate it. Fanboys hate it. It's pulling in decent numbers, but nowhere near what folks had expected. The feeling is that director Martin Campbell and company have made a giant green…lemon. But is the lukewarm reception due to the movie being shit, or was all that advance press and buildup ultimately too much hype for it to overcome?


The answer is a little bit of both.


Is "Green Lantern" a shit movie? No. Not even close. It's a serviceable summer action vehicle that would probably have been breaking box office records and receiving more positive reviews had it come out in 2007, before Christopher Nolan came along with "The Dark Knight" and just completely fucked things up for all future comic book adaptations. After that, there has been an expectation for these movies to shoot for "high art" filmmaking rather than resigning themselves to simple action fair. But what's wrong with simple action fair? Childhood memories are MADE of that stuff!


It doesn't help that the Green Lantern exists within the same universe as Batman, either. Combine that with a years worth of buildup and hype, and you've got yourself a powder keg of disappointment just waiting to explode.


"Green Lantern" is a fun movie. It doesn't ask any tough questions. It doesn't force it's audience to engage with it in order to get the full experience. It's just a cheeseball superhero movie that parents can take their kids to and have a good time with, and kids can enjoy because it's bright and colorful and offers them lots of great toy options to beg their parents for afterwards.


You can't judge the acting here, because nobody is really asked to do anything. Ryan Reynolds is restrained, which I guess is a feat. I'm not a fan of his hipster quipster schtick, so I was reluctant to buy into him as a serious superhero, but he pulls it off. Blake Lively…well…she's not an actress. She's a flavor-of-the-month piece of ass, period (no offense to Blake or her supporters, as I'm sure she's a really nice person). Tim Robbins is given nothing; Angela Bassett is given even less; and Mark Strong is an interesting reddish purple. Probably the only real acting happening in the whole movie is Peter Sarsgaard's turn as Hector Hammond, but his character is buried underneath a mountain of makeup and scrotum, so I could be wrong.


As a student of film…and an armchair filmmaker…I could easily pick apart this movie for its pacing, editing, plot holes, lack of character development, et cetera…but that would just be me being a self righteous film geek. Fact is: "Green Lantern" is a fun action movie intended to please on the simplest of levels…and please it does…and the simplest of levels.


And for a film centered around a character as ridiculous as the Green Lantern, I don't know if you could really ask (or expect) any more than that.


VERDICT: *** out of 5


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