In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night…Well, You Know What I Mean

Ryan Reynolds Shines as Hal Jordan

I saw Green Lantern yesterday, and while disappointed with it to some extent, I lay blame for any failures it may be guilty of with the Hollywood suits and the straitjacket they inevitably place on any origin story set in the world of comic books rather than the writers or Martin Campbell, the director. Ryan Reynolds did a good job as Hal Gordon, the daredevil (or devil may care, take your pick) test pilot who is pressed into service as a member of the Green Lantern Corps when his predecessor Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) dies from an attack by Parallax.

Things That Could Have Been Better
Now, to anyone familiar with the Green Lantern comics, Parallax was actually Hal Jordan, but I’ll give it a pass on that because I always hated that story line since it was always a bit too grim for me. The film had several strong performances in my opinion, from Mark Strong as Sinestro, to the aforementioned Temuera Morrison as Abin Sur (however short) and Clancy Brown voicing Parallax. My primary problem with it was that too much of it was set on Earth for my liking. The parts of it on Earth, whether cheering up his nephew after crashing an F-35 in an incident eerily similar to the way his father was killed, or taking Carol Ferris on a joyride over Coast City a la Clark and Lois’s ride over Metropolis in the first Superman movie bored me to death and the latter scene in particular was presumptuous as all hell, since Campbell’s film doesn’t even begin to approach Donner’s classic from the late ‘70s. Another thing I didn’t like was that there was far too little of Kiliwog. His entrance and exit was far too brief for a story, even an origin story, about Green Lantern in my opinion. What there was of him was pretty good however, as he taught him about the importance of strength of will and forming constructs but it could have a been a lot better. I’m still not sure about Michael Clarke Duncan voicing Kiliwog either, though that probably had less to do with Duncan’s performance than the fact that I was able to recognize him instantly, which took a little away from the suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy it. The constructs that Kiliwog came up with to test Hal during this sequence were well done however, you could feel the effort expended by Jordan to keep up and sold me on the film's ability to render Oa and the Corps in future films.

Oa and the Guardians
The Guardians were done very well, and to be honest I actually preferred the filmmakers’ version of Parallax as a fallen one of their number more than the actual comics original version. Hal’s initial introduction to life in the Corps by Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) was very well done, one of the best moments in the film. Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond was also done very well and his relationship with his Senator father (Tim Robbins) was mildly interesting. The final battle at the end was more along the lines of what I expected for the entire film with Hal going all out against Parallax, though even here, the constructs he created to sling the fiend into the Sun weren't quite as good as I had hoped.

Final Grade
I give the film a B-, hopefully the sequel will be better, but for that to happen the filmmakers will have to be willing to leave the confines of Earth a lot more for the story to work. I mean he is after all in charge of an entire sector of space (2814) right? We need to see him do more than just hang out on Earth if you ask me.