With the popularity of comic book properties spilling over into movies, TV, and other forms of entertainment, the @$$Holes of AICN COMICS thought it might be interesting to offer our own take on these things. So while some of the other reviews on AICN come from aficionados of film, the @$$Holes are reviewing from the perspective of the rabid comic book reader. With the number of comics being adapted into film ever rising, look for more AICN COMICS BEYOND! in the future.
 

Ambush Bug here. I know this is supposed to be a movie review, but I guess instead of doing a straight up review, I’m looking at it as an avid reader of GREEN LANTERN comics. So if this review is comparison heavy, it’s because I’ve read GREEN LANTERN comics since…well, I kind of learned how to read through comics. I’ve been hesitantly excited to see the new GREEN LANTERN film. I went into this film feeling the same pangs of nervousness I feel whenever a comic I hold close to my heart gets adapted for the big screen. I can honestly say, I never thought I’d see a GREEN LANTERN film. Sure, I’d expect SUPERMAN and BATMAN to have an onscreen presence, they’re the superstars—the more marketable ones. But I always thought it would take a special kind of perfect storm to allow GL to be adapted to celluloid. It is a marketable concept; an intergalactic space police force powered by rings that are only limited by the wearers’ imagination. Think STAR WARS meets LORD OF THE RINGS meets THE SHIELD and you’ll get the picture. At least that’s what the comics try to pull it off as; especially recently with writer Geoff Johns holding the power battery to all of the Green Lantern comics released today. For the last few years, Johns has mapped out an intricate mythology—a mythology that has become tome to most GL readers and a mythology that has been popular with most comic book readers and critics.

Borrowing heavily from John’s books of the Lantern Green (mainly GREEN LANTERN and its spinoff GREEN LANTERN CORPS), Martin Campbell directs GREEN LANTERN starring Ryan Reynolds. We’ve seen the trailers—the first being lackluster, but as more were released my hopes were genuinely raised. I did feel that horrible feeling that I’d seen the film from all of the trailers (one of the reason I refuse to watch any more CAPTAIN AMERICA trailers) and that usually ruins a film for me. So with numerous money shots spoiled for me from the trailers, I felt at least seeing them in sequence would be fun.

The film itself is not as perfect as we all wanted, but it’s an entertaining film nevertheless. One of the main problems is that certain things you can get away with in comics, you just can’t do in films. Namely, beating someone over the head with the theme of the movie again and again is not an effective way to communicate said theme. In comics, an issue comes out once a month, so it may be necessary for the writer to remind us the point of it all in each issue (relatively 15 or so minutes of a film, in comparison). Though GREEN LANTERN the comic is well written, the orchestrator Johns goes out of his way to remind the reader every month the power of the ring (will power) and how one must overcome fear in order to wield the ring. It doesn’t seem monotonous when you read the book on a month to month basis, but if one reads a trade, the redundancy is more obvious. In Martin Campbell’s film, the point is referred to in every other sentence to the point where I felt like screaming, “All right already, we get it! Green = Will Power, Yellow = Fear!” So many lines sound off as follows: “I must overcome my fear in order to master the green ring.” Or “The ring runs on will power, and yours must be strong.” Or “I have fear in my heart, therefore I’m not worthy of the will power ring that beats the yellow fear power!” or some other iteration of that same sentence. By the end of the film, a deaf, dumb, and blind person would have gotten the point. I understand that this film was trying to communicate to the masses, but that doesn’t mean it has to explain the point in every other sentence from every character (even Blake Lively’s Carol Ferris, who has no experience with the ring whatsoever, explains the whole thing to Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan).

One of the major issues with the comics is that Hal Jordan, despite a lot of effort on writer Geoff Johns’ part, still isn’t the reason why the series is so popular. The mythology is why the book is selling big. Hal, even though he’s been given a hotshot daredevil playboy sort of attitude in the comics, is still pretty bland. One thing the film has going for it is that it cast a charismatic actor, Ryan Reynolds, in the role as Hal. I dare say, I think Reynolds is much more interesting than his comic book counterpart in that Reynolds has a charm about him that seems to come naturally. By casting a likable actor in the lead role of Hal, I feel the film has somewhat of a leg up on the comic, which has failed to make Hal into a likable or distinguishable character.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot to like about Martin Campbell’s film. The director seems at home with the myriad of special effects shots and does his best to integrate the actors and effects so as to make it all not seem hokey. Not once did it feel staged or fake and the vivid scenes of Oa (the Green Lanterns home base) are gorgeously shot. That said, the film lacks the epic scope one would expect from a galaxy-spanning sci fi actioneer. Think about Luke’s lonely gazing across the desert of Tatooine at the pair of suns setting low in the sky or even the Hobbits crossing the countryside as they leave the Shire. That sort of scope isn’t there. Everything is close on Reynolds and his reaction. Which is fine. It’s his movie. But there were times I wanted to soak in the scenery, get to know some of the aliens apart from the brief appearances from Kilowog and Tomar Re (apparently all you need is a five minute training session with Kilowog and you’re a lantern according to this film). With most of the action taking place on earth, the alien stuff, much lauded in the previews, are few and far between in the final product. Which itself is sad. We’ve seen Earth heroes before. Why so little time in space? I haven’t seen a movie with a space hero in it, at least not a space super hero in this modern age of movie magic making. I want to see that! I didn’t see that here.

On top of that, given that a ton of the time is spent on Earth, there’s next to no shots of how the public is reacting to a green superhero flying around and a giant yellow smoking head eating peoples souls. We go from the Parallax attack to outer space showdown and when Hal gets back, there’s no attention given to how the world reacted to all of this. As I said, this was Reynolds movie. It sticks with him the whole time, but the thing is, Green Lantern is so much bigger than just Hal Jordan. Had Campbell had the range to handle the expansive scope of the entire GL mythos…man that would’ve been a good flick. Instead we get a Ryan Reynolds vehicle film.

They try to do a lot in this film and part of the carefully constructed mythology in the comics is watered down and / or simplified compared to the comics’ version. Some of this is necessary. You just can’t fit it all in there. In the comics, Parallax is a lobster-like entity made of pure fear and prisoned inside of the Green Lantern’s power battery. The entity has been known to possess beings that instill great fear and was even housed inside of Hal Jordan when he was at his weakest. In the film, Parallax still represents fear, but is represented by a possessed Guardian (little blue aliens with great power supposedly the wisest being of the universe and bosses of the Green Lanterns). The rogue Guardian makes its way across the universe sucking the souls from its victims. The differences are subtle, but making Parallax more of an evil ghost than an actual universal being again lessens the scope of the film. Instead of a universal concept of fear, it’s an evil talking cloud; once again, easier to conceptualize by the drooling masses, I guess.

I didn’t hate this film, but I couldn’t help but think about what could have been. Reynolds performance was fun. The effects were pretty amazing. Though truncated, there is still a lot of Johns’ storyline at play. Lively performs capably as Carol Ferris, but ultimately doesn’t serve much point aside from providing the emotional pieces that will attract women to the theaters. Multiple shots of Reynolds in various stages of undress also are crammed in to give females and some choice men in the audience a goose. For the most part, the humor aspects work and even the groaner of a line “I know, right?!?!” from the trailer works in context of the scene it plays in.

The 3-D was nice. It added depth to the Oan scenes, but as with THOR, it didn’t feel necessarily necessary. If you’re looking to shave off a buck or two, I’d skip the 3-D version and I doubt it’ll be less of an experience.

Peter Sarsgaard turns in a creepy role as Hector Hammond, a character pretty accurate to his comic book counterpart, though instead of the yellow power, in the comics, he lusts for Carol and hates Hal’s relationship with her with the power of the Orange Ring of Avarice. I understand not wanting to introduce yet another colored ring in this first film though. The script ties Hammond’s connection with the feelings of fear well and Sarsgaard pulls off the rather disgusting character with a certain panache that a lesser actor would definitely not be able to attain. There’s an especially effective sequence at a party where Hammond awkwardly makes his way through the crowd and tries to impress Carol Ferris that plays out nicely.

Tim Robbins, on the other hand, is painful to watch as Hector’s father. There’s not an ounce of sincerity to his performance and every moment on the screen annoyed the shit out of me. Maybe if the film had some kind of annoying political or environmental cause behind it he would have done more than just phoned it in, but as is, the guy’s performance screams “Where’s my paycheck?!?!?”

Though his appearances are few and far between, Mark Strong’s Sinestro gets a few choice moments to shine. Easily the coolest character in the story and one who will most likely show up in a sequel (according to the snippet in the additional teaser footage after the credits—now required in all super-hero films!), Strong’s powerful voice and penetrating stare makes for the perfect villain, even though he doesn’t play that role here. Though his push to create a manner of ring to harness and combat fear seems a bit rushed, the conviction Strong delivers in the lines convinces you go with it. That said, the development at the end of the film comes out of no where and seems more like an afterthought. Sure it makes sense to those who read the comics, but those unfamiliar with the material may be left with the question, “Why did he do that?” leaving their lips.

Despite some strong performances, the film turns out to be pretty secular. There are the Oa scenes, then the Earth scenes. Then the Oa scenes, then the Earth scenes. Reynolds bops back and forth as if they were neighboring planets. The problem is that I saw a ton of missed opportunities. Why would the Lanterns attack Parallax en force, then leave it to attack Earth with Jordan the only protector? How cool would it have been having the Lanterns arrive on Earth to back him up and really play into the intergalactic police force idea rather than fall into the usual lone super hero scenario. The film has the potential to be a different kind of super hero movie; space cop heroes taking on galactic menaces. The comic has always been about the corps and not one particular person (especially since four humans have worn the ring in the comics and gone by the name Green Lantern, let alone all of the other Lanterns on different worlds). But instead, we get the lone hero beating something an entire galactic force of ring wielders couldn’t, just like every other super hero film. Siding with convention is the easy way out this film takes.

In the end, the more I think about GREEN LANTERN, the more I get frustrated with it. I loved moments. All of the constructs Hal comes up with are simply awesome and I love it that technology has caught up to create a real deal super hero slugfest without making it look fake or cheesey. The colors of the film are vivid and an important factor throughout. Sarsgaard, Strong, and Reynolds turn in fantastic performances and I’m sure this film will do well enough for a sequel. But the problems lie in the redundancy of the script, the potential that is never achieved by utilizing the Green Lantern Corps, and the tendency to toss in what the suits think is necessary in all super hero films (love interest, lone hero, familiar Earth scenes taking priority over scenes we haven’t seen before on Oa). I hate to compare to other films (but hell, I’ve been comparing it to the comic the whole time), but I liked THOR much better than this film. GREEN LANTERN has the potential to be great. If they come along and continue down the capable path the first film set, it could be one of those films which is strong enough for a sequel that surpasses the original. I’d liken GREEN LANTERN to IRON MAN or SPIDER-MAN more so than the epic-ness of THE DARK KNIGHT. It’s a flawed super hero film with a likable hero, fun performances, a breezy story, and is popcorn enough to be a big success. I’m sure there’ll be a GL2 in the works. Here’s hoping it embraces the expansive tapestry Johns has mapped out rather than relying so much on super hero film tropes. If you’re an avid reader of the GREEN LANTERN comics like me, you’ll like what you see, but you’ll know that there’s a whole lot more we could have and should have seen.

Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole / wordslinger / reviewer / co-editor of AICN Comics for over nine years. Support a Bug by checking out his comics (click on the covers to purchase)!