Like the theory about your porn name being the name of the first pet you had plus the name of the first street you lived on, there is, I am sure, a formula behind the christening of superheroes — I just haven't figured out what it is. What, for instance, could result in a man of mighty powers named for an environment-friendly source of light in ancient China? At least his symbol suggests some sort of backstory. Like the S of Superman, the front of Green Lantern's very green costume is emblazoned with two horizontal lines on either side of a circle, which suggests that the character was dreamed up when its creators fell asleep in mathematics class as the teacher was talking about tangents.
Even with the portentous, voice-of-doom intonations at the film's beginning, a crash course attempting to indoctrinate the uninitiated, it's hard to take any of this seriously. Towards the end, we're supposed to be worrying about the end of the world. That'll be the day, when a superhero fails and the planet goes up in a puff of blue smoke.
Green Lantern isn't bad — it's just not good enough to escape being thoroughly generic. That, I suppose, is another way of saying that the best thing about this superhero saga, directed by Martin Campbell, is that you will not fall asleep, and the worst thing is that even if you did, you can open your eyes and catch up from where you dropped off.
As usual, a virile young man (named Hal Jordan and played by Ryan Reynolds) — aren't there any middle-aged or older superheroes in the comic-book canon, just so that, for a change, we can tune into the tribulations of a man torn between protecting his neighbourhood and paying the bills? — finds himself at the receiving end of wondrous powers, and as usual, there's a sidekick, a girlfriend, a villain from within, a civilisation to be rescued from annihilation.
It does seem churlish to single out and criticise superhero stories for being put together with the same components time after time, when action adventures and romantic comedies are equally slaves to their respective must-haves. But, perhaps, it's easier to watch people going through the same motions than special effects technicians conjuring up the same visions.
Even the scenarios here are simply echoes of earlier scenes from blockbusters of the 1980s — the dark cloud threatening to swallow a city from Ghostbusters , the cocky and very talented fighter pilot from Top Gun , the tough-love training sequence from An Officer and A Gentleman . It helps that the writers, after a point, stop taking things too seriously, and their best lines are jaunty riffs on superhero tropes. “I've seen you naked,” says Hal's girlfriend Carol (Blake Lively) to the newly outfitted Green Lantern. “You think I won't recognise you because I can't see your cheekbones?” And towards the end, when he finally accepts his calling, he tells her, “My new job requires travel.”
As always, the leads are surrounded by well-regarded talent, actors such as Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins and Peter Sarsgaard (taking his part very, very seriously) who have clearly decided that if good roles are not coming their way they should at least go after good pay cheques. After all, not everyone can afford to suit up and save the world. Somebody has to bring home the bacon.
Green Lantern
Genre: Action-Fantasy
Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard
Storyline: What else? Yet another man-to-superman saga
Bottomline: So-so superhero story
