It’s a shame when a movie has such potential to be greater than the whole of its sum and fails to live up to it in the end. That’s the case with “Green Lantern,” a movie with great promise to be one hell of a space epic with fantastical elements and a killer weapon, and yet… when all is said and done, “Green Lantern” is just a rank mess, a blunder of script faults and horrible exposition that jumps from scene to scene and only manages to pick up once our hero Hal becomes the Green Lantern. And then when he becomes the Green Lantern it’s all the movie is about. He becomes the Green Lantern and…? Nothing else. “Green Lantern” has the promise to be so much more than it puts on the screen, but what it makes up for in action set pieces it lacks in severely uninteresting characters.
There’s no solid villain, no real focus on hero Hal, there’s no reason why we should like him at all, the love interest is stagnant and under-developed, and the one true Ace in the hole the movie keeps at bay until the inevitable sequel/reboot. Hal Jordan is a test pilot for the US military whose recklessness has just caused his program to be shut down in favor of robotic pilots. But as he experiences unemployment and imminent death during his days wandering off about his dad and his relationship with his dad (needless exposition abounds, by the way, as the back story ultimately matters little to the mission of the Lantern), destiny comes knocking at his door as he discovers a green lantern and power ring sent to Earth to do his bidding.
From this point on is when the film does very little to convince audiences to invest time in characters as fan service is paid, but only for the Green Lantern buffs to enjoy. And even then I’m not sure how they’d respond to hearing “poozer” being uttered by Michael Clark Duncan as the monstrous kilowog. The rest is meaningless padding and even more irrelevant exposition as Hal trains, Hal learns what the audience already has in the introduction, and heroes wander in and out to teach Hal that he is the Green Lantern and only when giving in to fear can he accomplish blah blah Earth’s fate blah.
Of the highlights among the few are Mark Strong as the inevitably villainous Sinestro, a dictatorial warrior who attempts to seduce the council of OA (The uh… all powerful committee who powers the ring) in to giving in to the evil Parallax and of course Peter Sarsgaard whose own willingness to dive head first in to this material without any inhibition or consideration to his over the top performance is quite admirable. Especially when you consider Parallax is one lame villain to have around for the debut film of a third tier superhero very few people have shown interest in.
Featured among the Blu-Ray’s many bells and whistles are an in-depth look in to the Green Lantern world featuring director’s commentaries, character bios for fans, and storyboards. There’s also a small featurette on the Universe according to Green Lantern. There’s also the digital comic to the first Justice League issue for the 52 relaunch, and Deleted scenes for the fans. This is a fully loaded DVD and Blu-Ray worth checking out for a rental. But for its few highlights, “Green Lantern” is a poorly developed and under-developed mess, and one in desperate need of a visionary to turn it in to the space epic it deserved to be in the first place. Because “Green Lantern” is still an amazing idea.