The Green Lantern movie is a very mixed bag.
There’s a great deal I like about it——the power-ring effects, the Corps’ appearance, Carol’s characterization——but three things that really undercut its effectiveness
1)The opening narration tells us nothing Hal doesn’t learn later talking with the Corps. And generally I don’t like Introduce the World narration——I’d much sooner have started with Abin Sur’s battle with Parallax and filled us in on what it all meant later.
2)The villain arrangement. Originally (I have read——no guarantees as to accuracy)—Hector Hammond would appear to be the main adversary, with Parallax suddenly appearing just when Hal appears to have won.
As it now stands, Hector is just a placeholder to fill time until Parallax shows up. And then Parallax falls in about five minutes. It didn’t quite work.
(On a personal note, Hector and the Shark are two of my favorite GL foes from the Silver Age, and the comics version is much more formidable).
3)Hal. I predicted, based on the trailer, that Hal would be a cocky jerk who had to grow up. And I was right.
The opening made me think otherwise: Hal is cocky alright, but it plays right into his character as a man born without fear. He drives recklessly, then defeats two robot-controlled combat planes by pulling a near suicidal stunt. So it looked the issue would be Hal having to temper his fearlessness with maturity.
But instead, we get a by-the-numbers character arc: Hal is the guy who always backs away from responsibility and faced with the responsibility of wielding the ring … he’s scared. Scared he’s going to fail. Scared he’s not the hero. Only of course it is.
We’ve seen that one before. And it doesn’t really fit Hal’s persona, or the passing mention he’s a veteran with air combat experience. Not that being a jet-jockey would make him unfazable, but … well, this just felt more like it was written for Kyle Rainer (who wielded the ring back in the 1990s) than Hal.
Still worth seeing. But I’m not entirely surprised it’s box office was so-so.
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