Green Lantern opens promisingly. Rejecting the dull domesticity of many a recent superhero’s origin stories, the film goes straight to the realm of science fiction, with an intriguing beginning showing the release of the film’s ultimate big bad. The ambitions are on display immediately, the scale appropriately grand. From there we cut to Earth, where we meet Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). The character turns out to be a mix between Tony Stark (cocky, womanising) and Top Gun’s Maverick (hot shot jet fighter pilot). Reynolds is surprisingly likeable in the role – not a quality he has often portrayed – and delivers his lines with enjoyable wit and conviction. His special powers arise from a ring that's given to him by a dying alien, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a group of intergalactic peace keepers, and are not your run-of-the-mill super strength or speed. Rather, he's able to materialise anything he can imagine out of green energy, as well as fly. The powers are potentially a bit cheesy, and the line is crossed from time to time as he turns into something like Inspector Gadget (go-go-gadget-minigun!) meets a Looney Tunes character, but for the most part it's an interesting and unfamiliar twist that opens up some unique opportunities for action sequences, even if the potential is not fully exploited.
A large part of Green Lantern's appeal to comic book fans is its major science-fiction trappings, and they have been quite vocal in their disappointment with the film's mostly Earthbound events. The narrative's trips to Oa (the Lantern Corps' home world) are sporadic and mostly brief, including Jordan's induction and training, which seems overly abridged. However it's plain to see that the filmmakers were trying to walk a fine line between appeasement of the fans and wider appeal, so you can understand their reluctance to fully indulge in the more outlandish elements of the mythos. As it is they remain at least visually faithful to the source material, which itself may be offputting for mass audiences as it is pretty, well, weird (that word again) - Oa is truly alien, unlike, say, Avatar's Pandora, which is strange-yet-reassurringly-familiar in its flora and fauna. The style hews closer to Superman than anything in Marvel's arguably more grounded canon, Thor being the exception.
It remains hard to fathom quite how Lantern cost $200m, but then the budgets of many a blockbuster boggle the mind these days. It surely has something to do with the decision to render the super suit entirely in CG, the rationale being that it’s meant to be made of pure energy, rather than spandex. It works for the most part, the suit given a visual flair that could not have been achieved without effects, although the quality of those effects does vary. Unfortunately, too, the film suffers from the now-expected third act meltdown from an origin story. Whether your hero is Iron Man, Hulk, Green Hornet, even Batman, it seems no origin story can sustain a memorable protagonist as well as a villain, leaving the climactic showdown as something of a rushed affair, more of a tease for a sequel than a satisfying payoff. In an extraordinary bout of optimism, WB have already greenlit (no pun intended!) the next adventure, so we may yet see the payoff that is promised.
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: Triple Play Steelbook / Discs: 1 BD, 1 DVD / Distributor: Warner Bros.
Presentation
Image: Colours come through strongly, particularly (you guessed it) green, with some slightly over-pink skin tones, but the prevalent deep shadows mean that the image is none too bright. This 2D Blu-ray transfer handles it with few undue artefacts or similar problems, but we all know a dark image is not great for 3D, so I would expect that release to be one to avoid. Detail and sharpness are pretty good despite an overall digitised look to the film which probably occurred at the intermediate stage; some grain survives intact, but many shots look slightly smoothed over. Still, it remains an overall slick, pleasing transfer.
Sound: This is one of those 'wake the neighbours' tracks, which might be good or bad. It certainly doesn't lack for power or impact but may require some volume riding for more sensitive ears. Surround effects are employed well.
Extras
The typical WB assortment for a new, high profile release, which means: Maximum Movie Mode, a bunch of "Focus Point" featurettes, and a few other goodies. There's also an extended cut, about nine minutes longer, which adds a really quite important sequence of Hal's childhood. The MMM is a bit disappointing, lacking any director walk-ons or moments where the film pauses to dissect a scene. Still, the picture-in-picture segments are continuous and frequent, so it's certainly worthwhile. The Focus Points add up to a pretty thorough 47 minutes, which are supplemented further by an interesting - and illuminating for the uninitiated - 20-minute piece on Green Lantern's comic book history. There are nine minutes apiece on Ryan Reynolds' preparation for the role and a 'digital comic' of the first issue of the recent Justice League series. The deleted scenes are memorable only for the glimpse into what the film looked like before CGI worked its magic.
Summary
Its design and mythology may be an acquired taste, but Green Lantern is an efficient, if structurally conventional, superhero origin movie, with a science fiction backdrop that adds interest and scale. In the superhero movie pantheon, it ranks somewhere near Ang Lee's similarly hued Hulk: an interesting, alternative take, destined to be underrated by many.
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