GREEN LANTERN: fog's review
August 12th 2011 12:42
a Green Lantern overlord
The DC Comics book series Green Lantern started in 1941 and is still in production today, albeit there were many breaks in production and changes to the main characters along the way.
Abin Sur informs Hal he is the one.
This film deals with the current comic book hero; a hot shot test pilot named Hal Jordan who, seemingly by happenstance, is selected by the power in a ring belonging to a dying alien, Abin Sur, who lands on Earth to find his replacement as a member of the noble and ancient order of intergalactic peacekeepers, the Green Lanterns.
Hal and Sinestro tighten up!
Their members come from all corners of the universe, in all shapes and sizes, some intellectual and accommodating, others brutish and blunt. Many Lanterns do not share Abin Sur's confidence in a human's ability to become one of them, in particular, Thaal Sinestro, who teaches Hal a lesson in fighting. However, even Sinestro cannot deny that the ring has always chosen the right one, till now!
Abin Sur
Directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) overall it is visually engrossing, almost impressionist in palette. The action sequences are fantastical and entertaining but do not suffocate the story.
Starring Ryan Reynolds (X Men Origins: Wolverine) as Hal Jordan, the chosen Earthling, we first meet Hal as he rushes off to work, telling his pick up for the night, who is still in bed, to help herself to the water in the tap.
Yes, it has some college level humour, but doesn't descend to the coarser depths. Instead, there are momentary glimmers of self-deprecating humour, as the writers indulge themelves, helping to prevent the characters from being taken too seriously, but not nearly enough, I wanted to see more of it.
Anyway, Hal gets to work late, again; he is a jet fighter pilot working for a big weapons developer, and it is the big day for testing their new drones, except Hal must beat them at any cost, an emotional compensatory quirk whereby he tries to be the father he lost, in fact, he saw his father die in a flaming jet crash, as we see in a flash back.
Hal's success in defeating the attack drones loses the company the government contract. Hal's fellow fighter jet pilot, Carol Ferris (played by Blake Lively) who is also the Vice President of the company and the owner's daughter, stops her father from sacking Hal...well...it is a comic book story!
But then Hal is found by a mysterious green light, which he follows, finding its owner, Abin Sur, who had instructed the ring to find his replacement. Little is gleaned by Hal, for Abin Sur dies, and then Hal must quickly flee from approaching government helicopters.
The all devouring Parallax
Abin Sur ends up on a slab being studied by a secret government organization, overseen by Senator Hammond (played by Tim Robbins) who selects his scientist loser son, Dr.Hector Hammond (played by Peter Sarsgaard) to take charge of the project, during which Hector is infected with "yellow energy" derived from Sur's battle with Parallax, which causes Hector''s cranium and brain to swell and his psychic powers to manifest; he ends up a raving looney bad dude, who must be dealt with, but he proves a hard nut to crack...hoho...pun intended!
Actually, to be fair, Sarsgaard gives a great performance as a child/man intent on revnege on his father and anyone else who looks attractive and is witty and the life of any party. Not nearly enough is made of this interestingly twisted antagonist character.
However, it is the ring that gives the Green Lantern aliens their super powers; such power that takes time to understand and harness, as Hal discovers when he is given a ‘boot camp’ with a gruff and tough trainer.
grunting at boot camp
The main effect of the ring, besides allowing the wearer to fly into deep space at a rapid pace without the need of a space suit, is its ability to materialise anything you can think of, such as a rocket launcher or a giant fist, but in green, everything is in green.
Luckily I like the colour green.
machine gun Hal
Hal’s biggest adversary among the Green Lanterns is Thaal Sinestro (played by Mark Strong) who thinks all humans are weak, therefore unsuitable to join their fearless warrior class. But Sinestro also knows the ring never makes a mistake, so there is a quality within Hal that is yet to be shown, but Sinestro has no patience and doubts he will ever manifest the necessary nerve.
Hal gets his girl
Hal has to come up to speed quickly with the new found alien life he must live, which provides some amusing moments as he learns how to manage his new powers with the power of panic, and then once he is in control, he quickly becomes a kid with a new toy.
A baddie has a bad hair day
Green Lantern, although far from being an insightful study of the human dilemma, does deliver a reasonable balance between fabulous fantasy and real characters and a novel concept of fear being the source of power for evil doers, just like George Dubya Bush would say...and he ought to know all about evil doers...
fish fingers!
Green Lantern was shot in 3D, which was used appropriately, without causing brain-strain, and I was sitting close to the screen. The effects are fun and fantastical, the story is simple and the characters are given some development, but one must remember this is all relative, it is a comic book fantasy, so expect some cheesy one liners, shallow stereotypical characters and lapses in logic.
However, the tradition of this comic book character was to broach topical and difficult socio/political terrain, such as heroin addiction. Although this film dares not tread on anything so contentious, one can see a subtext to the film which gave me a wry political smile across my dial, in this day of the eternal bogiemen of the West, the Al Qaeda, and our war of fear.
Lanterns lighten up
This film gets my recommendation as a good night out for some escapist fun, and then some.
RATING M: Violence and Mild Coarse Language
AUSTRALIA WIDE RELEASE
Image Permissions and Credits:
All images copyright presumed that of Production Company and/or Distributor and Publisher, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used here for review purposes only, low res. copies not meant for redistribution.
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Mountain Fog
Comment by katyzzz
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MS Paint Art
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
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QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
yes, Green Lantern may divide punters, but that's the arts for you!
You have to see it on the big screen to get the artistic moments...
cheers
fog