Ryan Reynolds Suits Up as the Green Lantern

I like to think of myself as being pretty geeky. Nonetheless, my knowledge of comic books remains limited, as blockbuster season often reminds me. Last night, I went into Green Lantern knowing nothing about the character aside from what my brother had told me. The main thing I knew about the movie itself was that it stars Ryan Reynolds, whose performances I have generally enjoyed, though I also heard that the critics weren’t too impressed with it. I didn’t hear why, so as I watched, I kept wondering which parts of the movie should be disappointing me. I’ve always been better at pointing out strengths than flaws in things, so maybe I just missed some glaring problems. But basically, I found Green Lantern to be quite an entertaining movie.

The film, directed by Martin Campbell, helpfully provides an expository introduction to get everyone up to speed on the rules of the Green Lantern universe. In this mythology, an ageless council of sage beings stands as guardians of the entire universe, which they have divided into 3600 sections, appointing a protector for each. These protectors wear green rings that harness the energy of will, which the guardians consider the strongest force in the universe. As the film begins, these green-garbed protectors face a grave danger from a growing threat that feeds on fear. Some of the finest of this elite group have fallen prey to the enigmatic entity; one of them needs to find a new bearer on Earth, and that’s where Reynolds’ character comes in.

While the beginning teeters on being a tedious information dump, it’s short enough and presented dynamically enough that I didn’t mind, particularly because it all felt like pretty essential background. However, it’s when Reynolds shows up that things really get cooking. He’s Hal Jordan, a flippant fighter pilot about to be late for work on the worst of all possible days. He has a big demonstration to pull off, and he manages some pretty fancy flying, but his daring feat is not exactly appreciated.

Hal is a loose cannon. I kept finding myself reminded of Maverick in Top Gun. Like Maverick, Hal is a highly skilled but reckless pilot driven to live up to his father’s legacy. Like him, Hal is romantically involved with a talented female fighter pilot. He even serenades her in a bar and uses flying lingo as a metaphor for their relationship. Later in the movie, after he has shown how irresponsible he can be, he must prove to a skeptical commander that he is up for the challenge of a lifetime. So even though I didn’t know a thing about Green Lantern, Hal’s trajectory felt very familiar to me.

That didn’t bother me. In fact, it made it easier for me to connect to Hal, as well as his rarely ruffled love interest, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), daughter of his boss. In the beginning, Hal pilots fighter jets; by the end, he’s flying on his own through outer space. Turns out that he isn’t quite as fearless as he initially appears, but the same daring spunk he displayed in his firefight will be needed as he faces off against a grave enemy. That nemesis is the terrifying Parallax (Clancy Brown), who has harnessed the yellow power of fear and is using it to wipe out entire civilizations, growing stronger each time. He reminds me of no one so much as Hexxus, the grotesque sludge monster in the animated Ferngully who feeds off of pollution, growing stronger with each sip of smog or toxic goo. The scenes in which we see him directly are the most disturbing in the movie as he sucks the life force out of everyone who stands in his path, leaving nothing but a pile of dry bones to clatter in his wake. There’s very little blood in the movie, but these scenes could be traumatizing to sensitive young viewers.

Shortly after Hal puts on his green ring for the first time, he is whisked away to the planet where the guardians reside in order to be debriefed on his powers and his responsibilities. This is a visually dazzling sequence involving hundreds of intriguing alien life forms, a bustling intergalactic city and the dueling skills of multiple protectors as they try to break Hal in. The three major characters we meet here are Sinestro (Mark Strong), one of the most influential members of the Green Lanterns and a close friend of the protector Hal replaced; Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan), an imposing bestial alien who puts Hal through some intensive training; and the wise, gentle Tomar-Re, a fish-faced alien played by Geoffrey Rush. Of these, the last is my favorite, but the first is most significant to the story.

The other major character is Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), who becomes the vehicle through which Parallax plans to conquer Earth. Hector is a jittery, socially awkward biologist who looks like Sesame Street’s Mr. Noodle. He’s hunched and withdrawn much of the time, but when he is chosen to examine the deceased alien who bore the green ring before Hal, he comes alive with excitement. For the first half of the movie or so, I found him mostly sympathetic, despite some slightly creepy tendencies. This is a man with a brilliant mind who has always felt rejected by society at large and his father in particular. His self-esteem issues run deep.

He seems to have an ally in the calm Dr. Amanda Waller (Angela Bassett), who takes him to perform the autopsy, but that isn’t enough to keep him from going off the deep end once he becomes contaminated with the yellow power of Parallax. One thing the movie demonstrates very effectively is how evil can corrupt even the most well-intentioned. The yellow power made me think of Lord of the Rings, since it is a formidable force but those who use it always fall under its vile influence. When one Green Lantern forges a yellow ring meant to wield that energy, you just know that no good will come of it.

Having two competing forces allows for some pretty impressive battles as one hurls destructive forces and the other repels with creative forces. A Green Lantern has the ability to create anything imaginable, provided he is properly focused. Watching Hal experiment with these abilities is a lot of fun, as is seeing him take to the skies in his bright green suit. Despite Parallax’s all-consuming destruction and Hector’s more traditional mayhem, the movie does not feel particularly violent, especially considering the genre. I didn’t notice any profanity, and although the first time we meet Hal he’s hopping out of a bed he shared with a one-night stand, most of the romance in the film is quite chaste. Flashbacks to Hal’s childhood and the introduction of his 11-year-old nephew help bolster the interest for children. While I was hoping to see more of that nephew toward the end of the film, his tender scene with Hal early on made the hot-headed hero easier to empathize with.

The movie blatantly sets up a sequel, especially if you sit through the credits for a few minutes, so I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of the Green Lantern on the big screen. I have no idea how faithful the movie is to its comic book origins, but I thought it had just the right mix of elements to be a fun summer blockbuster. It didn’t make me laugh quite as much as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but there was still enough humor to offset the darkest elements of the movie, and it’s effects-laden enough that the movie pops on the big screen in a way that you know it won’t quite do on all but the biggest televisions. If you like this type of movie, I’d recommend catching it in theaters. I certainly enjoyed the ride.