Green Lantern is a summer tent-pole film from Warner Brothers based on DC comics character of the same name. I got a chance to catch an early preview tonight. The film is directed by Martin Campbell who was responsible for successful reboot of James Bond character in Casino Royale. As much as he was successful in rebooting Casino Royale he failed terribly in Green Lantern. To be euphemistic the film is a mess from start to finish. There is so much happening in the film and yet I could not relate to any of the Green Lantern’s cause / crusade even if he wants to save the earth (By that time I just wanted the damn film to finish). The film failed on multiple levels but the weakest link is screenplay. It was terrible for $200 million dollar film. There was so much plot and yet film felt so hollow in emotionality that it just failed to capture my interest. I am not trying to be self-aggrandizing here and talking the talk of a named critic but comic book filmmakers need to put more heart and soul in their films rather than VFX wizardry.
From acting standpoint everybody played their part perfectly (as expected). Although I never really understood why studio always want big name actors for even smaller parts in the comic book films. Ryan Reynolds looked pretty good albeit goofy at times. Somehow whenever I see him I always think of Van Wilder and Harold and Kumar goes to white castle. It was hard for me to think of him as an action hero. Blake Lively looked like as she always do – hot and pretty :). There was no need for Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins to be there in the film. Yet they were there and they played perfectly whatever they were playing in the film.
One of my major gripe with the film is 3D. For some reason the physical structure of characters looked CGI to me in the 3D. It may be a side effect of watching in 3D. Since there were quiet a few scenes in space so I guess studio thought 3D might be the best way to project this film.
Dialogs were way too bad and awful. The screenwriters did pretty bad job in that department. There were way too many plot-holes. As I said earlier too much plot is condensed in a two hour film. Bad story could be problem with a source material. But my personal belief is that superhero “inception” stories should be kept simple and should focus more on character development and less on litany of villains. Once you establish audience’s interest in inception stories the risk of early death of franchise is mitigated. But as often is the case Hollywood decision makers are MBAs and not MFAs.
In very first post of my blog I mentioned my strong dislike for comic book films. After more than a year I think that opinion is even more stronger now. I believe the day is not far when Hollywood will abandon comic book films altogether. At least there is no harm in dreaming.
Final Score: C- (that too because I didn’t pay for the ticket, otherwise D).
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