Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, and Peter Sarsgaard is making its way to Blu-ray this Friday, October 14.
I originally reviewed this Martin Campbell-directed film when it hit theaters back in June, and you can read that fairly lengthy review here. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Perhaps where this film suffers the most is a rushed, and undeveloped story and a gross under-use of some potentially interesting characters. The film really jumps right in to bestowing the power ring to Hal Jordan who is shortly after inheriting a power ring from the dying alien, Abin Sur, is whisked away to the Green Lantern base-planet of Oa. Here we are introduced to three Green Lanterns we will see shockingly little of after they attempt to train Hal Jordan in the ways of being a member of the Green Lantern Corps. After becoming frustrated and beaten down by his would-be trainers Kilowog and Thaal Sinestro, Hal simply gives up and returns home. Yes, after less than one day spent traveling to Oa, learning about the Green Lanterns, and getting frustrated because he can’t immediately wield his ring as well as some the the Corps’ best members, Hal Jordan returns to Earth and gives up. Running parallel to Hal’s story, we have Hector Hammond, a scientist and son of a U.S. Senator, become exposed to some remnants of the yellow, physical manifistation of the power of Fear, Parallax, when he is summoned to study the body of the deceased Abin Sur. This of course putshim on track to becoming the film’s main – but relatively weak – antagonist. The film whisks along at a steady pace as it desperately attempts to set up some romance between Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris and present scenarios on Earth that forces Jordan to don his ring and become a hero – including a crashing helicopter and an increasingly crazy Hector Hammond drunk from the power and influence of Parallax. It’s not long before our hero prevails in a relatively anti-clamactic showdown with Parallax and he is accepted by the Green Lanterns as a formidable member.
Needless to say, I was not really impressed with this film the first time around, and my opinion has not changed much after a second viewing on Blu-ray. I of course watched the extended version of the film which added around ten minutes of extra material. These extra scenes do help the film out a bit by adding some back story the theatrical version merely hinted at. Most – if not all – of the extra material is at the beginning of the film where we see more of young Hal Jordan interacting with his parents, being a bit of a rebel and skipping class to watch his father fly. At the airfield Hal runs into a young Carol Ferris and Hector Hammond which I appreciated. In the theatrical version of the film it’s implied that these three have a history together, but implying is all the film does; it’s nice to see these relationships expanded on a little and makes the interactions of these characters later on in the film make more sense. These added scenes don’t necessarily make this a “better” film overall, but definitely improve it by providing some back story. Of course, visually the film is quite stunning on Blu-ray, but it does little in the way of hiding the fact it suffers from a rushed, bumbling script and poor character development.
There are a handful of deleted scenes included, but nothing terribly substantial. There’s an odd scene in which Hector Hammond uses his new found powers to levitate a hamster running in a wheel, a scene of Hal and Sinestro visiting a Green Lantern cemetery, and some other minor moments that were left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps the deleted scene that stood out the most was one in which Hal protects his nephew as Parallax attacks the city. It would have been nice to see Hal’s close relationship with his nephew expanded on in the film instead of having him essentially disappear about fifteen minutes in, never to be seen again. With this scene at least we see that this character wasn’t completely forgotten.
Some fairly interesting featurettes are included that cover the creation of the alien Green Lanterns, how Hector Hammond’s disfigured look was achieved, Ryan Reynolds’ “transformation” into Hal Jordan, and how the CG Green Lantern costumes were created among other things. Fans of the Green Lantern comic book universe will probably most enjoy the “The Universe According to Green Lantern” featurette in which Hal Jordan’s comic book history is explored in quite a bit of depth by DC writers, artists, etc.
Green Lantern is by no means an awful film, but when you have other superhero films like Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and X-Men: First Class setting such a high bar this year it just doesn’t compare. It’s a good looking film, but the script just doesn’t hold up. For those of you on the fence about seeing this movie that passed on it while it was in theaters, I do think it’s worth a viewing on Blu-ray but perhaps as a rental.
