Green Lantern: Extended Cut
It’s little surprise that in the world of comic book heroes, DC Comics’ Superman and Batman are by far the two most popular, with the plethora of Marvel characters all being tied for third. This is NO accident, since the DC Heroes are known for being more relatable to the average person, since yes, they ARE superheroes, but their burden of responsibility is as much that having such a life as theirs is not the most appealing, while the Marvel characters come across as a more idealized version of what most of us would LIKE to be, complete with all the whiz-bang fun of being able to traipse around with enhanced abilities. Unusually enough, with all the big Marvel movies coming out lately (including the AWFUL Captain America), when the time came for DC to finally put out a big time movie of their third most popular character, both critics and comic geeks proceeded to rip it to shreds, citing numerous things they found wrong with the film while never giving a definitive explanation as to what the main problem was. Surprising, since when viewed from a rational, unbiased standpoint, the film holds up pretty favorably against the recent Marvel smashfests, with a smooth comic book like feel showing a guy who becomes one of the guardians of the universe while still being wonderfully, purely human. A lot of that starts at the top with Ryan Reynolds in the title role: charismatic without being cocky, irresponsible without being a total fuckup, Reynolds imbues the role with the potential he showed when playing two previous (Marvel) comic book characters, Hannibal King from Blade Trinity and Deadpool from X-Men. It helps that we first see Reynolds’ Hal Jordan as he jumps out of bed to get ready for a test flight while a beautiful blonde (who is never seen again in the film) is shown laying in his bed, thus setting the tone for his character perfectly as a fearless, yet good-hearted guy (and thankfully lacking the dreadful fear of women that Chris Evans’ Cap was saddled with) as he outsmarts two state of the art drone fighter planes and later shown by him spending time with his young nephew during the tot’s birthday party. Of course, the Earth (and the entire universe for that matter) are facing a threat from a massive entity of Fear known as the Parallax (legendary bad guy Clancy Brown in an A+ example of voice casting) which has already killed several alien Lanterns, and when one crash lands on Earth, the dying being sends his ring off to find that one worthy human without any fear, which of course leads to Jordan being plucked from the Earth and brought to the Lantern Corps home planet for his initiation and training, and it must be said that the CGI used to bring these outer realms to life (along with the perfect sound mix) is truly exquisite and breathtaking, showing us how good CGI can be effective when showing us new worlds and ideas, helped along by the voice talents of Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan along with Mark Strong’s Sinestro as other alien Lanterns assisting with his training. The human roles are just as interesting though: Blake Lively is strong-willed yet appealing as the childhood friend and love interest of Jordan’s; Peter Sarsgaard as the reclusive scientist who becomes infected by the Parallax brings an equal amount of pathos and grandiose to the role especially when he realizes the extent of his powers (and grants us the pleasure of watching weaselly Tim Robbins get burned up to a crispy critter); and we also get the capable talents of former Oscar nominee Angela Bassett and Jay O. Sanders as scientists involved with the process. Overall, the positive vibe that comes out of the work is the idea that even though the Lanterns are that of a very structured order of intergalactic warriors, the fact that their greatest power is their will and that Jordan’s humanity ultimately makes him the greatest of their kind is a very affirming message about the human race, while the film’s one major misstep is having Strong’s Sinestro make a fateful decision at the very end of the film with a total lack of pretext or foreshadowing. In the end though, this is a comic book film that combines the best of both worlds, being both an FX filled extravaganza for the eyes while still retaining the humanity that is the hallmark of the DC universe…
9/10