Mis-cast and again played by actors who show no real interest in the roles (except the excellent Mark Strong as Sinestro) this movie squanders the opportunity to bring GL to life with a ridiculous enemy and a terrible costume design.
Tym says
I actually enjoy all the GL Core/ space stuff; it's the Earth couple that hobbles it.
Ciaran says
A colossal mis-fire on my favorite DC character. See Guardian of the Galaxy for how to do it right.
Martin Nodell created the original Green Lantern in 1940 after he saw the opera ‘the Ring of the Nibelungen’. He was inspired by the colorful costumes and the idea of an all powerful, mystical ring. He also cited the railway man in the production, and his green lantern that lit the way.
Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, was given numerous powers (flight, hypnosis, paralysis) from the magical ring – which needed to be charged every 24 hours and was ineffective against wood. He later was a founder of the Justice Society and fought enemies like Solomon Grundy and Vandal Savage. His series was cancelled in 1949.
Julius Schwartz, editor of DC Comics in 1959, reinvented the character as a science fiction hero, in contrast to the mystical nature of Alan Scott. Through the efforts of writer John Broome and brilliant artist Gil Kane, Hal Jordan took the stage as a fearless fighter pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to take over his role as an intergalactic peacekeeper. Abin Sur crash lands on Earth, and instructs his power ring to find a worthy successor for his role in the Green Lantern Corps, one with the strength and will to overcome fear.
Hal is brought before the leaders of the Corps, the Guardians of OA, to train as one of the Green Lantern Corps as interstellar law enforcement.
In the 70’s Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams created a defining run for both Green Lantern and Green Arrow with the ‘Hard Traveling Heroes’ storyline. Driven by the desire to make the heroes more real, timely and relevant, O’Neil wrote tough stories involving a sidekick (Speedy) involved in heroin, racism and poverty.
Over the next few years, they would expand the purview of the Green Lantern Corps to include other Earth based Lanterns, including Guy Gardner, and John Stewart (not the funny fake news guy, an African American war vet) – who would be featured in the Justice League cartoon in order to promote diversity.
Later, Hal Jordan would go through quite a few changes, including a death and a ‘Rebirth’ – in an excellent storyline by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, which introduced a pantheon of Lanterns (Blue, Orange, Violet, Red, Black) in addition to the original Green and Yellow versions, attached to specific emotions and focused abilities.
In 2011, Green Lantern would grace the screen courtesy of a film directed by Martin Campbell, starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. There are some elements of brilliance in the film, including a grand vision of the interstellar Corps, and a strong performance by Mark Strong as Sinestro and interpretation of the origin story.
The movie stumbles a bit with Reynolds in the role – he turns out to be suited better to Deadpool than Hal. Most of the remaining cast work is fairly thin, including the love interest played by Blake Lively and villain Peter Sarsgaard and the script limps along in a predictable, flat capacity.
This would be demonstrated in the weak performance at the box office, precluding any chance of a sequel and that may have been for the best.
