In Theatres: Green Lantern (2011)

While rival Marvel has been steadily laying the groundwork for next year's "Avengers" movie, DC has been lagging behind, unable to create another movie franchise aside from "Batman" that can be sustained at the box office.

"Green Lantern" is the latest attempt at establishing that secondary franchise. While there is an opening for a sequel at the end of the movie, the less-than-spectacular opening weekend creates doubts about whether or not that sequel will even be made.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine") has been presented as a reckless, but not entirely fearless pilot. This is contrary to the comics, where Jordan was established as being fearless in his debut more than 50 years ago. The movie tells us that Carol Ferris (Blake Lively, Gossip Girl), before becoming Jordan's boss, was a fellow pilot as well as Jordan's girlfriend. Well, they only got it half-right, didn't they? I don't recall Carol being a pilot in the books, but that's creative license for you.

As we all know, Jordan is summoned by Abin Sur, and given the alien's power ring. Jordan doesn't initially accept his responsibilities, which leaves room for Reynolds to play Jordan as a complete tool (watch for the reference to the 80's hero He-Man). Summoned in turn to Oa, the home base of the Green Lantern Corps, Jordan is put through a quick course in basic training by Kilowog (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan), who was added to the GL mythos in the 80's, if memory serves me correctly. In turn, Sinestro, who was Abin Sur's protege, completes Jordan's training. The mission? To stop Parallax, formerly a rogue guardian who tried to harness the power of fear as a force for good. Comics fans know Parallax would possess Jordan in the 90's, which began a radical reboot of Jordan as we knew him.

Parallax (voiced by Clancy Brown) feeds on the fears of others, and for a time, finds a human host of sorts in college professor Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard), who is given telepathic powers as a result. However, anyone thinking Hammond, a long-time nemesis of GL's, might return in a future sequel, may be in for a rude surprise. That's all I'm going to say about that. Needless to say, Jordan gains acceptance within the Corps, and begins to forge his own legend. As I mentioned earlier, there is a scene before the final credits roll that suggests a sequel, and it involves Sinestro. For those keeping score at home, Geoffrey Rush, who voices Tomar Re, also serves as narrator.

Is it as bad as people think it is? No, not entirely. There are those moments worthy of facepalms out of sheer absurdity, but first and foremost, this was not meant to be a comedy in the same vein as Seth Rogen's take on "Green Hornet" earlier this year. The fact that the writers' perception of Jordan in this film is so distorted from how he's been presented since his debut more than 50 years ago may be what has turned a lot of fans off. The detractors are probably tired of Hollywood writers not even bothering to do enough research and simply utilizing their own vision without respect to what was previously established.

Edit, 6/11/19: Here is the trailer:



Trailers include "Cowboys & Aliens", "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows, part 2", and "Horrible Bosses". Only "Cowboys" seems to interest me.

Rating: C.