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Green Lantern Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action) Genre: Action Theater release: June 17, 2011 by Warner Bros Directed by: Martin Campbell Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes Cast: Ryan Reynolds (Hal Jordan), Blake Lively (Carol Ferris), Peter Sarsgaard (Dr. Hector Hammond), Mark Strong (Thaal Sinestro), Angela Basset (Dr. Amanda Waller) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Green Lantern is a superhero movie that is very much for comic-book geeks. The title character comes to the screen with more mythological baggage than most: the Guardians of the Universe, a super-ancient race of philosopher-kings who live on the planet Oa; the Green Lantern Corps, with their power rings that run on the green energy of will-power; the dangerous contrary yellow energy of fear. Rather than try to minimize its comic-book silliness, Green Lantern embraces it, from the mostly straight-faced storytelling to the computer-augmented hyper-reality of the production design, which looks more comic-booky than any superhero movie I can think of, including this spring's Thor.

If only the filmmakers had put as much creative energy into the character of Hal Jordan as they did into his lovingly rendered CGI-enhanced suit, which pulses and glows as it hugs every bulge and swell on Ryan Reynolds' impressively sculpted torso. Impressed with the popular success of Iron Man, they've turned their hero into the big-screen Tony Stark's screw-up kid brother, an irresponsible, wisecracking, self-destructive womanizer with absent-daddy issues who flies military planes instead of running a military contracting firm.

Counting Thor, that's three recent comic-book bad-boy heroes who need to grow up and learn responsibility. Of the three, only Iron Man's flawed hero is persuasively humbled, hits rock bottom, is forced to face the consequences of his irresponsible ways and fundamentally reexamine his priorities. When Hal encounters a dying alien warrior who entrusts him with an awesome power ring, he does ask some uncomfortable questions about himself. As with Thor, though, there's no moment of truth like Tony's experience in that terrorist camp—or like Peter Parker holding his dying uncle, for instance. When Hal suddenly starts acting like a noble superhero, it doesn't feel earned.

Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Blake Lively as Carol Ferris

Complicating matters is the element of destiny or fate. Unlike Tony Stark, a manifestly flawed man whose power came from necessity and invention, Hal was chosen for great power by the ring itself, which (we're told) never makes mistakes. Thus, Hal must already have the makings of a hero—but why? It's a question that baffles him, his friends, the Green Lantern Corps, the audience, and perhaps the filmmakers, who offer a few unconvincing stabs at an answer. "Maybe on their planet 'responsible' means 'a—hole,'" muses Hal's friend Tom Kalmaku (Taika Waititi). Real friends tell you the truth.

There are some redemptive flashes. I like the way Hal's first response on seeing the dying alien, after a moment of shock, is to leap into action to try to save him, with no thought of risk—and how, genuinely distraught when the alien dies, Hal buries him, telling Tom that he couldn't leave him lying there. In the comics Hal is originally chosen for his fearlessness, but the movie goes beyond this, invoking the idea of courage as acting in spite of fear rather than as its absence. (In Christian tradition, burying the dead is one of the seven corporal works of mercy, while courage is one of the four cardinal virtues.)

Peter Sarsgaard as Hecktor Hammond

But it's not enough. The movie jokes about the Green Lantern oath (and they're funny jokes), but never considers the moral significance of that oath, or how Hal is or is not bound by it. In the end, Hal seems to suggest that the ring chose him for his flying skills. Toward the end, when Hal goes to the Guardians to plead for help saving the earth, the movie doesn't even seem sure why human beings are worth saving. At least, Hal's speech isn't very moving, even in a corny, comic-booky way. (Where's Roland Emmerich when you need him?)

Reynolds is game, but lacks Downey Jr.'s larger-than-life charisma. The supporting cast fares somewhat better. Peter Sarsgaard is entertainingly skeevy and over-the-top as embittered biologist Hector Hammond, called in by the government to examine the alien corpse. Mark Strong has terrific presence as a senior GL warrior named Sinestro, whose name tips off even the uninitiated that he is destined for the dark side. As Carol Ferris, Hal's boss, fellow pilot and love interest, Blake Lively is no Gwyneth Paltrow, but at least she has more of a character than Natalie Portman in Thor—and she gets one of the funniest moments in any superhero movie, a send-up of the whole genre.

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