Past successes do not necessarily translate into automatic future successes. Case in point is Green Lantern. The film is action-packed, non-stop, and has fantastic set pieces. The trouble is that the story and the character are not very engaging.

Director Martin Campbell who also directed The Mask of Zorro, GoldenEye and Casino Royale should have made a better film than this. His heart just wasn't in the project. Or he really didn't understand the character Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern.

Green Lantern isn't an individual person or entity. It is a group of intergalactic police men and women who patrol the cosmos and keep planets safe and somewhat unaware of their existence. Anonymity is key to protecting individual identities so they all refer to each other as Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is the source of their power. Each agent is given the super-human ability to turn their thoughts into physical being. A ring is the conduit between host and lantern.

Ryan Reynolds plays cocky test pilot Hal Jordan. He is the consummate loner/hero. Children look up to him while his coworkers think he is a danger to himself and others with each succeeding stunt he pulls. He grates on everyone's nerves.

Elsewhere in the cosmos, The Guardians of the Universe have imprisoned Parallax, a ruthless being who feeds on fear where everything is shrouded in darkness. When a group of curious space explorers get a little too close to where he is imprisoned, Parallax escapes and begins a campaign to destroy the Green Lantern Corps.

One unfortunate Green Latern is attacked and barely escapes. He directs his craft hurtling towards Earth hoping that his ring can find a suitable new host among the human race. The ring chooses the highly unlikely Hal Jordan. He thinks the ring is cool. After becoming a new Green Lantern, the rest of the corps have many doubts about this "loud-mouthed braggart". It is only when the Earth is threatened and the Green Lantern Corps' ranks are depleted that Jordan learns his lesson. Sometimes, you are on your own. You must use the gifts you have been given to achieve your goals.

This sounds like a great story line for a movie. Add a director with Martin Campbell's pedigree for action flicks and just sit back for the accolades to come pouring in. Green Lantern is a mess of a movie. When all is said and done, the feeling that remains is "yeah, so?. Oh well." One problem is that it is difficult to determine what each Green Lantern is thinking so the audience does not know what he will concoct as a shield or weapon. Campbell is lost trying to visualize a "wow factor" when a lantern thinks up a sledge-hammer. There really isn't much to grab onto here.

Reynolds pulls off the cocky with the best of 'em. He isn't very convincing as the hero of the universe. Humans possess some skill or talent that is missing from the rest of the cosmos. It is the humanity of humans that puts us above every other species. OK, go figure out that last line yourself.

Why, with all of the volumes of comics available for script writers to peruse before writing a shooting script, is it so difficult to make consistently good movies based on all of the beloved comic books out there. This seems to be a hit and miss prospect with way too many misses.

Movie review © Larry Novotny/Spectre Films Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

All images © 2011 Warner Bros. Pictures
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