“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power, Green Lantern’s light.”

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard

Official synopsis:

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, an elite force of protectors for peace and justice has existed for centuries. They are the Green Lantern Corps. When a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of the Corps’ newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds).

Mini Review:

How does Green Lantern separate itself from the masses of superhero movies cinema goers have at their disposal? To be brief, it doesn’t, and it doesn’t even attempt to. What had the potential to be a worthy contender in a crowded genre therefore sadly is little more than a cliche riddled, and frankly messy movie. Ryan Reynold’s Hal Jordan is a cool guy, who lives by his own rules. But he has a dark past which he tries to cover up with his icy cool demeanour, and general douchery. Deep down though he is a hero, and Earth’s saviour – cue soul searching, exposition, big action scenes and a predictable final act.

The predictability would perhaps be forgivable, if it wasn’t so shoddily put together. This is storytelling done with the grace of a gazelle with is feet tied together, through clunky, exposition filled dialogue. Compounding this is the fact that neither the hero Hal Jordan, nor the villain are particularly interesting, with the latter’s muse Hector (Peter Sarsgaard) confusingly shoehorned in, with his motivations for battling Jordan apparently been made up on the fly. The issue of uninteresting characters does not end there however, as the rest of the film’s universe is littered with dull, crudely defined characters, who are poorly acted to varying degrees. At least Mark Strong puts in a typically assured performance as Sinestro (whilst looking impressively ridiculous).

Last but by no means least, Green Lantern features some of the very worst CGI I’ve seen in a big budget blockbuster movie for quite some time. It really is quite bad, with even a mask appearing to be to difficult to make convincing. Only the team behind this treat will ever know why a mask would possibly need to be CGI in the first place.

In short:

The likes of Avengers and X-Men can rest easily in the knowledge that their places atop the superhero mountain are in no danger of being taken away by this calamity. Watch Guardians of the Galaxy instead.

Rating (out of 5):