Green Lantern(2011)- User Reviews

Unbeknownst to mankind, the entire universe, Earth included, has been under the protection of a group of intergalactic peacekeepers called Green Lanterns. The only limit on their abilities is their imagination and the source of those abilities is willpower along with a ring and an actual green lantern. But for the first time in recent history, they are vulnerable. A dark force that draws its power from fear is picking off Lanterns one at a time. Wounded, one Lantern crashes on Earth and his ring seeks out his replacement.

Enter Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). A test pilot for a private aerospace firm, Jordan is brash, sarcastic, and reckless. The ring and lantern find him and bring him, against his will, to his predecessor who informs him of their purpose.

Going into this, I kept referring to it (to myself and others) as The Green Hornet without meaning to. Leaving the theater afterwards, I still struggle to distinguish the two. Of course the characters are immensely different as are the stories. The similarities are the tone and the fatally flawed execution. I actually like Reynolds, generally, but maintaining dramatic tension while practically winking at the audience and his fellow cast members is a near impossible task and Reynolds falls far short of accomplishing it. The supporting cast doesn’t really help, but the failure lies with director Campbell and writers Berlanti, Green, and Guggenheim.