Review of Green Lantern (2011) by Will S — 23 Jul 2017

Green Lantern most resembles the Christopher Reeve Superman films, like them it's a po-faced translation of the comics mixed with humour brought out of the situations and larger than life characters, but it never laughs at the expense of the concept.

It's never as charming as Reeve's appearances (although little is), but in delivering cartoon-style entertainment its heart is in the right place. That's not a free pass however, there are a lot of problems in the writing and pacing that mainly stem from trying to put too much in.

We're still being introduced to things towards the end of the runtime, plot threads get left undeveloped or simply dropped and the action moves back and forth between locations and characters at breakneck speed, reducing their effectiveness, and our hero seems all over the place literally and figuratively.

A lot of this could have easily have been improved with minor tweaks, changing or dropping some events, merely arranging others would have made a huge difference. There's some stunning CGI and enjoyable performances and it is a treat for fans in how is brings this world to life, for others who can view it in the same frame of mind as the Reeve movies has its fun moments, but it's hard to see how it would engage enough to win many converts.