GREEN LANTERN - REVIEW

Green Lantern is no Superman. As a character, green ring-toting Hal Jordan can be as likeably cocky as he wants he'll never be taken as seriously as his DC comics buddy. For one thing: his story is absurdity itself. Something about free will having a colour (?), purple aliens and magical glowing lanterns...?

If only there was a live-action film!

Oh...

Well, they gave it a go. After the trailers popped up ages ago online, it seemed pretty clear that although clearly a lot of money was pumped into the project, a lot of Green Lantern would still fail to transcend the inherent silliness of the whole premise. Ryan 'Van Wilder' Reynolds alone seemed to lack a certain je-ne-sais-quoi one looks for in a superhero. Just look at Brandon Routh: adorable Clark Kent but The Man Of Steel? Surely you jest.

Surprisingly though, Green Lantern is no disaster. In 3D, at least, it is visually fun even if the effects are very hit-and-miss. The CGI costume is a tad off-putting, a lot of the aliens look rubbish and the whole thing just feels way too overambitious for its own good. The film definitely has a Thor vibe to it but where that film used its effects cleverly and handled its silly storyline with a touch of class, this is all-out kid-friendly nonsense. And I have to say, on some very guilty pleasury way...it kind of works!

Now don't get me wrong, Green Lantern is not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. But, there is something refreshing about its refusal to make any sort of sense or acknowledge its shortcomings. Well, I say refreshing but what I mean, really, is entertaining. As a fan of bad movies, this is one of the not-so-bad-because-they're-fun ones. Think G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra.

Ok, the bad stuff. I think what kills the film, besides how ridiculous the whole thing is, is the plot holes. It just makes NO sense. Why is that evil scientist guy useful? Why is the girl useful? Why is Tim Robbins there? Why is anything happening? What's the deal with the yellow ring at the end? Why's Mark Strong suddenly evil? What's the spider poo monster's (Parallax) deal? Why make a race car to save a helicopter? Why make water to cushion someone's fall?

It's somewhat infuriating. A shame since there were some good things here and there: Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, some of the effects...

Oh well, it looks like we'll have to wait till The Dark Knight Rises for something DCent. Still, if you want to see Ryan Reynolds create giant fists and giant green planes in space while fighting a giant piece of spider stool out in space...you could do worse than Green Lantern!

Look at it this way: it's better than Transformers 3.