A test pilot is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron tasked with keeping peace within the universe.
In a summer stuffed with superheroes, this underwhelming offering will likely leave you jaded. How it could have used some of Thor’s charm and The Green Hornet’s chutzpah.
Martin Campbell made Zorro and Bond work as contemporary heroes, but doesn’t quite have the feel for poor old Hal Jordan. Green Lantern is dazzling in pieces, but we’ve seen too many sharper versions of the superhero origin story in the last few years. It’s not Jonah Hex, but the battery runs low too quickly.
The ring may not make mistakes when it chooses a new Green Lantern, but plenty of mistakes were made in bringing "Green Lantern" to the screen, and in the end, I have a feeling this is our one and only trip to Oa.
Confusing, moralistic and features a central character with all the appeal of a creepy lawyer.
This is sometimes engagingly daft, but it simply fails to spark, and Reynolds – so good in recent movies like Buried and The Nines – just looks like a slice of inert beefcake.
Fantastical sci-fi designs, massive set pieces and incredible special effects save this from being a complete waste of time.
It does look good and the special effects are solid, but it’s just too puerile to be engaging, and closer to the kid-friendly likes of Fantastic Four than any of the more mature adventures of recent years.
Hit-and-miss.
Another DC comics superhero, another ho-hum 3D movie adventure.
It’s just one of those bungled efforts where it's easy to see the wasted potential, thus leaving you wishing for far more. If only they hadn’t been afraid to dream a little bigger.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a giant squawking turkey.
Campbell orchestrates his set-pieces efficiently and coherently, coaxes a good villainous performance from Peter Sarsgaard and – even though this is more po-faced than it should be – has a sense of humour about the ridiculousness of its heroes' outfits.
A bit of a mess.
As silly summer superhero movies go, this was thoroughly all right.
Comic strip sci-fi fails to shine.
Casino Royale director Martin Campbell gives Green Lantern a certain amount of battery power for its action sequences, while the film's 3D conversion allows the usual explosions, asteroids and glass shards to fly about the screen. The trouble is that none of it pierces the heart or mind.
Green Lantern moves along briskly, strikes the right balance between being serious enough to be exciting and funny enough not to become laughable and manages to transport intact the spirit of the Golden Age comic character to its contemporary setting. The Earth-set climax becomes a bit pedestrian, but it takes off again when things go intergalactic once again.
The Green Lantern: interview with director Martin Campbell
Green Lantern rings the changes
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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