Green Lantern

The spate of super-hero movies this year seems endless, Hollywood studios must have gotten really desperate! Not having seen the effectiveness of 3D in movies in quite a while, I decided to check out the 3D version of Green Lantern at a theatre recently. The story is set in an alternate universe involving Earth and aliens of all sorts. Planet Oa is the home of the Green Lanterns, a regiment of green-suit wearing aliens who guard the Universe. Their superpower is will, which they can use to bring to life any object which they can imagine. The villain named Parallax, a planet-sized smoky mass shaped like a spider, preys on fear (depicted by yellow). To interest us Earthlings to watch the movie (or buy the comic) a new Green Lantern is chosen from Earth, a fighter pilot named Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). As is typical in the first movie of a superhero series, Hal has to turn into a responsible human, get used to the powers of his green ring and then trounce the villain to prove himself to his green peers.

Quite a bit of the plot takes place in outer space with weirdly shaped aliens and lots and lots of green and yellow swirly undulations. I did not find any of this interesting, maybe because I am not familiar with this superhero or maybe because it is actually tedious. There is a mad scientist (played by Peter Saarsgaard) who is the pawn of Parallax on Earth, which he plays to maniacal aplomb. Ryan Reynolds in a buffed-up role took some getting used to, mostly because in my mind he still remains the carefree medical student he played in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. (I love that series, too bad it was shelved after just 2 seasons.) His love interest is Blake Lively, a stiletto wearing fighter pilot (!), who has no use but as the prize fought between the hero and the villain. I still remain skeptical of the power of 3D, and the unending barrage of computer effects in this movie did not repudiate my opinion. Green Lantern is an uninteresting long-drawn-out yarn, whether you catch it in 3D or less.