Green Lantern

GREEN-WASH

Ok, now some amount of recollection was required as to what was the first scene from Green Lantern. It was an introduction to the cosmos according to the comics of course. First there are the guardians, typicial brain coming out of head aliens sitting on high, sorry very high seats with superman’s cape stitched to the bottom of the universe. The guardians are responsible for everything that happens in the universe except of course the guarding part which they silently gave it to the corps in green.

There are some idiosyncrasies that need to be addressed with respect to Super hero movies, like for example, how is it that English is spoken throughout the universe? Aliens portrayed in the film, highly evolved and cerebral all speak English just like the terrorists in a Vijaykanth film who are versed in Tamil.

Next to the abstract things, I have never understood the exact meaning of abstract maybe it is one of those words which people use now and again, like metaphysics and existential. One shall never know what these things mean, the comics are (ok not all, most) are based on the simple set piece of good vs evil.

In Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern, the good vs evil is morphed into not so better sounding ‘will vs fear’. The power of the Green Lantern corps are entirely based on the will of the universe, umm then if there is the will of the universe why do we need the guardians?

Anyway, Ryan Reynolds stars as Jet pilot Hal Jordan, like every other super hero he must overcome his past. I like that phrase ‘he must overcome his past’ that generally means the hero had seen his parents being shot, like Bruce Wayne. But then that is reason why he became a vigilante in the first place: to remove the scum from the streets of Gotham.

We cannot also elevate Green Lantern to a planet-hopping Batman, because he seems have this ambiguity thrust upon him. Everybody complains about Hal Jordan, but on what issues is something I have not been able to zero in on. His father’s death seems to have a permanent scar on his life, but it isn’t as driving as to him becoming a super hero all of a sudden.

Elsewhere, a fear gobbling monster called Parallax is threatening the end of the world. The ‘this is the end of the world’ situation seeds the heroism in our Hal Jordan who becomes part of the Green Lantern corps and how he tackles the situation forms the rest of the film. Yes, and before I forget, there this the irritatingly beautiful Blake Lively as aviation mogul in waiting Carol Ferris and predictably becomes the love interest. A sudden shimmer in a under drawn character, and the usual geeky computer expert cum confidant and the mad scientist also playing the second villain when bored.

Apart from what I thought was formulaic, there are certain moments which stand out. For example the sequence when Green Lantern first flies, that always seems to work. The moment where someone learns that he can fly, even though it is something that has been repeated it always seems to work for me when they come up saying ‘whoa, I can fly!!! Yeah!”  Also is the undercurrent of sarcastic wit coming from Ryan Reynolds.

I have not read the Green Lantern comics and my views are based on what I have seen in the film, maybe followers of the comic might appreciate the film better and help me understand it. When I walked out of the theatre I felt that the film itself had some problems on liking itself, everybody wants to like Hal Jordan but at the same time for some unknown reason everybody stays away. It is indeed tough to completely like something that has problems with itself, just like that friend in high school whose only weaponry were self pity and self pity alone, and yet you have no option but to sit next to him.

I am as undecided as the film itself.