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Rashid Irani's review: The Green Lantern
Another week, another wannabe comics-to-movies blockbuster. Regrettably, director Campbell who grabbed global attention with the James Bond adaptations Golden Eye and Casino Royale settles for visual overload at the expense of an involving story.
Quite colourless
The Green Lantern
Direction: Martin Campbell
Voices: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively
Rating: * 1/2
Another week, another wannabe comics-to-movies blockbuster. So, pretty close on the heels of X-Men : First Class comes the first big screen adventure of the seven-decades-old DC Comics’ superhero.
Regrettably, director Campbell who grabbed global attention with the James Bond adaptations Golden Eye and Casino Royale settles for visual overload of the expense of an involving story. Filled with generic clichés and quite incoherent at times, The Green Lantern is hardly likely to propel his career.
After a laboured prologue, we learn that a test pilot (Canadian actor Reynolds, vapid) is inducted into an intergalactic brotherhood of peacekeepers. A dying alien bequeaths him a magic ring, enabling our fearless flier to become the saviour of the entire cosmos.
Scripted by no fewer than four writers, the son-et-lumiere spectacle is marred by crummy CGI, eardrum-shattering sound effects and plenty of psychobabble. Inevitably, niceties such as in-depth characterisations take a back seat. For some diversion, a sub-plot organizes as on-off romance with a fellow test pilot (Lively).
Like many recent mega-budget extravaganzas, The Green Lantern is filmed in 3D. But the extra dimension adds nothing to the viewing experience. Rather, it’s just another instance to stick to traditional 2D.
