The massive success of the R-rated comedy/action Deadpool franchise—most recently in this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine—has largely sidelined Ryan Reynolds’ first, much-mocked foray into super-tights. Thirteen years later, now that so many agree that it’s fun watching Reynolds, let’s recall the green and the lantern and ask, “Was it really that bad?”
Green Lantern isn’t a good movie in the sense of having a coherent narrative, nuanced characters, or an appealing visual style. But most superhero films don’t have any of that either—not even some of the most lauded and successful ones (like, say, Aquaman.) If you’re grading on a superhero curve, Green Lantern is bog-standard average—and is occasionally elevated by the same charisma which works to such good effect when Reynolds plays Deadpool.
The plot of Green Lantern is as exposition-heavy and nonsensical as you’d expect. A intergalactic corps of supercops with green magic wishing rings powered by Will is fighting a giant space monster named Parallax (Clancy Brown), powered by Fear. Fighter pilot Hal Jordan (Reynolds) is chosen to be a new corps member and defend earth… but he has Doubts. Which he overcomes by hitting things and blasting them with his green power ring.
The story doesn’t make a lot of sense—as just one example, at the climactic moment Hal asks permission of the corps before he fights Parallax, though it’s never explained why he can’t just go blast the guy on his own recognizance. The fight choreography and the CGI are also lackluster. Hal can make anything with his ring, but the best he can come up with in general is guns, swords, energy blasts, a big green fist. His imagination, and that of the movie creators, is painfully limited.
Hal’s characterization is also underwhelmingly familiar. He’s a irresponsible womanizing swaggering jerk whose father was killed in a test flight, giving him a tragic backstory, daddy issues and supposedly depth all at once.
Within those limits, though, Reynolds manages to add at least a couple touches of less sickly green illumination. He and Blake Lively, who plays his boss/love interest Carol Ferris, eventually married, and the two generate some real romantic oomph without much help from the script. It’s not Christopher Reeves/Margot Kidder, but there are moments where they manage to make that comparison not completely ridiculous. The scene where Carol recognizes Hal almost immediately despite him being in costume (“What do you mean? I've known you my whole life! I've seen you naked! You don't think I would recognize you because I can't see your cheekbones?”) is genuinely funny. It also nicely deflates the longstanding clueless superhero girlfriend trope.
That’s indicative of Reynolds’ strengths; like Chris Hemsworth in the Thor films, Reynolds is most fun to watch when he’s fumbling the superhero-ness, not when he succeeds. One of the best scenes in the film is a throwaway when Hal’s preparing to show off his newfound powers in his apartment to his friend, engineer Thomas (Taika Waititi). Hal gives his transformation a big build up, strikes a heroic pose… and nothing happens. “Did you break it already?” Thomas asks. “No I didn’t break it!” Hal replies, sounding genuinely exasperated.
It turns out Hal just didn’t recharge the ring, and the movie moves on to its next not particularly enjoyable scene. The moments of adequacy, though, point to a better super-Reynolds future. The actor’s appealing as a bumbling fuck-up, and it’s entertaining to watch him take a superhero pose and then fall on his butt (or, in Deadpool, have his limbs cut off repeatedly.) I can’t recommend Green Lantern for either rewatch or first-time viewing, but I’ve seen worse superhero films.