So perhaps thanks to the gigantic mega-success of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. is hopefully now ready to fast track some of DC Comics' most beloved and theatrically stagnating properties, such as Green Lantern.
Enough so to hire a director, Greg Berlanti, and a writing team, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. They even have a script, which I had the fortunate chance to read and now review.
Green Lantern is one of the more diverse superheroes in the fact that he isn't Earth-bound. There are aliens, different, exotic planets, and the potential for huge epic battles in space. This could, in the right hands, translate to the original Star Wars meeting Richard Donner's Superman. And then some. So I have always been surprised that it hasn't been until literally just now that WB has even started to make a move on the adaptation.
So, does Berlanti, Guggenheim and Green's script live up to that expectation?
Yes, and no.
To me, this reads like Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman's Transformers. It's very on-the-nose, the emotion and characterization is right there on the page, and there's little room for subtlety or breathing room. In a world where our action blockbusters have become wiz-bang thrillers -- perhaps thanks to the Bourne trilogy -- we have fast-paced action met with every other scene, characters dishing out exposition like they just had it for breakfast.
The script is very face-paced. At a mere 109 pages (which translates to an hour and 49 minutes), the story briskly introduces us to Hal Jordan, Martin Jordan, the Green Lantern Corps, Abin Sur, Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Sinestro, Hector Hammond, Carol Ferris, Tom Kalmuka, The Guardians and Legion. Things are set up rather quickly, and there isn't much time to sort of examine these characters, to get to know them, before we're onto our next BIG ACTION SCENE or BIG REVELATION or BIG CHARACTER MOMENT/CONFRONTATION.
That's not to say that this script isn't fun. Hal is written like Han Solo, a cocky, self-assured and very physical leading guy that harkens back to Dennis Quaid in his heyday (or Tom Cruise in Top Gun). He doesn't mope around like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, and while he doesn't have quite the zingers or bravura of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, he is still a very likable main character whose only problem is that he's thinly written. Even Tony Stark had issues, but the fun of watching Stark is how he was able to balance that with humor. Jordan has humor, just not the gravitas or depth to make the character at all multi-dimensional.
The script does not follow Jordan's perspective, though. We begin with him as a child, and as his father, Martin, dispenses some heart-to-heart, you know where things are going and there's even some "SLO-MO" written in there just in case the drama wasn't laid thickly enough. We fast-forward to present, with Jordan ever the ladies man, late for work. Just as this happens, Abin Sur has had a nasty encounter with Legion, in space, and calls out for a replacement, and not just any (Clark Kent is mentioned, but apparently not good enough....maybe it was his other, daytime occupation that made him inapplicable).
Jordan then finds Abin Sur's crashed pod, and is given the ring and we're off. The rest of the story (which partly draws from Emerald Dawn) has Hal having to fend off Earth and Oa from Hector Hammond and Legion. If that surprises you, for those expecting Sinestro as the main bad, his character arc is not what I was expecting, but it works, and Berlanti and his team clearly have future plans for him.
Overall, this should make for a fun, if devoid of substance film. This doesn't even measure up to the greatness of The Dark Knight or Iron Man, but those are hard acts to follow. It is a very entertaining and action-packed thrill ride that should entertain newcomers to the franchise and moderately pacify fans. I was expecting more, and I think the concept and character have more to offer, but I'm sure many will be happily satisfied with even a mediocre outing.
Enough so to hire a director, Greg Berlanti, and a writing team, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. They even have a script, which I had the fortunate chance to read and now review.
Green Lantern is one of the more diverse superheroes in the fact that he isn't Earth-bound. There are aliens, different, exotic planets, and the potential for huge epic battles in space. This could, in the right hands, translate to the original Star Wars meeting Richard Donner's Superman. And then some. So I have always been surprised that it hasn't been until literally just now that WB has even started to make a move on the adaptation.
So, does Berlanti, Guggenheim and Green's script live up to that expectation?
Yes, and no.
To me, this reads like Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman's Transformers. It's very on-the-nose, the emotion and characterization is right there on the page, and there's little room for subtlety or breathing room. In a world where our action blockbusters have become wiz-bang thrillers -- perhaps thanks to the Bourne trilogy -- we have fast-paced action met with every other scene, characters dishing out exposition like they just had it for breakfast.
The script is very face-paced. At a mere 109 pages (which translates to an hour and 49 minutes), the story briskly introduces us to Hal Jordan, Martin Jordan, the Green Lantern Corps, Abin Sur, Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Sinestro, Hector Hammond, Carol Ferris, Tom Kalmuka, The Guardians and Legion. Things are set up rather quickly, and there isn't much time to sort of examine these characters, to get to know them, before we're onto our next BIG ACTION SCENE or BIG REVELATION or BIG CHARACTER MOMENT/CONFRONTATION.
That's not to say that this script isn't fun. Hal is written like Han Solo, a cocky, self-assured and very physical leading guy that harkens back to Dennis Quaid in his heyday (or Tom Cruise in Top Gun). He doesn't mope around like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, and while he doesn't have quite the zingers or bravura of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, he is still a very likable main character whose only problem is that he's thinly written. Even Tony Stark had issues, but the fun of watching Stark is how he was able to balance that with humor. Jordan has humor, just not the gravitas or depth to make the character at all multi-dimensional.
The script does not follow Jordan's perspective, though. We begin with him as a child, and as his father, Martin, dispenses some heart-to-heart, you know where things are going and there's even some "SLO-MO" written in there just in case the drama wasn't laid thickly enough. We fast-forward to present, with Jordan ever the ladies man, late for work. Just as this happens, Abin Sur has had a nasty encounter with Legion, in space, and calls out for a replacement, and not just any (Clark Kent is mentioned, but apparently not good enough....maybe it was his other, daytime occupation that made him inapplicable).
Jordan then finds Abin Sur's crashed pod, and is given the ring and we're off. The rest of the story (which partly draws from Emerald Dawn) has Hal having to fend off Earth and Oa from Hector Hammond and Legion. If that surprises you, for those expecting Sinestro as the main bad, his character arc is not what I was expecting, but it works, and Berlanti and his team clearly have future plans for him.
Overall, this should make for a fun, if devoid of substance film. This doesn't even measure up to the greatness of The Dark Knight or Iron Man, but those are hard acts to follow. It is a very entertaining and action-packed thrill ride that should entertain newcomers to the franchise and moderately pacify fans. I was expecting more, and I think the concept and character have more to offer, but I'm sure many will be happily satisfied with even a mediocre outing.
