GREEN LANTERN

Ten years ago, DC tried to mimic Marvel’s universe-launching success. Did a crisis of identity scupper Hal Jordan’s chances?

Why it was a good idea (on paper)

After Iron Man successfully birthed the MCU, DC’s catalogue seemed ripe for plucking. The director would be Martin Campbell, who handled Zorro/Bond rebirths so well. The lead, Ryan Reynolds, promised class, sass and weapons-grade abs. Greenlight it!

What went wrong?

In staging the war between Will/ Fear, Green Lantern couldn’t choose between fealty to the source or to origin-movie conventions. The result bore the imprint of a studio unsure how to handle material previously under-served on film.

With the opening mytho-spiel, what worked on page tanked on screen. As a dick-wad Hal Jordan, Reynolds played more like a Tony Stark/Van Wilder mash-up than the comics’ earnest space cop. Meanwhile, toxic info dumps and goofy CGI interference suggested problems lay somewhere between heavy-handed script interventions and a director uncomfortable with effects cinema. Either way, reshoots and studio cuts couldn’t remedy billowy cloud villain Parallax, the lime-tinted constructs or Hal’s radiation-glow CG costume.

Redeeming feature

Mark Strong brought reserved menace to Sinestro, ready for his planned villainous turn. And the brazen product-placement Hot Wheels sequence is sort of funny.

What happened next?

Lantern hit red with critics and audiences alike. The effect freed Reynolds to headline Deadpool, which ruthlessly ribbed his cartoonish Lantern cossy. Campbell turned to TV work and The Foreigner.

Man Of Steel relaunched the DCEU and Lantern Corps member Yalan Gur cameoed in Justice League, the light still flickering…

Should it be remade?

While the rumoured “Lethal Weapon in space” Green Lantern Corps movie seems to have lost momentum, Marc Guggenheim and Seth Grahame-Smith’s HBO Max series now lights the way ahead. If the “ring’s limits are only what you can imagine”, the options are wide open. KH