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Don’t let the hideous trailers — or the stunning flood of critical venom — fool you. “Green Lantern” is terrific entertainment, its overly-contrived visuals bewitching in context and its cast and director able to deftly sell nearly every last superhero cliché. This is a mighty fine example of a genre film exceeding its preordained formula, a heaps-of-fun, above-par product that hits its required marks with vigor, but with scant few insults or injuries. Save for the Emerald-City effects, it doesn’t have much of novelty to offer, but it certainly trumps the similar attempts of numerous predecessors, few of whom endured such vicious ire for their efforts.
Things don’t bode well at the outset, as the velvety voice of narrator Geoffrey Rush guides us through an outer-space intro with enough yakkety backstory for the whole Justice League. But if you can get past that (and the requisite daddy issues, and the aping of The Force, and the boneheaded typecasting of Michael Clarke Duncan as a bullish sidekick), “Green Lantern” repays in spades, always up to the task of caffeinating its tired elements. As Hal Jordan, our reckless top-gun-turned-space-cop, Ryan Reynolds wisely downplays his usual cocksure self-portrayal, even summoning the strength to convincingly deliver a stirring super-speech.
Such surprises start to fall before you like dominoes, as Martin Campbell, a top-notch director of action films like “Casino Royale,” pilots one high-octane sequence after another while also coaching choice work from Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong and unlikely thespian Blake Lively. Most crucial is the film’s ability to nail the bookending spirits of discovery and triumph, providing a colorful uplift that only “Spider-Man” and “Iron Man” have likewise achieved in this genre. An extended showdown with the smoky villain Parallax (think Ghost Rider meets the Balrog) is especially fist-pump-friendly.
Amidst the never-ebbing influx of comic book cinema, we can’t always have movies like “The Dark Knight” to change the game, so it’s nice to have few like “Green Lantern,” which at least know how to play it.
Green Lantern
PG-13
Three reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Recommended Rental
Sucker Punch
PG-13
Now available
Soft-core misogynist porn? Cinematic pinball machine? A stroke of geek genius? There are many ways to label Zach Snyder’s “Sucker Punch,” a butt-kicking femme fantasia as contemptible for its messiness as it is laudable for its boldness. Imprisoned in a mental ward, jailbait Baby Doll (Emily Browning) faces her fears in imagined scenarios within an imagined scenario. See it just to talk about it. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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