Reynolds is a Natural Superhero in 'The Green Lantern'

While 2012 will bring new movies featuring the Big Three of American superheroes—Superman, Batman and Spider-Man—as well as the years-in-the-works Avengers film, we have to make do this summer with some of the second string, including Thor, Captain America, and now The Green Lantern.

The movie's mythology is convoluted, it takes more than a full hour to get going, and (par for the course this summer) there was no reason for it to be in 3-D. But The Green Lantern redeems itself with a killer third act, taking advantage of a strong cast and a director who knows what he's doing.

A DC Comics property dating back to 1940, the Green Lantern's mythology concerns a powerful green life force harnessed by a galaxywide committee of aliens (sort of like the Jedi Council) who see the primary movers of the universe as Will and Fear (which bear more than a passing resemblance to the Force and the Dark Side.)

When a top alien comes to Earth and dies, his ring falls into the hands of fighter pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), despite the council's general antipathy toward humans. It's up to him to save the world and possibly even the entire universe, while also doing battle with an alien-infected mad scientist (Peter Sarsgaard) who has designs on Hal's sometime girlfriend (Blake Lively).

The film's first hour is just a mess, as the mythology with the aliens is laid out in a boring and nonsensical way that no one who hasn't read the comics could possibly care about. The movie is credited to four writers, which tends not to be a good sign.

Then there's an airplane dogfight sequence that's practically a shot-for-shot remake of Top Gun, right down to Reynolds' character being haunted by his heroic pilot father who died in a crash. (The father angle, which seems to motivate everything in the first act, is never mentioned again afterward.)

Around the halfway point, things begin to recover for a few reasons. The plot gets going, and we get some strong action scenes motivated by a brilliant, beautifully realized gimmick in which Reynolds can visualize any weapon he wants to use in battle. Also, we quickly realize both that Ryan Reynolds was born to play a superhero and that Peter Sarsgaard was born to play a supervillain.

Reynolds' natural charisma is an asset in the role, and while I didn't believe many things in this movie, I believed that he was a superhero. He's also got pretty strong chemistry with Lively, in a role that's much deeper than the average comic book movie girl part.

Sarsgaard, despite an underwritten role that doesn't give him enough to do, is his usual delightfully creepy self as a nerdy scientist who becomes more and more grotesque as the movie goes on, eventually looking like the Elephant Man.

The Green Lantern was directed by Martin Campbell, who knows his way around both action and franchise launches, having directed the James Bond debuts of both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Despite the movie's sluggish pacing in the beginning, Campbell does a very good job handling the action scenes, especially a blowout set in space at the end. We can always follow what's going on, although once again, there's nothing with 3-D that wouldn't have been better in 2-D.

I also give the movie credit for confounding our expectations in a couple of different ways.

First, we're introduced to an aviation/defense company that somehow doesn't end up being the villain—I was sure that Tim Robbins' character would be revealed as the ultimate baddie. I was especially surprised when we find out there's a mysterious evil force called "The Parallax" that turns out to be a super-alien that looks like the Kraken.

Also, The Green Lantern doesn't pretend that Reynolds' character, like Clark Kent, isn't obviously recognizable in a mask that only covers his eyes.

You may not even remember it past next week, and it's based around a mythology that I absolutely couldn't care less about, but The Green Lantern nevertheless delivers more excitement than your average 2011 summer superhero movie.

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The Silver Screen Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

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Roll Credits: The Green Lantern

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett

Rated: PG 13

Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

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Appearing at:

Regal Warrington Crossing 22—Click on link for dates and showtimes.