‘Green Lantern’ falls short of interesting, focused plot

So far this blockbuster season, we've been a little spoiled. "Thor" and "X-Men: First Class" have been pretty fun entries into the comic-book movies subcategory of the summer movie season. Don't get me wrong, they're not without their problems and foibles: They don't always excel at punctuality or emotionality and no, they can't be directly compared to "The Dark Knight" or "Iron Man." But they maintain credibility, remaining fun and forgiving.

"Green Lantern," though, seems to exist soullessly, wishing it could be a grand achievement.

Sinestro (one of the strongest members of the Green Lantern Corps) says to Ryan Reynolds' character Hal Jordan about halfway through the film, "the Corps is only as strong as its weakest link" — a mantra that perhaps should have been taken into more consideration by those putting together the picture. Several weak links can be found throughout.

This issue in "Green Lantern" is not the all-CGI suit; it's not the actors who push through their characterizations (although they are quite thin from time to time). It's the movie's complete inability to focus and decide what it wants to be. It gives off the distinct odor of meddling and constant tinkering. The plot can be a forward, action-driven spectacle and then schizophrenically wander off into the uninteresting side of human droning. Extraneous characters pop in and out, only to have themselves excised from thought without so much as a nod — not that they were at all interesting to begin with.

Emotional depth for these personifications is vastly important. That's understood. A big part of why Christopher Nolan's "Batman" movies connect so well is because there is motive. There is a structure behind the apparent madness and a vision behind each move. "Green Lantern" would have done itself well if it lived in a vacuum and had to create some original points for itself. Instead, it relies on the tried and the cobbling together of better elements in the hope that it all gels. It never does. Even attempts at one-off jokes fall distinctly flat.

A centralized story of Hal Jordan, an air force pilot coming into possession of a ring of power and learning the ins and outs of being a hero, would be great, and for a while, that's the objective. However, seeing Hal transported to Oa to receive training from the Corps is all too brief. And the interesting, textured face that embraces the weirdness of the concept and creatures becomes nothing more than a short frontispiece.

Interaction with this world is something that passes by as if it were a ship too far from a shallow coast to dock.

The movie slumps from then on, working its way through individuals like Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) and Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) as if they were intensely important to examine. A love interest is supposedly standard, though it would have been nice to see Lively do more than just be the handsome guy's inamorata, as she plays a woman who is also an ace pilot and a corporate genius. And in the face of a galactic bad guy by the name of Parallax, Hector Hammond is a pretty much a useless side villain and could probably be fleshed out to greater success later on.

The rousing finale also falls a bit short in the newly invigorated "Green Lantern." Hal takes on Parallax himself in the streets and up into space. However, there doesn't feel to be any weight or grandeur to it. Like the rest of the scenes that precede it, it just kind of sits...or...err...floats.

Most would think it dim to consider sticking to a blueprint as a point to speak of trying for originality, but creativity can spawn from the basics. And quite effectively, in fact.

Artistry can be sentient as well as physical. Reynolds really tries here. He tones down the "Van Wilder" shtick he's been going on with for a while (though films like "Chaos Theory" and "Buried" are all recent breaks that are very fun to watch). So he's not a bad actor — he just has such bad stuff to root through to finally get to wear the green suit, which he got the short end of the stick on as it was completely computer-generated.

"Green Lantern" looks pretty good, save for a lack of any real interactive physicality in the CGI environments.

Expanding on the universe of the Lantern Corps would have been a great investment for the first in what I'm sure Warner Bros. and DC Comics would hope to be many films. I'm sure they would have also liked it to be good. We don't always get what we wish for though, do we? But we shouldn't be so selfish. They make these films for us to enjoy. We want to be entertained. And it can't be perfect all the time, as "Green Lantern" shows.

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