Writer: Syahida Kamarudin

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Watch this if you liked: “Superman”, “Ghost Rider”, “The Green Hornet”

DC Comics has always had the best superheroes and super villains. Then again, maybe not all of them can be translated well into a movie. But then again, maybe it is the scriptwriter or the director's fault that a comic hero is badly adapted.

That is how it is with "Green Lantern". There is something missing while watching the movie. Maybe because it is not as big as Superman or Batman, or maybe it's the introduction in a form of a narration of the whole Green Lantern brouhaha that is not good enough to tempt anyone into wanting to know more. But maybe it's Ryan Reynolds - whose best performance was as Deadpool in "X-Men Origin: Wolverine", and that is because he has no mouth in the last 30 minutes.

"Green Lantern" is at its best where action is involved. But when it comes to drama, or even to the relationship between Hal and Carol (played by Blake Lively, the most unconvincing superhero love interest the world has ever seen other than Eva Mendez in "Ghost Rider"), you might actually fall asleep inside the cinema hall.

Script-wise, DC heroes are different from Marvel's when it comes to cracking jokes and making tongue-in-cheek comments. Unlike the latter, DC takes its heroes' seriously. So when the script tries to be witty and doesn't take itself seriously, it succeeds at first but wits turns cheesy after a while. And one can't help but snort at the irony of it all when after all those wisecracks in the first hour, the main character tries to be philosophical all of a sudden.

If there is one interesting person to watch, it would be Peter Saarsgard as Hector Hammond. He plays a very convincing pitiful doctor-turned-bad guy that really gets you rooting for him when he chooses the path of destruction. When a villain leaves more impact on the audience than the hero, making a lovable superhero becomes quite a predicament!

Watch this if you love the comic, or if you think Ryan should be given a chance in his career after losing ScarJo to Sean Penn (that's Scarlett Johansson).

Cinema Online, 16 June 2011