Green Lantern vs The American

Green Lantern is of no consequence. It is written, directed and acted as if it holds no weight whatsoever, and that it only exists for opening weekend, to rake in quick bucks and start a franchise. Is it fun? Sure, at times. But you’ll forget most of the details as you’re walking back to your car. It centers on a character given the ultimate power in his galaxy, and he spends the movie barely leaving his hometown.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot. His primary co-worker (she’s portrayed as a co-worker and also as his boss) Carol Ferris, is also his love interest. She’s played by Blake Lively. Carol and Hal have, apparently, grown up together. Feel free to look up the ages of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. I’ll wait.

Back? That discrepancy is dealt with by aging Lively using a heavy brown wig and having her speak in a Serious Adult voice. She sounds like my impersonation of Scarlet Johansson.

Hal is impulsive (or careless or reckless or whatever. Adventurous? Stupid?). He’s not serious enough about test-piloting! He almost dies, and wrecks a jet. His bosses are furious, and his family (They get one scene, and are immediately forgotten for the rest of the movie) think he’s playing fast and loose with his mortality, in reaction to his test-pilot father’s legacy. Superficially, Green Lantern is similar to Top Gun, but it has no heartbeat. No Goose. No Meg Ryan. No Berlin.

Across the cosmos, the Green Lantern Abin Sur is speeding toward Earth, dying from battle, and seeking a fearless replacement. He picks Hal Jordan, who is skeptical for half a scene, and soon finds himself on Oa, among the Green Lantern Corps. If you don’t know what Oa or a Green Lantern is, don’t worry, it’s cleared up via narration during the opening credits, in a way that feels absolutely tacked on after focus groups checked “Confused” on their comment cards. On Oa, the Corps trains Hal to wield his power ring as guardian of our galaxy. Here, “trains” means he gets into a fistfight and has to dodge some swords (everything filmed, oddly, with Hal far up-screen, almost in the background. Is it a tactic to cheat out 2D shots in 3D? The other way around?). Back on Earth, the biggest demonstration of Hal’s new power is making a huge, looping racetrack to land a helicopter, even though there are far quicker and easier ways to land it, chief among them involving the fact that Hal can fly now. That wouldn’t have required as elaborate special effects, and Green Lantern is nothing if not an occasion for (only adequate) special effects.

You might be wondering if there’s conflict, or maybe a villain, in Green Lantern. Not really. Peter Sarsgaard has a laughably non-threatening villain, a genius drunk with power (the power he’s drunk with is inconsistent and of no concern to Hal). He’s mainly unintentionally funny. Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins are on hand to complicate the storyline and class up the cast with strong acting, but both are wasted. Bassett, especially, is put through the ringer for no reason. She has a moment with Sarsgaard that seems to hold depth and character development, but it’s never revisited.

The sturdiest plot twist happens during the credits. It’s just a ploy, just the setting up tease of a sequel. The exact same twist would have done the movie a favor, had it occurred during the actual story. If only the focus were on making a good movie, and not on creating a brand.

Green Lantern was directed by Martin Campbell, with no wit or distinction. It doesn’t look like anything, or anywhere, or any time. Every location looks like a set, or like a green-screen background. Hal is given a big battery to charge his ring, and keeps it on his coffee table. He’s told that when his mask is necessary, it will appear. He’s wearing it when he talks to Carol, who recognizes him anyway. He’s wearing it when he talks to his buddy, even though he tells his buddy the secret. The big set-piece of the film’s climax involves a galaxy-crossing monster chasing a crowd down a street one direction, and then another, like it just wants to mess with these particular people, and not all people in general.

The American is another film about a man chosen to possess great power. He also utilizes a serious weapon, but in a story with higher stakes, menacing villains, a female co-worker on equal footing and a beautiful foreign setting. The American is also, largely, lamented as too slow and quiet. After Green Lantern, you’ll welcome these qualities.

George Clooney is Jack, an American hitman on the job in Italy. In his downtime, he lives a somber, simple life, speaking little, doing yoga, and having a regular appointment at a local brothel. For his job, he’s been assigned to build a gun by Mathilde, who needs a special weapon that is deadly, easily concealed, quiet, accurate, and able to be taken apart and put together quickly. Jack wants out of the business, perhaps even to start a life with Clara, his regular prostitute. What is Mathilde going to do with the gun? Jack has essentially been tasked with using his considerable power, and granting it to someone else, just like in Green Lantern, only minus any sitcom reactions or video game-style effects.

The American is a beautiful-looking film. Its director, Anton Corbijn, is primarily a photographer, and uses this skill to its highest benefit. Italy looks both quaint and complicated. Having the American of the title played by one of America’s biggest movie stars (and one of the best, for my money), only strengthens the subplot of Jack wanting to do his job in a private way, then drift into obscurity. Good luck with that, Clooney. And listen, Ryan Reynolds makes a fine Green Lantern, but it’s not like it would be impossible to cast if he weren’t available. The American is so many things Green Lantern is not, including suspenseful, logical, emotionally-resonant, and consequentially violent. Also? Boobs and guns. That’s what I keep hearing everybody wants in movies, and here they are, constantly, in The American. Slow? I’ll take slow any day.

Green Lantern: C-

The American: A-