Green Lantern 2011

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: A joyless amalgamation of expository dialogue and special effects that aren't especially special. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: "Green Lantern" isn't "Jonah Hex" bad. But it's silly enough to be part of the same "silliest Warner Brothers comic book summer movies of all time" conversation. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...a pretty joyless comic book movie experience. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "Green Lantern" is bad. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Apart from having no particular reason to exist onscreen, especially at these prices, it's not half bad. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Sarsgaard succeeds in creating a real guy with real passions. Apart from him there's nada. Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: Green Lantern's ring is cooler than Thor's hammer, but not as awesome as Ironman's suit. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: There are movies willed to life by the passion of their creators, and there are movies like Green Lantern, which are willed to life strictly by market forces. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Green, we're told at some point in "Green Lantern,'' is the color of will. Based on the movie surrounding that line, it's also the color of won't. Won't make sense. Won't satisfy a soul. Possibly won't make a dime. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Reader: The result is a deadly disappointment, despite Ryan Reynolds's cocky, muscle-flexing charisma. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Only in fits and starts, mostly in the most earthbound scenes between Reynolds and Blake Lively, does "Green Lantern" offer traces of real personality. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Half-campy, half-compelling. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: At least the filmmakers acknowledge that Reynolds in green tights and mask still looks like his non-Green Lantern alter ego, cocky test pilot Hal Jordan. There's none of this Clark Kent/Superman silliness. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Green Lantern opens with the words "Billions of years ago..." Take that as a sign of just how much time this ostensible action movie spends explaining itself. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: As a disjointed rumble in the cosmos, it's both too much and too little, and too dorky looking. In this case, Green means stop. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Darting between Earth and the rest of the cosmos, Green Lantern can be fun as spectacle (which is why kids may go for it), yet the whole movie is eye candy, and not much more. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: It's almost as if no one cared to try hard enough to tell a coherent and engaging story. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Serves up all the requisite elements with enough self-deprecating humor to suggest it doesn't take itself too seriously. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: More science-fiction space opera than superhero epic, it works in fits and starts as its disparate parts go in and out of effectiveness, but the professionalism of the production make it watchable in a comic book kind of way. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The lantern kind of resembles a funky bong, and if you were to make use of one before seeing Green Lantern, the film would be a lot more fun. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: When it comes to the big questions, director Martin Campbell -- who knows about fresh starts, having twice revived the 007 series, first with "Goldeneye" and then with the recent "Casino Royale" -- seems to have most of the answers. Read more

Glen Weldon, NPR: Gleefully pulpy dialogue that evaporates on the comics page -- lines like, "You can't give in to fear! I know what it's like to be afraid to be afraid!" -- land with a series of heavy wet thuds on the cement floor of the cineplex. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: More "Daredevil" than "Dark Knight." Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A relentlessly silly superhero flick with eyeball-rolling dialogue - set in vast, familiar-looking digital realms that look like rejected models from the second "Star Wars" trilogy. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Even in the brainless world of cinematic comic books gone bad, it's as bad as it gets -- a dumb, pointless, ugly, moronic and incomprehensible jumble of botched effects, technical blunders, and cluttered chaos. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: About as enjoyable as an explosion in the mold lab. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The result makes the movie seem assembled from bits and pieces of other superhero yarns rather than existing on a plane of its own. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: He's an ambiguously...heroic hero. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Green Lantern" does not intend to be plausible. It intends to be a sound-and-light show, assaulting the audience with sensational special effects. If that's what you want, that's what you get. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Green Lantern is a new primer on how not to make a comicbook movie unless you want to screw shit up. Flat FX, smirky acting, clunky writing and clueless direction. WTF? Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Green Lantern" is purely a popcorn movie for 12-year-olds, who won't be disappointed. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Even by the standards of the current run of mediocre comic-book movies, this one stands out for its egregious shoddiness. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A mind-numbing, misguided pandemonium that ranks as the biggest comic book misfire since "Batman & Robin" battled Poison Ivy. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: I never thought I could feel sorry for Ryan Reynolds. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: The superhero genre is the home-court of the underdog, of skinny Peter Parkers and mutant outcasts, of heroes born from pain or ingenuity. In Green Lantern, the rich get richer. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: [The] movie groans with the strain of explaining who Green Lantern is, while also trying to sell the movie as a big, eye-popping summer entertainment. What gets sacrificed on the altar of this new franchise launch is any real sense of fun. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: How many more of these superheroes can we take? Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Apart from some spiffy visual effects, which create coherent, scary textures and architecture for outer space, Green Lantern is the most generic of summer time wasters. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Campbell seems unsure of what to do with one of the most shopworn figures from the DC Comics stable. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Lantern rarely taps the charm Reynolds has shown in previous films. Consequently, it's hard to imagine why the nebulous Corps chose a cypher such as Hal as its savior. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Martin Campbell's visually lavish sci-fi adventure is a highly unstable alloy of the serious, the goofy and the downright derivative. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Campbell's ADD style privileges spectacle over story -- so much so that the film never rewards the viewer for even trying to keep track of what is going on. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Neither amusing nor exciting enough to ensure a long-running franchise. Read more