Mean Green
Green Lantern
Directed by Martin Campbell
Runtime: 105 min.
Green Lantern is a watchable if unexceptional entertainment,
spinning an overcomplicated moral about guardians of the universe; will,
courage and fear; and putting Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in a body suit made
of light. All amusing enough until the filmmakers…bring on the black guy.
No matter how fanciful, quixotic or faithful to their
original source, most of this year’s comics-based movie sink when their pop-art
legends are confronted with the modern world. The fantasy-figure heroes and
villains cannot transcend cultural archetypes which means these contemporary,
multimillion dollar productions keep dragging audiences back to the oldest,
most decrepit social stereotypes.
It has become a particular annoyance this year. Given the
essentially frivolous nature of these comics-derived films, it’s worth pointing
out how their fleeting but constant offense prevents the movies from being the
progressive fantasies they pretend to be. They spoil their own lessons about
good and evil through their non-conscientious use of cinematic imagery and
character presentation.
Here are three recent disappointments:
Idris Elba in Thor. While translating the gods of Norse
legend into the modern day Hollywood universe, the makers of Thor challenged
familiar thinking by thinking multiculturally. Casting black British actor
Idris Elba as Heimdall, Guardian Sentry of Asgard, confronted archeological
complexities more than it disputed history. Why shouldn’t a deity be portrayed
by an actor of color? Problem is: Elba’s Heimdall never significantly figured
into Thor’s action. The character’s conception was, essentially, a butler. His
purpose was to admit and greet—aligned with 1930s Hollywood stereotype rather
than divine or cosmological possibility. (Read the review here.)
Edi Gathegi in X-Men: First Class. During the round-up of
“Mutant and Proud” superheroes, Gathegi as Darwin becomes the first to graduate
to oblivion. He is gruesomely dispatched when his sketchily revealed “gift” is
used against him. Darwin never gets to display heroism; instead, he is horrifically
calcified. It’s a tip-off that the movie probably won’t use any of its
characters satisfyingly. Even though Gathegi (also brutally dispatched in Gone
Baby Gone) was felled by convention, the only dramatic surprise was that it
happened so early in the story. Gathegi’s Darwin was X-Men: First Class’ Second
Class citizen. (Read the review here.)
Michael Clarke Duncan in Green Lantern. Duncan voices a
character named Kilowog, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, brother from
another planet. He’s drafted to train Hal Jordan physically although Duncan’s
speech patterns seem to dictate the character’s physical appearance; he looks
like a police suspect sketch (a dark-skinned, menacing hulk as if derived from
the British racial epithet “golliwog”). Essentially emulating the famous Lou
Gossett Jr. badass drill sergeant role, Duncan suggests that racist stereotyping
exists even among alien cultures.
Would any of these actors ever get a chance to play a
superhero comics protagonist? Will the comics audience ever be educated beyond
typical racist conventions? Can fans ever recognize the ideological roots of
their heroes and villains and respond intelligently to how these pop myths are
constructed?
Only Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet escaped this problem and
did so primarily through Gondry’s sophisticated approach to the nature of
comic-book heroism. Gondry, Seth Rogen and Jay Chou explored the stereotypes by
which white male characters (and their audiences) presume heroism via social
convention that gets mistaken for natural right. It leads to Britt Reid and
Kato’s rivalry (Caucasian to Asian) which brings these issues into play rather
than ignoring them and perpetuating the traditional biases and outdated
cultural codes.
Racial stereotyping may be organic to the creation of comics
lore (a simplistic genre) but Gondry’s Green Hornet proved it’s not essential
to one’s enjoyment. Ironically, Green Lantern’s entertainment value comes from
defying certain genre conventions. Ryan Reynolds brings an agile presence and
light humor to the part of brash test pilot Hal Jordan. As a child who
witnessed his test pilot father’s death, Hal’s frightened, arrogant psyche
responds to the possibility of Green Lantern Corps heroism as a test of his
maturity. Reynolds plays the seriousness better than Robert Downey in Iron Man
or Toby Maguire in Spider Man. He also displays wit without resorting to camp
like George Clooney’s Batman.
Because Reynolds is an unconventional comics type, it helps
ground the film’s delirious lessons in humanity. He makes Hal’s scenes with Blake
Lively as aviatrix Carol Ferris sexy and credible (“I think we both know I’m
pretty good at walking away”) and straight-facedly represents Hal’s struggle
with fear, weakness and will. It’s proof of what original casting can do for a
comics movie. Director Martin Campbell is a reliable craftsman (The Mark of
Zorro, Casino Royale) who raises the level of this genre even if only in terms
of technique. The F/X of Hal creating objects out of his ring’s green light are
successfully, modestly fantastic. Such professionalism needn’t resort to dumb
stereotyping.
Is it possible that the comics franchise is inherently
retrograde? Does the commitment to childish characters and mindless action
prevent creativity, believability, intelligence? Hal Jordan’s magical ring of
virtue, given to him by the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps is a talisman
devolved from Wagner and Tolkien. And co-screenwriter Greg Berlanti (The Broken
Hearts Club) doesn’t sustain Hal’s interesting family subplot nor detail his
romantic rivalry with hydrocephalic super villain Hector Hammond (Peter
Sarsgaard channeling Brad Dourif). The action stays superficial despite
Campbell’s advance in the depiction of disaster as spectacle; disaster doesn’t
just happen but is full of threat and, importantly, witnessed by many (surely a
Spielberg influence).
Green Lantern should be better than it is but improvement
would begin with sustained enlightened casting and characterization. What’s
happened in comics movies this year has not improved on the casting in 1930s
Hollywood serials. Actress Sanaa Lathan (star of Alien Vs. Predator) recently
snapped “Nothing has changed!” when describing her role as an embittered 1930s
black film actress in Lynn Nottage’s current play Meet Vera Stark. Lathan and
Nottage’s collaboration is more meaningful and entertaining than all the
comic-book franchises—or any other Hollywood movie—so far this year.
Stereotyping has gotten so bad that smart viewers have come to expect the
insult. They know beforehand that if it’s an action movie and there’s a black
guy in it, his doom is certain—the ultimate spoiler.
