Living in Batman's shadow is bound to turn you a little green.

I must admit, of all the superhero films that have been released over the past decade, The Green Lantern isn’t one that had me excited to go and see it. For all the trailers and other promos they released alongside the movie, none of them really enticed me into watching the movie itself.

But watch it I did, and it’s an alright movie to be fair to it. Unfortunately though it isn’t the most spectacular of superhero films. It has plenty of action involved with very little filler in-between which is good and bad. On the one hand there’s little depth to the characters in the movie, but on the other it keeps you entertained.

The main drawback here is the character depth. Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds, plays the standard jerk who gets responsibility so therefore changes his ways; seen it a thousand times. The love interest leaves no impression on you. Mark Strong’s character Sinestro has potential but you don’t see anywhere near enough of him to get to any of it. And then there’s Hector, the bad guy with daddy issues; again we have seen it a thousand times.

The story too is very basic: Obnoxious jerk (Reynolds) lives his daily life, annoying everyone along the way, the purple alien is killed by the evil intergalactic antagonist, the ring chooses Frodo, I mean Hal Jordan, and he becomes a Green Lantern. His mission is basically as simple as you think…defeat the evil intergalactic antagonist. I suppose Hector somewhat gets in the way a little, but he's more of a punch bag than a worthy foe.

The ending to the movie is a bit of a surprise. After the inevitable scene where Hal is doubting himself and sees himself as a failure he ends up squaring off against main antagonist almost instantly, wins, and gains total adoring adulation by all. It’s bizarre and feels very rushed. I thought he would lose to the giant monster then come back later to get the final victory; but no they just ended it there.

As a superhero the Green Lantern is one of the better ones in that he has one of the best powers: his own imagination. Anything he imagines is made a reality. If he wants to wield a hammer, he simply imagines he has a hammer and hey presto he has a hammer! He’s the X-Man Marvel wishes it had. That being considered the character isn’t really done much justice in this movie, considering he’s a big DC character, quite possible third in line behind Batman and Superman.

Even for a superhero film it lacks depth, it’s doubtful it’ll get a sequel but who knows. Apparently in the comic books there are several Green Lanterns other than Hal Jordan. You just know they’re going to make an Asian one and call him either the Yellow Lantern or the Chinese Lantern. I love Hollywood.

Final verdict: 3 Stars. It’s entertaining enough but don’t expect Shakespeare.