Green Lantern
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 17, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
19
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 17, 2011
So what we have is a movie that will make at least two important groups happy. New Orleans boosters can cheer Green Lantern for its local roots and for the possibility that the inevitable future installments could return to town. And the purists can cheer, knowing that Campbell and crew have done Green Lantern justice. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 16, 2011
For all the CGI action sequences and butt-rocking Dolby sound effects, in fact, Green Lantern is most satisfying when it sticks close to stodgy comic-book archetype. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 15, 2011
Serves up all the requisite elements with enough self-deprecating humor to suggest it doesn't take itself too seriously. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 17, 2011
It's not only light, it's thin. It's self-deprecating to a fault. Reynolds is required to practically wink at the audience, as if to say,"I know this looks silly." Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 16, 2011
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 full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 20, 2011
Apart from having no particular reason to exist onscreen, especially at these prices, it's not half bad. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 16, 2011
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 full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJun 16, 2011
Takes forever to get going and then goes nowhere. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangJun 15, 2011
An attempt to infuse an earnest piece of comicbook lore with an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek sensibility yields decidedly mixed results in Green Lantern. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJun 15, 2011
Reynolds makes Hal a perfectly functional comic-book hero, but there's a big difference between functional and super. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 17, 2011
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 full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJun 16, 2011
What gets sacrificed on the altar of this new franchise launch is any real sense of fun. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJun 16, 2011
There are pros and cons to this Green Lantern, a half-campy, half-compelling adaptation of the superheroic DC comic books. Read full review
50
Washington PostMark JenkinsJun 16, 2011
It's neither amusing nor exciting enough to ensure a long-running franchise. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissJun 16, 2011
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 full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 16, 2011
Green just isn't the superhero color this year. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJun 16, 2011
Martin Campbell, though a capable director of action (Hal's training session with the Michael Clarke Duncan-voiced Kilowog is proof of that), doesn't have a poet's instincts. Read full review
40
NPRGlen WeldonJun 17, 2011
The film splinters into three near-discrete storylines that don't play all that well together. Read full review
40
EmpireKim NewmanJun 16, 2011
Martin Campbell made Zorro and Bond work as contemporary heroes, but doesn't quite have the feel for poor old Hal Jordan. Green Lantern is dazzling in pieces, but we've seen too many sharper versions of the superhero origin story in the last few years. It's not Jonah Hex, but the battery runs low too quickly. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonJun 16, 2011
The result is a deadly disappointment, despite Ryan Reynolds's cocky, muscle-flexing charisma as the daredevil test pilot turned intergalactic peacekeeper and Peter Sargaard's movie-stealing turn as a nerdy scientist turned psycho monster. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 16, 2011
The effects are so omnipresent it's like Reynolds' perfect hair is floating in CGI limbo. Yet when they need punch, as in a "Superman"-ish display-of-powers scene involving a helicopter, there's no flair. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondJun 15, 2011
The film, released in both 2D and 3D, delivers lots of freshly minted CGI'd action (eventually) but none of it grabs you. There's just something too synthetic about the whole enterprise - it's fantasy tipped over into fakery. Read full review
40
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJun 14, 2011
The film never rewards the viewer for even trying to keep track of what is going on. So you give up, and instead try to grab on to the small pleasures, which momentarily distract from the fact that the narrative is nonsensical, the characters so boilerplate that their every action seem preordained from the earliest frames, even as the action on-screen is often incoherent. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 14, 2011
Whenever this Lantern returns to terra firma (too often), its imaginative flights are ground down under the Warners overlords' demographic-pandering heels. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickJun 17, 2011
Blake Lively doesn't have a whole lot to do as Hal's employer and occasional lover, who sometimes requires rescuing. No great loss; she and Reynolds have minus-zero chemistry. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 16, 2011
For a movie that touts the importance of humanity, Green Lantern is a strangely lifeless spectacle. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 16, 2011
What has Campbell wrought? An intermittently amusing, interminable affair that for sheer ugliness and a scenery-chewing performance by Peter Sarsgaard has a certain Camp appeal. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 16, 2011
The spectacular collapse of Green Lantern is bound to be blamed on Reynolds, but the villainy has its origins in an injustice league of TV-trained screenwriters and tin-hearted studio suits. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 15, 2011
Well, 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 full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJun 16, 2011
A film so utterly lacking in conviction, it needs a 25-year-old Tom Cruise vehicle just to keep its spine straight. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 16, 2011
Green Lantern is bad. This despite Mr. Reynolds's dazzling dentistry, hard-body physique and earnest efforts. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 16, 2011
Green Lantern was meant to be a sci-fi adventure, but it proves to be a genuine mystery. How could its megamoola budget have yielded a production that looks almost as tacky as "Flash Gordon" (which had the good grace to deprecate itself at every turn)? Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 16, 2011
Can we please get over the notion that every superhero in a skintight suit deserves a movie? Green Lantern is the latest wallet drainer emptying the comic book bench, more thudding than "Thor" and sorely incoherent. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJun 16, 2011
The film is remarkably stunted. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 16, 2011
Hal claims that a Lantern's only enemy is fear itself. The thought of a sequel to this shamelessly soulless Hollywood product scares me plenty. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 15, 2011
The tone is all over the place, which makes the movie difficult to take neither seriously nor as popcorn fluff. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJun 15, 2011
Even as a prime example of rotten summer silliness, this is a paralyzing experience. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 23, 2011
It's a helluva comic book, to be sure, but it's a godawful mess of a movie. Read full review
20
SlateDana StevensJun 17, 2011
Even by the standards of the current run of mediocre comic-book movies, this one stands out for its egregious shoddiness. Read full review
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