Movie Vs. Movie: Green Lantern Vs. Green Hornet
By Tom Houseman
June 23, 2011
Hero
In Hornet, Britt Reid is the son of a successful newspaper publisher, and he decides to live off his father's wealth, constantly partying and womanizing. So basically, he's Arthur Bach, but without any of the charm. In fact, Reid may be one of the most obnoxious characters ever, and is certainly the most useless superhero. He isn't strong, fast, or smart, just rich and selfish; it's like they left out all of the good parts of Batman and kept the annoying parts. Reid runs around like a moron while Kato does all the fighting, and then he steps in to take the credit. This of course gives Seth Rogen an excuse to give in to his most irritating impulses. I have always felt that Rogen works better in supporting roles, and here he proves that he does not deserve to be the focus of an entire film.
Hal Jordan is the son of a test pilot who died in an explosion, and he has decided to use this as an excuse to avoid all responsibility in life, just flying planes and scoring with chicks. So basically, he's Tony Stark but without the complexity. When he becomes the Green Lantern, he comes up with some really creative uses for it (a car on a racetrack that controls a careening helicopter) and some less creative ones (a machine gun). But mostly he just relies on the power of Ryan Reynolds' boyish charm and manly abs. I've loved Ryan Reynolds since “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place,” and he was the only reason I wanted to see this movie until I found out that Peter Sarsgaard was in it.
Even if magic machine guns aren't the cleverest methods to fight evil, at least Hal is the one fighting evil, not just cracking jokes and making me want to punch him in the face. Also, having super powers is one of the qualities I tend to like in a superhero, what with the “that's what makes them super” and all. Lantern takes this point easily.
Villain
Who better to get as your villain than Christoph Waltz, a man who, despite having a first name that's clearly missing two letters, created one of the most iconic villains of all time as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds? In Hornet he plays a less interesting version of that character, a calm, collected drug runner with a crazy streak that you definitely don't ever want to be there to see. Of course, a less interesting Hans Landa is still way cooler than most bad guys.
As with most superhero movies, the villain in Lantern is by far the most interesting character, and not just because they got love of my life Peter Sarsgaard to play him (I love whoever made that casting decision). Hector Hammond is a college science professor who has never lived up to his father's expectations, because seriously, everyone in this movie has daddy issues. When examining the remains of an alien he gets bitten by the fear monster (I'm not joking) which turns him into a combination of Professor X and The Elephant Man, but with serious anger issues. He's a badass, is what I'm saying.
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