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Does law and order ever really make us happy either? French cop corruption pic Point Blank is far from the advocate for that ideal and makes recent Brit effort Blitz seem like tea at the Ritz in comparison. And a couple of French gendarmes emerge with soul if not humanity nor dignity in The Round-Up - a rather worthy though engaging (I wish I could say expose) of French complicity in the WW2 Holocaust. Do we really need that soundtrack music of Grieg and Debussy's Clair de Lune at the end to help us feel! Why anyone except filmmakers would want to sit through the loathsome bloodbath of Mother's Day is quite beyond me. But you can't fault the film's technical aspects nor the acting. One for die-hard Saw franchise fans. Zombie cult fest hit Stakeland is fun but tame in comparison and a rather dubious promo for the country of Maple Leaf freedom.

Those who survived the zombies fell for the safety of notional northern territorial syrup. And let's face it, governments will always try to convince us that we are safe and secure in their hands. Duck and cover and all will be well. The origins of the comic books upon which is based The Green Lantern movie are almost the same as the origins of this blog. Martin Nodell was waiting on the subway platform after a train delay and noticed the red and green lanterns of the signalmen. The rest was history: ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #16, July 1940.. There's a great film to be made of The Green Lantern but this Warners effort is far from that goal. One could smell fear of failure as they turned away journalists from the preview (Warners being a studio that has a reputation for being as welcoming as possible). I wasn't allowed a second cup of coffee but I did get into the screening.

Which is strange because Warner Brothers could only win both ways. No matter what the critics might think, people would pay their money if only out of curiosity. And given that the film follows the high production standards that Studio sets for itself punters could only wish that a sequel would be better. It could have been Warners' Avatar though James Cameron needn't be worried about gesumping his 3D. Unlike most other comics, The Green Lantern is full of ordinary mortal humans who are chosen to be tested for a seat with 'the gods'. Moreover, the comic's green elemental nature is choking with cinematic possibility - the female 'Erda' earth quality (femininity without tokenism being rare in comics) and the whole Gaia thing going on (the planet is you and you are the planet etc). There was even a gay character in Green Lantern #137 (June 2001).

None of these elements are present in Martin Campbell's film. After so much disappointed expectation on his own film adaption of the BBC TV series Edge of Darkness (again with Gaia themes) I guess he was given another shot. Though from the evidence of this film probably not again. The same goes for the muddled and muddy plot coherence and exposition. As for the possible exploration of the Wagner 'national socialist' (the lower case political) Ring Cycle (gods stealing the gold from the Rheinmaidens, forging a ring of power only for it to be their undoing and for it to be returned to the watery depths) I won't even go there. Nor did the film. The dying alien Abin Sur gave his ring to a crashed test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds): the new comic of 1960, a human who was "utterly honest and born without fear". More parallels with the Siegfried and theRing Cycle.

What the film has got going for it are the special effects which are hard to wear off. Even Hal's green muscular suit (designer Ngila Dickson) should make the comic's originators proud. (Based on the C16 anatomy drawings of Vesalius) - "a human body without the skin on". While Fox Studios latest X-Men got us closer to why kids (young and old) read comics in the first place, Warners' The Green Lantern carries us further away. Comics aren't so much an escape from life rather an affirmation that life does have meaning. That we have the power to change our destiny. The Green Lantern comics posit that the battle is never won by simply defeating another colour (e.g. yellow) but by recognising just how much of that colour is latent within us.

Artist Matthew Day Jackson continues at Hauser and Wirth. Essential to understanding the show is his lounge room at the back where he's created a TV show about the spectres of our body - ghosts and the nuclear test sites in the desert.
The Barbican has a retrospective of Czech animator Jan Švankmajer that's not to be missed.
Katsuhiro Otomo's classic 1988 Akira is re-released in an HD print next week and on Blu-ray.

And as an afterthought, wouldn't it be great if there were comic films incorporating the 'gods' itching to shoplift and covert mortal spoils or union troubles amongst The Green Lantern Corps where they can't agree on exactly what colour green represents the will. Possible tube strike in London on Monday - hold onto your tempers...

more tomorrow....