The 2011 Green Lantern film starring Ryan Reynolds was so bad, it became the butt of every superhero joke going. In Deadpool 2, the Merc With A Mouth even put a bullet in Reynolds’ head after he read the script. The Lanterns are clearly a difficult superhero to do justice in live-action: magic rings, extravagant powers, expansive sci-fi lore. So it’s all the more impressive that this HBO miniseries – which is part of the rebooted DC Universe, overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran – finds a confident and grounded tone for the potentially silly material.
Lanterns skews older than the DCU’s recent output, with swearing, sex, violence and heavyweight themes ruling it out for kids who might know the character from The Lego Batman Movie. The eight-episode series comes from creators Chris Mundy (True Detective), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and author Tom King, with Mundy serving as showrunner. Together, they’ve created a show that’s somehow in keeping with the essentials of the wider DCU, while still working as a gripping, grown-up piece of telly.
At the centre are two of the long-running comic’s most significant Lanterns: Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). For the uninitiated; the Green Lantern Corps are intergalactic law-enforcement officers, each responsible for a different segment of the galaxy. Jordan’s the older, seasoned maverick overseeing Earth with the help of a power ring that grants him superpowers including flight and the ability to manifest objects from green energy. The strictly disciplined Stewart is being trained up as Jordan’s replacement but is frustrated by his mentor’s unstructured approach and gut-instinct decision-making. Both actors are terrific, Chandler’s crumpled charisma working nicely against Pierre’s steely intensity, and their odd-couple clash goes beyond surface-level banter.
The show’s time-hopping structure – laid out in the first episode, but gaining further intrigue as the season progresses – is sophisticated. The plot doesn’t follow an obvious formula after it begins with Jordan and Stewart investigating an incident at a football match in Rushville, Nebraska. Here they meet Kelly Macdonald’s sheriff, who’ll play a crucial role going forward. Unlike many modern superhero shows, Lanterns actually feels like a deliberate TV series rather than a movie idea that’s been spread thinly over eight episodes.
In a concession to going small screen, there are occasional VFX punches pulled, such as aliens largely taking human form and the Lanterns’ powers not being overused. Despite some action-heavy sequences, it’s far from Superman levels of carnage, though credit to the creators for finding inventive ways around this. The ring needs to be charged, which helps build stakes for characters who might otherwise be too powerful to play around in the crime genre. There’s also a Blade Runner–esque paranoia to the way certain mysteries are parcelled out.
Lanterns does a neat job of balancing superheroics with the more down-to-earth drama, and doesn’t shy away from heavyweight themes. Race, difficult upbringings and contemporary political parallels are explored in a show that’s about as far away from the Ryan Reynolds movie as you can imagine. We’ll have to wait for the finale to air to know if it sticks the landing (the first seven of eight episodes were available for critics at the time of review), but on the evidence so far, this is the strongest showing from the new DCU yet.
‘Lanterns’ premieres August 16 on HBO MAX, NOW and Sky Atlantic in the UK
