The Green Lantern is such a dynamic superhero that a mindless action popcorn flick could have been effortlessly created based on the character. Say what you will about their lowbrow aims, but such movies, when executed with originality and creativity, can provide immensely entertaining experiences. Nevertheless, Green Lantern’s writers took the more difficult, and laudable, approach of attempting to tell a compelling story that happens to contain the kinds of action scenes and visuals possible in a title based on a character who wields a ring that can do practically anything. Unfortunately, they end up trying too hard to add layers of meaning and emotion to the action of their film, and what we are left with is a movie that attempts to do too many different things and, thus, is forced to expedite all meaningful developments. The products of this scattered approach range from simplicities of characterization to problems with the plot itself.

When one of the universe’s 3,600 guardians, known as Green Lanterns, is mortally wounded, he crashes his spaceship on Earth to find a successor. Or, rather, he lands on Earth so his ring, the source of a Green Lantern’s power, can find his successor. These “space cops,” as our main character Hal Jordan calls them, keep peace throughout the universe with these very rings, which imbue in Green Lanterns the ability to materialize objects temporally through mere will. If you need anti-air artillery, just dream it up. If you need something to shield you, a steel wall should do. If you want to keep a helicopter from crashing, then you get creative. This dying Green Lantern’s ring chooses a wearer who supposedly has no fear, and that individual is Hal Jordan, the Air Force’s top fighter pilot, but when Hal is introduced to the Green Lantern Corps, he doubts his ability to uphold the Green Lantern name. These doubts will eventually be confirmed one way or the other when Hal faces an enemy that threatens to destroy Earth.

Though there are eventually problems with Green Lantern’s plot, the majority of its shortcomings are found in its characters and their development. The first of these is Hal, who turns out to be a cliché. He starts off as the cocky slacker hero who has a kind heart, a good one-liner perpetually at this hip, and a natural born expertise in his craft (in this case, flying fighter jets). It’s understandable that the writers would start with a simple character like this in order to develop him throughout the course of the film, but problems arise as they do so. First, the movie seems to revel in Hal’s character during these early moments of the movie, portraying him as unique and entertaining rather than lacking in admirable qualities. If there had actually been something original about this characterization, that would have worked, but there is not. Second, since there is so much else going on in the film, the writers never have sufficient opportunity to allow the character to mature in a believable and natural way. Instead, they have to resort to a spontaneously inspired speech by his ex-girlfriend, Carol, which in one stroke accomplishes what the plot should have belabored: finding the true strength within Hal. Yet, even after this, the character remains generic. He’s a straight-up superhero who exhibits unusual bravery. This simplicity is fine for an action film, not for a movie that spends so much time watching its characters grow.

Carol herself is another element that adds unnecessarily to the things the film has to cover. While watching the scenes in which she is present, mostly taking part in a rekindling of love between her and Hal, I was reminded of 1950s science fiction, where romantic subplots are thrown in just ‘cause. Granted, she does contribute to the story unlike the women in those films of the golden age, but she does so only because she’s the most convenient way the writers had to inspire a change in Hal. If she had been absent, or less focused-on, the writers could have spent more time developing Hal and may have been able to create a maturation based on experience rather than on Carol’s unlikely dialogue. Again, under other circumstances, it may have been possible to examine both Hal and the Hal-Carol relationship in sufficient depth simultaneously, but this film’s other affairs leave too little time for both to occur.

Another major component of the story is Hector Hammond, a genius schoolteacher and son of a politician who is called in to examine the alien body of Abin Sur after the government discovers it. Hammond becomes infected with a cosmic dose of fear that grants him powers comparable to those of the Green Lantern but that also cause him to lash out in anger against those who have hurt him. Despite the time spent following the character while he disappoints his loved ones, becomes involuntarily overcome with hatred, and eventually turns completely evil, there is no actual conclusion to his personal story. He presents Hal with a threat, and once Hal deals with that threat, Hammond is forgotten. To be clear, Hammond does have a substantial role as antagonist, but there is too much time devoted to the growth of this character that ultimately exists only to present Hal with a couple challenges. Adding to the problems with Hammond’s subplot are Hammond-related details that just don’t make sense. Why is such a brilliant individual only a high school teacher? And … why does his school keep medical syringes in the chemistry lab?

All this talk, and we haven’t even gotten to the largest, overarching threat facing the characters: an immensely powerful and evil being called Parallax, which has been held prisoner alone inside a planet in a desolate part of the universe. Bigger problems are found here. In the opening moments of the film, we see how Parallax broke free, and the process is overly contrived. A few alien explorers in space just happen to crash not only on this exact planet – one of the most obscure of the billions and billions of planets in the universe – but almost precisely on the part of the planet beneath which Parallax is buried. I won’t spoil the ending of the Parallax plot, but I will say that it involves this: Hal Jordan, a brand new Green Lantern, using moderate ingenuity to accomplish what 3,599 other Green Lanterns believed would be suicide to attempt with their power combined. It’s an easy way to wrap up a film that has spent so much time jumping among subplots that none of them feel important.

As for that staple of most Green Lantern stories, the visuals here are generally entertaining. The Green Lantern constructs, which include everything from fists to giant toy racecar tracks, are both fun in their creativity and dazzling in their appearance, just as they are when best executed in the comics. Other visuals such as Parallax, which looks like a combination of smoke and withered gray flesh, and the Green Lantern base planet Oa, which is packed with alien topography and life forms, are equally detailed and stunning. My only complaint in this regard is that Hal’s mask (along with not fully performing its intended function, as you will see) looks relatively fake compared to the other visuals and also looks a tad silly. But that’s likely to happen somewhere in an effects-heavy production such as this.

Watching the action scenes in Green Lantern, it becomes clear that, as commendable as their goal was to provide a compelling story, the creators of this film should have stuck to the all-out action format. These scenes are genuinely fun, but there just aren’t many of them. Instead there is a heavy focus on numerous characters that don’t develop in a meaningful way. There’s only so much you can fit into a single film. Green Lantern is taken beyond the threshold.