Rent Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022)

Green Lantern: Beware My Power review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

While it is refreshing that the DC Comics animated movies have decided to take another whack at Green Lantern, it’s a rather underwhelming representation of how limited this format can go. It’s a bit depressing considering how much I was looking forward to a Green Lantern movie with John Stewart leading the charge more as the central GL rather than being back up. There is even a strong premise worth exploring. Yet, this movie only puts forth the bare minimum for what could’ve been a far more rousing animated adventure.

John Stewart is established in this story as a war veteran. He’s haunted by his past and struggles to make ends meet, often getting into fights in the streets with bullies and being on the wrong side of the law. He’s recognized the erosion of the American dream through both the lacking benefits for those who serve and the systemic racism present, where the only reason Stewart isn’t hauled to jail is because of his military service. There’s a lot to explore there.

Forget all that, though, because a Green Lantern crashlands on Earth and bequeaths Stewart the magical ring that forms constructs. Most of the first act chucks Stewart head-first into the Green Lantern experience while being called upon for a deep-space mission. His ring speaks with him about the basics of the Green Lantern Corps and how the powers work. His ring also sends him into the hands of the Justice League, where Green Arrow, a good friend of the last Green Lantern Hal Jordan, tags along with Stewart for the mission forced upon him.

Stewart and Green Arrow investigate a war brewing between the Thanagarians and Rannians which brought about the destruction of the entire Green Lantern Corps. The investigation leads them to the familiar superheroes of the Thanagarian Hawkgirl and the Rann time-traveler Adam Strange. The mystery itself is rather intriguing considering the war being orchestrated by a mysterious force that instigates the battles. Strange and Hawkgirl soon learn to put their difference aside so that they can uncover the true culprit of the war in the forms of the rogue Green Lantern Sinestro and the mysterious dark force known as Parallax.

There’s a whole lot going on in this 90-minute movie that it’s a bit tragic how little Stewart get to add to this adventure. On one level, he’s the fish-out-of-water character who could act as the audience surrogate. And, yet, he seems to just go with the flow and let his ring and the other superheroes do most of the work. Consider the moment when Stewart learns he has to power his ring by placing it inside a lantern and reciting the Green Lantern oath. This should be a great moment of discovery and a powerful scene that inspires the character. Sadly, Stewart has to be told this information by Green Arrow and even his citation of the oath feels lacking. The reaction to the glowing lantern is also quite tepid, leading to Stewart being more mildly intrigued than awe-struck by this incredible concoction of magic and will.

There is a decent theme present throughout the picture on the nature of war and the emptiness that comes with killing. Stewart is haunted by his military service and finds himself unable to come to terms with combat that could end up killing people. He shows some of this PTSD in how he nearly crushes Hawkgirl to death and has to be pulled back from the void by Green Arrow. Later, other superheroes make controversial calls to kill which are resented and condemned but rarely culminate. The climax of the film ultimately involves killing with a catharsis that seems kinda messy for giving John an easy means of coping with the taking of life.

Green Lantern: Beware My Power feels like a lukewarm Green Lantern story with so many possibilities that don’t amount to much. Perhaps the one scene that encapsulates this problem best is when John uses his magical ring to create a familiar automatic weapon during the final fight. All of the power in the universe to create anything you can imagine and all John can muster is a gun. It seems effective, sure, but it also lacks in imagination.