Ryan Reynolds To Be “Green Lantern”

According to the Washington Post, Warner Bros. has tapped Ryan Reynolds for the role of DC Comics hero, Green Lantern, in the upcoming live-action movie.  Out of the actors that auditioned - Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto (ew) and Justin Timberlake – I think that Reynolds is the best for the job but I hope it’s not a bad career move for him.

I don’t know if portraying the Incredible Hulk was a good thing for either Ed Norton or Eric Bana.  It was, however, really great for the careers of Tobey Maguire (Spider-man) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man).

I think it really depends on how popular the character is and how innovative the studio wants to be.  With Iron Man, they went for realistic dialogue and characters while featuring amazing effects and cutting edge technology.  I don’t want to sit through a movie that is almost entirely fake-looking computer-generated graphics.  I don’t think audiences want to spend their hard-earned dollars on that either.

Anyway, before I get too off-topic, the Green Lantern character has gone through many transformations since being created in 1940 and is often depicted as being good friends with Flash and has been part of the Justice League.  There are way too many inceptions of this character (each having their own powers) for me to begin speculating about the direction WB is going but, for now, those who are unfamiliar with him just need to know that he’s green, he has a power ring and he’s a superhero.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do with this.  I really like Ryan Reynolds and I feel like he could bring humor and believability to the role.  I just hope the script and effects do this character justice.

Reynolds Image: Bauer-Griffin, Green Lantern Figure via Amazon.com