When adapting a comic book character for the first time on the big screen, writers and directors often struggle with effectively recreating the hero’s world. This is because condensing a collection of written works into a movie is a difficult task. The filmmakers usually need to take liberties with converting them, to maintain a reasonable running time.
Given the constraints, they must balance effectively explaining the character’s back story and compelling viewers with an adventure in the present. Only the best super hero adaptations give equal attention to both though, while the rest falter, by focusing more on one aspect than the other.
Martin Campbell’s “Green Lantern” is a primary example of a film which falls into the latter category, since it spends more time trying to hook you on the current events, than getting you invested in its protagonist, Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds).