After the debacle that was Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern movie, I never thought I’d be excited about another Green Lantern adaptation again. It doesn’t help that the comics have long since fallen into the modern superhero maximalist tropes of a massive cast of super-powered characters that never take off their costumes or have human problems or explore any ideas other than the comic’s own convoluted decades of lore. When Geoff Johns added a rainbow of colored rings to the Green Lantern comics, all based on emotion—even though will power, which has always powered the green rings at the center of the story, isn’t an emotion—he pretty much killed my interest in the character. Ryan Reynolds and his smirk were just the tombstone on top of the grave.
So it’s surprising that I’ve enjoyed the Lanterns show on HBO enough that I’ve watched a few of the episodes multiple times already, even though the season isn’t over yet. The writing is clever, the budgetary constraints feel somehow liberating, and the actors are all stellar. Kyle Chandler makes Hal Jordan, a character I’ve never liked, into a sad-sack braggart who is way more likable than he should be.
But the real reason Lanterns is so watchable, and re-watchable, is Aaron Pierre, an actor who blew me away in the excellent Netflix movie Rebel Ridge. (Yes, it’s hard to recall now but Netflix used to make excellent movies.)
Pierre is the most uniquely watchable new star that I’ve encountered in a long time, in part because he’s got a presence that is so unlike most actors. It’s his silence and restraint that make him so compelling.
On screen, he’s a placid pool that you gaze into, hoping to see a hint of the ferocious currents that you know are flowing just under the surface. He somehow made Rebel Ridge into an action film in which you’re grateful when he avoids a big action set piece. It’s so much fun to watch him coil in preparation that you almost don’t need to watch him strike.
Lanterns and Rebel Ridge both offer roles in a similar register for Pierre—the highly capable quiet guy who feels coiled and ready for action at a moment’s notice. But in Lanterns he’s getting a chance to allow the viewer in and see a little bit of the humanity. He occasionally makes mistakes, he sometimes indulges his worst instincts, and we love him all the more for it.
All my life, I’ve been waiting for the second coming of Lee Marvin, the tough-guy actor who always delivered more menace than his film’s scripts ever actually called for. I thought for a while that Jason Statham was that guy, but he proved to have a little too much self-knowing charm to fit the bill. It’s possible that Pierre could be the heir to Marvin’s throne, or at least he’s certainly mastered the scornful silence that made Marvin so fun to watch.
It all comes down to this: It is somehow more entertaining to watch Pierre not punch an idiot in the mouth than it is to watch him haul off and take a swing. That’s star material if I ever saw it.