A dim ‘Green Lantern’

The spectacular recent run of superhero movies has been notable for sticking close to Earth. Whatever their powers, the adventures of X-Men and Iron Man and Spider-Man have kept them primarily within the gravitational pull of the familiar world.

“Green Lantern,” a summer would-be blockbuster,

tries another tack. In spotlighting one of the most enduring superheroes from the DC Comics team, the movie blithely skips back and forth between Earth and all manner of spaceship battles, inhabited planets and supremely mystical Guardians of the Universe.

This is not the film’s only problem, but it might explain why “Green Lantern” never seems to get traction. Somehow it’s a little easier to take the goofier aspects of superhero pictures when they hew to Earth; but when your hero starts flying around in a ball of green energy in outer space and meeting with wizened aliens standing on galactic pillars, the solid ground gets shaky.

Our hero is Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot (is there any other kind?) chosen to be the new member of the galaxy-policing Green Lantern force. He’s played by Ryan Reynolds, the alarmingly buff actor who seems to get less funny the more his abs become defined. Reynolds can be engaging, but here he looks like a poster boy for Pilates class.

Jordan learns the ways of the Lantern, including how to use his ring and how to make his mask disappear. You know, so he can be inconspicuous while walking around in his rippling green body-skin and creating translucent green constructs that will deflect the worst efforts of the outer-space villains who come to Earth.

Blake Lively (“Gossip Girl”) plays the love interest with more sincerity than the situation calls for, and Tim Robbins wanders through as a possibly corrupt politician. The only performer of note is Peter Sarsgaard, as a nerdy scientist who gets too close to galactic goo.

Sarsgaard actually puts some juice into it, especially when his head begins to mutate into something resembling a potato that’s been left in the cupboard too long. When he’s on screen you get a glimpse of what the movie might have been if it didn’t spend so much time creating digital landscapes of galactic meeting places.

What’s missing is any credible sense of Hal Jordan’s wonder (or even surprise) at his new condition. Dude, you’ve been plucked out of ordinary life and chosen to be a defender of the universe with magic powers. You should go a little crazy, right?

Director Martin Campbell has made some good action pictures (notably the 007 entry “Casino Royale”), but except for a passable climactic battle — panicked citizens running through city streets, giant alien dreadlocks streaming through skyscrapers — this one is inert. An end-credits teaser promises a sequel, but I have my doubts.

“Green Lantern” (1½ stars)

Superhero shenanigans with a test pilot (Ryan Reynolds) who becomes the Green Lantern, intergalactic defender of Earth. Maybe it’s the fact that this movie spends more time in outer space than other comic-book films, but it never quite grounds itself, and only Peter Sarsgaard’s villain captures the juicy spirit needed here.

Rating: PG-13, for violence.

Showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marsyville, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall and Oak Harbor.