It may be one of the most anticipated comic book adaptations to hit a TV screen, “Lanterns” debuted on HBO and HBO Max Sunday, Aug. 16 and proved to be wholly intriguing.
Starring Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights,” “Homefront” and Aaron Pierre (“Krypton,” “The Underground Railroad”), as two Green Lanterns – well, one Green Lantern and one trainee.
Chandler is Hal Jordan, the Lantern who has been best known through the years, while Pierre stars as John Stewart, his replacement who he’s being forced to train to eventually assume the mantel of the Green Lantern. It may be worth noting that most younger fans tend to know Stewart due to his appearance in assorted DC Universe animated series.
Jordan serving as a teacher is the equivalent of a supervisor being canned and then being asked to train their replacement. Think it makes for tense moments between the two? Just a little.
Jordan condescendingly refers to Stewart as “Junior” and Stewart projects thoughts of “when is this guy going to get out of my way so I can assume the role for which I trained all my life.”
It makes for cheekiness and sarcastic chemistry between the two, something absolutely essential for this rather unconventional adaptation to work and both actors said they were able to find it during a recent video teleconference.
“It didn’t take long for Aaron and I. I believe we both agree to find a spot where, ‘oh, okay, that’s you, that’s me, that’s my character, that’s your character,’” Chandler said, “and then we started playing back and forth. And all the rest of it fell into place. It’s all in the writing.”
Pierre said the duo was able to find a comfortable spot in working together.
“I think that is so important and it’s so critical because once safety is established, you feel an ease and you feel at liberty to explore, try things,” he said. “And eventually you’re going to get to the greatest place it can be because you feel free enough to get it wrong and fall forwards. And Kyle and I did a lot of falling forwards.”
Showrunner Chris Mundy said their relationship represented the most important element of “Lanterns” with the other being a sense of the show being grounded in reality.
“I think with anything, you introduce something, you get people to understand it, and then you add. You know what I mean,” he said. “And for us, it was grounding emotionally in John. And then immediately in Hal and John’s relationship. And then in that sense of place.”
That sense of place is Nebraska. That sense of reality may be the most notable for the comic book movie TV show genre since Christopher Nolan unleashed his trilogy of Batman – with a particular nod to the grittiness of “The Dark Knight.”
As the shocking ending of the first episode revealed, “Lanterns” will unfold like a detective story. To the disappointment of some, the grand scale of most superhero efforts is missing. Given that Mundy produced the HBO classic series “True Detective,” it makes sense.
It would appear the series is better for it, too. It’s clear the series may do a slow burn that may underwhelm some fans of the comic book, but it wouldn’t surprise if it traveled the opposite direction. Personally, I prefer the latter. It makes “Lantern” intriguing, and considering the strengths of the Chandler and Pierre along with Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”), giving a significant lift, I will be tuning in weekly.
Streaming: Airs weekly on HBO and streaming simultaneously on HBO Max at 9 p.m. Sundays.
Grade: B+
‘X-Files’ film gets a reworking and is better for it
Big fan of the Fox classic supernatural/sci-fi series “The X-Files” here. I even watched through the seasons without David Duchovny and his kooky FBI agent Fox Mulder, even when Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully mainly stayed on.
That devotion included watching the mostly tepid “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” a standalone monster flick as opposed to one focused on mythology. X-philes rejoice. Director-creator Chris Carter gets to rework it. The result: an intelligent, nuanced horror movie that does the overall franchise justice.
“The X-Files: I Want to Believe — Vrach Frankenshteyn” follows the show’s thematic elements closely, but while the series oftentimes had legitimate and frightening monsters, it oftentimes let fans know that some of the most horrifying ones live and operate among us. In the case of this film, the gore, the horror and those themes have been amped up.
Streaming: Currently on Disney+ and Hulu c
Grade: B
‘Love Island USA’ continues charts domination
“Love Island USA” racked up close to two billion streaming minutes for the week ending July 12, but let’s talk about something else – “Project Hail Mary” for instance. It’s rare when a theatrical film that’s released to a streaming service racks up close to a billion minutes. It comes close for this week of the streaming charts, continuing its box office success from earlier this year. It lands at the top of the movie charts.
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George M. Thomas covers a myriad of things including sports and pop culture, but mostly sports, he thinks, for the Beacon Journal.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ‘Lanterns’ on HBO isn’t the typical comic book adaptation | Review
Reporting by George M. Thomas, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By George M. Thomas, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
