To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

One of the essential pleasures of a superhero is that he possesses boldly defined powers. Superman is the space age Hercules, Spider-Man uses his web to catapult himself through the air, and so on.

So what about Hal Jordan of “Green Lantern,” who goes from top gun fighter pilot to intergalactic crime fighter? Well, he flies through the air, he’s pretty damn strong, and in a handful of scenes he turns images from his mind into tactile objects made entirely of green light.

However, Hal doesn’t use this pictogram ability that often, so there remains something a little vague about him. Mostly, as played by Ryan Reynolds, he stands around in his shiny, pulsating emerald-green muscle suit, all dressed up with no place to go.

The Green Lantern character dates back to the ’40s and has been revived several times since. Still, the amiably lightweight, FX-driven “Green Lantern” is less a vital origin story than a superhero pastiche.

Hal is chosen by a magic ring to become the first earthling member of the Green Lantern Corps, an army of warriors who police the universe. Reynolds, as always, is easy on the eyes, and he’s the soul of likability. In “Green Lantern,” he tricks up his perpetually unfazed, “what’s the big deal?” presence into a loose-limbed superhero style that borders at times on kitsch.

Hal’s antagonist is Parallax, an ominous tentacled glob of floating malevolence who comes off as a rather abstract beastie. On Earth, the spirit of Parallax takes over Hector Hammond, a milquetoast professor, and turns him into a bulgy-headed vengeful nerd. Even with the gifted Peter Sarsgaard seething in the role, he’s a fairly innocuous villain. Blake Lively, as Hal’s love interest, is sweetly sexy eye candy.

“Green Lantern” can be fun as spectacle, but the movie relies on visuals and not much more. Reynolds makes Hal a perfectly functional comic book hero, but there’s a big difference between functional and super.