Hello guys thanks for reading this article and joining me when I dive into my own dream of my ideal DCCU. I previously posted part 1 on this site, which I covered the background of my dream DCCU, and the Wonder Woman movie I dream of. You can read part 1 here:
Part 1 Background and Wonder Woman
In this article, I would talk about my dream Green Lantern movie. Like my Wonder Woman movie, I base my ideal movies on other materials such as direct-to-video animated movies, cartoons, or Wikipedia, to my shame.
Green Lantern Movie 1
You don’t tease the existence of the Green Lantern Corp in the previous Wonder Woman movie without a follow up to quench the fans’ thirst of a great Green Lantern Movie. I would like this movie to be set in outer space, so that things that happened on Earth would not affect this movie, and vice versa; and I don't have to go through the tedious explanation of why Superman or Wonder Woman helped out.
Now, I don’t think the 2011 Green Lantern Movie is that bad, but I don’t think it is anything good either. I like Sinestro, and I think bits and pieces of that movie can be used to base the new Green Lantern movie on. The main inspiration of this Green Lantern movie would be Sinestro’s fall from grace as depicted in Emerald Dawn and Secret Origins of Super-Villains Issue 16, as well as the animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight.
The opening credits would show a number of clips edited together The Incredible Hulk style, referencing the origins of Hal Jordan/ Hulk with the not-in-continuity-movie Green Lantern/ Hulk as the source. The clips would show Hal Jordan flying a jet plane, being taken to the crash site where Abin Sur lay dying, Hal Jordan putting on the ring, the ring bringing Hal Jordan, Abin Sur’s ship, and Abin Sur’s corpse to Oa (with a burnt Washington DC as a reference to the Wonder Woman movie), Hal meeting the Guardians, and Hal started training with Sinestro.
I don’t want you to tread into my dream Green Lantern movie without a map, so I would summarize my dream movie as follows: Training Day with bad Obi-wan, good Anakin, and a lot of flavors in the form of different settings on different planets, just like Star Wars.
Traditionally Sinestro does not believe Hal Jordan would be a good corps member and his is harsh towards Hal. I would like to soften him a bit, by making him and Hal Jordan a bit like Obi-wan and Anakin as described by Belated Media below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAbug3AhYmw
I think this change in the two’s relationship is necessary, as I want to crank up the emotional impact on Hal Jordan when he sees that Sinestro turns evil/ he finds out his mentor is evil. It is more tragic for Hal Jordan to testify against Sinestro if the two were close to each other, more on that later.
The movie starts with the two, the master and pupil, on patrol of the planets, and Hal Jordan is on probation. We get an idea from their conversation that Hal Jordan respects and loves Sinestro, and Sinestro, though still being harsh and strict towards Hal Jordan, cares for him. The two go into a bar to look for evidence/ witnesses, then Hal for some reason pissed off some local alien thug, and Sinestro quickly slice off the alien thug’s left hand in order to save Hal, which resulted in the thug’s death. Obviously, I write this scene as homage to Star Wars, but there are more to this scene than paying tribute to Star Wars. The other patrons in the bar quickly joined forces to attack the two Green Lanterns. Hal at first makes shields and clubs with his power ring to fight off the patrons, enjoying the fight while not bringing any severe harm to his assailants. Sinestro initially shield himself from the assailants, then, seeing there are too many enemies, he flies away, pulling Hal out of the bar with him and causing the roof of the bar to collapse as he goes.
When the two are safe, Hal thanks Sinestro for saving his life from the first thug, and asks is the act Sinestro killing the thug manslaughter or murder, and does the action breaks the GL corps regulations. Sinestro responds by scolding Hal Jordan for being reckless and provoking the local thug, and then he proceeds to make his speech of ending chaos, hitting harder than the local criminals, etc etc, as in Green Lantern: First Flight (that speech is one of my favorites scene from the animated movie). Sinestro then tells Hal Jordan that the Green Lantern Corps Regulations are irrelevant out in the sectors, where a corps member is usually alone, without other member to help him out. When a Green Lantern is out in his own sector, he is alone against all the “filth” and “scum”, and the regulations would hold him/ her back. This part of the speech, which emphasizing being alone, is a set-up scene for the movie’s plot and future movies.
Sinestro’s speech/ scolding silences Hal Jordan, he admits that he is impulsive, but we see Hal being doubtful of his mentor’s philosophy. Then there is some more investigation done by the two, throw in some chase scenes, culminating in a space chase scene where the two Green Lanterns chase after some guy (let’s call him SG for simplicity’s sake) in a space ship. After some thrilling chases, Sinestro stops Hal Jordan, telling him that SG is heading towards Sinestro’s home planet, Korugar, and the two should take a shorter path to go to Korugar (via worm-holes or some other techno babble/ space mumble jumble).
Sinestro and Hal Jordan arrives at Korugar, and Hal Jordan sees for the first time, Korugar, which is under the iron-fist of Sinestro. Hal is horrified, but before he says anything, Sinestro tells him dismissively, in a tour-guide manner, that the crime rate of Korugar has been 0.1% (or some more realistic, really low percentage) for as long as he ruled the planet, and things are really orderly, and that’s what Sinestro and the Guardians want. Hal and Sinestro arrive at the town hall of Korugar City, where SG was already caught by Sinestro’s troops and ready for questioning. When Sinestro questions SG, Hal Jordan was in the town hall, and he witnesses how Sinestro begins to torture SG for information. After some time, Hal Jordan decided to spare himself the sight of his mentor and friend torturing SG and he left the town hall, thinking about what he sees in Sinestro, and his philosophy.
Suddenly, insert a few disorienting shots, Hal Jordan blacks out, and then wakes up to see himself in the hands of the resistance, led by Katma Tui. Being doubtful of Sinestro’s actions, Hal Jordan tells Katma Tui and the resistance members what he experienced with Sinestro, and it was revealed that Sinestro murdered the alien Hal Jordan pissed off in the bar. Hal arrived at this conclusion after being told that it is public knowledge in sector 1417, which the alien species the thug in the bar belongs to have his/ her only heart (or heart equivalent of the alien) in his/ her left hand, which Sinestro cut off in cold blood. This traumatizes Hal Jordan as he learnt that his friend is evil (to put it simply) and he has to do something to get out of the situation/ report to the Guardians/ go back home. Hal Jordan decided to stop Sinestro’s reign, both for the Korugarians and for his friend’s sake, and joins the resistance. A few scenes, which mirror Obi-wan’s inner conflict concerning Anakin turning to the dark side in Episode 3, can be added here, if it benefits the Green Lantern movie to make a little more homage towards Star Wars.
Now, with their own Green Lantern on their side, the resistance stormed Sinestro’s citadel, and we can cue some sci-fi battle scenes/ shoot outs. However, the battle between the citadel guards and the resistance is not the focus; the confrontation between Hal Jordan and Sinestro is. Sinestro is furious with Hal Jordan, saying that Hal had failed him and turned his back at everything Sinestro taught him; and we should see a tiny bit of disappointment and sadness in Sinestro’s eyes, as this version of Sinestro does care for his protégé. Hal responded by saying he cannot be what Sinestro taught him to be because Hal values all life, and he mentions the bar scene. This makes Sinestro even more furious, and swears that he will take Hal’s life because he saved it once, and because Hal had joined the side of chaos. Then an epic battle between mentor and protégé ensues. We see Hal Jordan struggling to stay alive, Sinestro using resistance fighters as shields/ hurling them into danger to distract Hal, and Hal Jordan’s power ring began to run out of power. Trying to recharge his ring and lure Sinestro away from the resistance fighters, Hal flies away from the main battle ground to find Sinestro’s battery. Here we can add in a few scenes of Hal using the ring to scan for the battery/ make holograms to distract guards/ do other ring-related things, as fan-service, if it is really necessary.
Hal finally finds Sinestro’s battery, with only the tiniest amount of power left in his ring, and sees Sinestro is holding the battery. Sinestro says something of he can forgive Hal for his “betrayal”, and let Hal Jordan uses his battery, if Hal surrenders and swear allegiance to Sinestro and his dream of order. Hal then tricks Sinestro into releasing the battery, and recharges his ring. (I have yet to come up with the specific tricking process, sorry, the point of the scene is that Hal Jordan uses Sinestro’s care for him to trick Sinestro.)
Sinestro is really upset about Hal’s action, and is quickly captured by the resistance fighters. Hal Jordan brought Sinestro back to Oa, with Katma Tui accompanying the two. During the trial of Sinestro before the Guardians, Katma Tui testified against Sinestro (obviously), and when Sinestro, in his last hope of friendship, Ask Hal Jordan to testify for him by telling the Guardians how orderly things were in korugar under his rule, Hal chose to tell the Guardians what he sees, the orderly things in Korugar, and the people’s fear of Sinestro. While Hal Jordan is just using the wordings Sinestro uses, the word “fear” ticked off all the Guardians.
Seeing that the Guardians had already reached their judgement after Hal used the word “fear”, Sinestro finally breaks and disowns Hal Jordan, claiming that Hal would never be his friend again, which makes Hal Jordan sad too. Sinestro got banished by being locked into a spaceship (we are ditching the anti-matter universe/ Qward detail, I think it is too unbelievable and unnecessary), and sent to a lonely planet far away from anything. Sinestro left after swearing revenge, and Katma Tui is assigned to be his replacement.
Hal Jordan got accepted as a Green Lantern as he passed his probation, and he is sent back to sector 2814 as the local corps member. Hal Jordan flies back to Earth with a tear in his eye, saying “please don’t come back for revenge, my friend.”
The lesson of the Green Lantern would concern learning to be yourself, that your mentor and the rules others gave you cannot and should not limit what you do, in that you should stay true to your own morals/ code of conduct, even facing immense pressure, such as you mentor/ friend trying to make you join his club of totalitarian rule, as Hal Jordan faced in the movie.
Now I know my version is not perfect. I acknowledge that a lot of plot elements are taken from other stories, and there may be a “been there, done that” feel to this story. Alos, I definitely need to work on refining SG’s role; I should make him/ her more than a MacGuffin that does not matter in the long run. What do you guys think? Do you think I went too far in the Star Wars homage? Please comment and suggest improvements on this story.
So this is how I imagine Green Lantern should be set up for the Justice League movie, there would most certainly be sequels to Green Lantern, which I would cover later; and I would give you one guess on who do you think I pick as the antagonist in the first Justice League movie.
Please read the other parts as I continue to describe my dream DCCU that would only happen in an alternate reality.