What Needs To Happen In The Green Lantern Sequel
Ok let’s start off with the first movie, I personally thought it was a pretty good movie (but) it wasn’t a good Green Lantern movie so why did a film with a good cast, a big director, an estimated 200 million budget, a huge fanbase and tells the story of one of DCs most famous characters go so wrong, ‘well’ let’s think this through.
Ryan Reynolds- When he was first cast as Hal Jordan I thought to myself YES! I am a huge fan of him and knew he would be great but when I watched the movie I was disappointed. Now I have to be careful here because I wasn’t necessary disappointed with his performance however I noticed the way he was acting was so similar to other parts he played, the quick jokes the sarcasm and his acting in general were all very good and funny but I had seen it before from him in movies like Van Wilder, Just Friends, Xmen Origins, Blade Trinity, The Proposal etc and I noticed no matter how cool and funny he is, he does virtually the same character in most his movies.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that for some movies because it works as long as he remains funny and enjoyable he can play that part as much as he wants but when it comes to a movie like Green Lantern you have to give us something new, yes Hal is funny and yes he is sarcastic but there is so much that Ryan could have done with the character and it seems he just played it safe with what he has done before.
The Story- Now many have said that this was the reason the movie sucked the most and are they right?
Of course they are and I completely agree with them the story they gave us was Jordan becoming a Lantern, then not becoming a Lantern and then saving ‘Earth’ from Parallax was just silly.
For me the beginning was perfect it gave us an introduction to the Lantern core and then turned to Hal Jordan at the air base with Carol Ferris and engage in a dog fight with AI aircrafts. (This is the best part in the movie for me it was exciting, funny and beautifully shot but isn’t that a worrying sign, Hal hasn’t even got the Lantern ring at this point and yet it is my favourite scene in the movie so what happened after) we have Hal getting the ring of Abin Sur and being taken to the Oa this is when the story starts to fall apart, apart from Mark Strongs flawless performance as Sinestro I found Hal’s journey through Oa kinda dull and the training scene with Kilowag was a little boring, considering the pair had the most powerful weapons in the universe on their finger it was hardly exciting in any way, Hal than quits the core and goes back to Earth with Carol. (Right so he gets to learn who he is and all about the lantern core then after a dull training scene he quits, not exactly the hero complex is it.
Then he does a few saves on Earth one when he stops a helicopter with a racetrack projection and then Hector Hammond with a flamethrower and then the big finale see’s him fight Paralaax which in fairness was fairly exciting to begin with but soon became very silly again.
The End Credits- Now this may not seem like a big deal why would the end credits affect the movie well it doesn’t really but is again another reason why GL didn’t live up to the hype. In Iron Mans credits scene we got Samuel Jackson introduced as Nick Fury and the sequel gave us a look at Thor’s hammer, In Thor’s credit scene we found out Loki’s mischief on Earth and a glimpse at the Tesseract, and of course in The Avengers credits we get Thanos, every one of these were a little teaser of what’s to come and gave us hints as to where the story was going but what we did get from Green Lantern, a 10 second clip of Sinestro putting on the fear ring.
‘But wait that’s huge isn’t it Sinestro is now the bad guy this is great’, no no hang on this is the worst thing they could have done with the credits, when it first came out that Sinestro wouldn’t be the villain in the first GL movie it made sense he had to be established as Hals mentor first (though why they then chose Parallax for an origin villain I’ll never understand) but Sinestro’s fall is slow and comes from his illusions and his belief that he must now protect the universe through fear, in that credit scene all the potential of telling that story of Sinestro being drawn to fear and the betrayal from within scenario is ruined, they have sacrificed a whole bunch of great ideas for the sequel for just a quick 10 second end credit scene.
Ok so the first one in some respect and of course only down to personal opinion failed so does it deserve a sequel and how can it redeem itself to the fanbase or make it cooler to non comic readers?
Well this is hard, one could argue that Green Lantern had their chance and they blew it instead of putting more money into it for a sequel use that money to give another hero movie a shot ‘Wonder Woman or Flash comes to mind’.
Another could say that yes Green Lantern does deserve another movie but reboot it, the first one has ruined any chance or making a franchise and needs to be redone for sequels to work.
But is that necessarily true, now from at this point I have described mostly why I didn’t like the movie but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t credit what it has done and why a reboot may not be necessary.
First the origin is out of the way!
The potential here could be epic, we no longer have to see yet another hero go on a journey of self-discovery, we don’t have to go through Hal learning about the Lanterns and the characters in the Lantern universe, he’s already a Lantern, he’s already a hero and now we can get a true to from, powerful movie.
Learning from mistakes!
If a sequel ever does happen I am sure they will listen to the fanbase on what they done wrong, things like making the movie a space saga not a Earth to Oa and back to Earth again story, Hal has an entire sector of the universe to safeguard so lets see other planets, also the costume now it didn’t look so bad but can be improved however without a doubt that awful CGI mask has to go and there is no reason why it shouldn’t.
Make Sinestro the Villain!
The first movie did a half decent job portraying Sinestro as Hals mentor and Strong did a fantastic job giving him that dark edge, now about the end credits scene there is nothing to say he was at that point evil, in the movie the guardians created the fear ring and gave it to Sinestro so the end credits scene could be bluffed as him just trying on the ring and getting a taste of the power of fear, in the sequel the guardians could learn from their mistake, destroy the fear ring but with Sinestro now hooked on its power sets out to create his own fear ring and thus starts his downward path to evil.
Blue Lanterns or at least Saint Walker!
Ok so we’ve established that the sequel needs to move away from Earth and to include more of the universe, that Sinestro must be the villain in the movie and could even build the Sinestro Corps also we need to see Hal Jordan separate himself from the other Lanterns and succeeding at times where others would fail because as we all know he takes over Abin Surs former title as the greatest Green Lantern, but what else of course the Blue Lanterns.
‘Why include them’ because it would just make so much sense, they wouldn’t have to play a huge part in the movie but a part non the least, think about it Hal and the Green Lanterns are doing their thing protecting the universe along comes Sinestro wielding the yellow power of fear and cripples the core so how can the Green Lanterns ‘Hal Jordan’ overcome the attack and find a way to beat an enemy who not only knows all their strategies but also has a power they themselves have no knowledge of.
Theres a nice piece I read once when researching the Blue Lantern Core and that is that their power comes from Hope and whats special about them is they can infact increase the power level of a Green Lantern and decrease the power of a Yellow Lantern the message behind this, think about it in some ways it affects us all in real life, no matter how strong willed a person is when they a confronted with something that scares them or gives them fear than they will give into that fear, but when you are given hope then that then increases are will and belief to overcome that fear.
Also to introduce Saint Walker would be needed for Hals journey to stop Sinestro, With his former mentor turned into a traitor and enemy Hal would need someone else to seek guidance from which fits Saint Walkers description to the letter.
Ok so yes a better story can be found and with the origin done and dusted maybe a sequel has potential but why should Warner Brother risk even more money on the franchise when the first one flopped
Sure it is a risk but if it’s done properly as a true Green Lantern space saga then the possibilities and profits could be endless, not only could the sequel make a ton of money but people who appreciate it may also buy the first one and boosts that movies margin, also if it is a success then more sequels could be made for more profits, even with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and Sinestro set up as his enemy we could have sequels including the Red Lantern Corps, Carol becoming Star Sapphire, John Stewart joining the Corps, The Manhunters, Parallax’s return and possess Hal Jordan and even the Blackest Night story involving the Black Lanterns and so much more.
So to conclude can a sequel work, of course it can the first movie had many flaws but it wasn’t awful, the fans who liked it did so because they like the character and supported him and the fans who hated the movie only did so because they believed their hero deserved better but at the end of the day were all just fans and I think I can say any DC fan has at the very least some appreciation for the Green Lantern characters and if your like me think of Green Lanterns as one of my favourite heroes ever and backed up by a powerful and imagined sequel the franchise can not only be saved but it can soar.
Thanks for reading and please comment your thoughts would love to hear them