Previous Joints

Thursday 21 February 2013

Green Lantern: The Road Back

The next writer is the reason why I have read the "Batman: The Long Halloween" series and the "Superman: Red Son" series. He drag me kicking and screaming toward a love of comics and I am eternally grateful. I call him Dr Batman (long story), but today he's going to kick knowledge about how the Green Lantern film franchise can be saved. Ladies and gentlemen, Luke James Halsall.

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For the majority of comic fans and society in general, the Green Lantern film was seen as a flop. It did make a profit (just) but fans of the comic were not happy with the way Hal Jordan was presented and the effects on the CGI suit. I did not have any of these complaints and quite enjoyed the film, but I am not here to discuss that. I am here to show you how the franchise could be resurrected and how what was meant to be part one to at least a sequel but more likely a trilogy of films could still work out with a soft reboot.

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Lets look at the facts of Green Lantern the film. I think everyone would agree that the events on Oa were impressive and it was a shame that we did not get more of this. I think the biggest problem that people had with the film were that they thought a guy with a magic ring was stupid (be prepared for Iron Man 3 with the Mandarin), they did not like the effects nor did they feel like they really got to know Hal Jordan. So for part 2 we need a soft reboot. It needs to do a lot of things that a typical origin film does again, just like The Incredible Hulk did after Hulk. We don’t need to see how Hal became a Lantern once more; instead we need characterisation.

In my opinion, it was obvious that part 2 was going to be The Sinestro Corp War and this would have been spectacular. If we stay in this universe then we have Sinestro taking the power of fear and therefore we should keep with this. But we don’t need to go into a fully fledge war to start with. This film should be a blend of early Sinestro Corps War, The Road Back and the critically acclaimed Green Lantern/Green Arrow series. The Road Back was a story set in the 1980s when we saw Hal Jordan go on the road and finds himself once more to become Green Lantern. This would work perfectly as our opener part to this film as we would start to bring real depth to the character. As an interlude I would start with a scene in space. It could be a sleazy little city on a planet where a sinestro ring starts to make recruitments, just like they did in the comics. I think this would be a beautifully subtle way to start the film and build intrigue. Further add many of the ideas from Green Lantern/Green Arrow (GL/GA) here and I think you have a winner. In GL/GA, Hal and Ollie are on the road and as they go along they witness many of the great injustices in society. From fat cat businessmen making money out of the poor, to the Native Americas losing their land, to even drug abuse - this was a fantastic run and I urge anyone to read it. Also, I would have Hal hardly use the ring in this opening act. He needs to show the audience what he can do without the ring, and show who he is. Hal Jordan is fearless and would not step down from a fight if he thinks it is the right thing to do. He has often risked his life (and lost it) to do the right thing and therefore I think this is a key thing to make clear to the film audience. Hal Jordan is fearless and is a utilitarian; he does what is best for the many when it outweighs the few.

From here we could have Killowog coming down to Earth to plead for Hal to return because of the threat of Sinestro. With Hal’s return to Oa he could go through more training and we could see him becoming the Lantern we all know and love. The final act is a battle against Sinestro - not his entire corps, not yet anyway! Here we can see Sinestro try to destroy the Green Lantern Corps (GLC) and has Hal try to shout him down from his stance. Finally Hal, with help from the corps, will knock Sinestro down and be victorious. This learning path will make Hal realise he wants to be a pilot and return home to Coast City. The final scene of the film should show the army that Sinestro has built and even though the GLC have locked him away in a psi-cell the worst is yet to come.

In my opinion by doing this wee bit of rebooting, you could have a great film for everyone to jump onto and would lead nicely into the final act of the trilogy: The Sinestro Corps War.  

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You can check out Luke's other articles and criminological studies at Geek Syndicate: http://geeksyndicate.co.uk/.
 
Luke's blog where you can stay up-to-date with what he is doing: http://lukejameshalsall.wordpress.com/.
 
You can check out Luke's ebooks off his amazon site: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luke-James-Halsall/e/B004YTKLA2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0.
 
Luke's Hoodie: Reality Killed the Vigilante is the first book of its kind- a novel that becomes a comic that becomes a novel again. With a reading, music, film/TV list of things that inspired Luke: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoodie-Reality-Killed-Vigilante-ebook/dp/B00A284S9E/ref=la_B004YTKLA2_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1361027022&sr=1-11 or http://www.comicsy.co.uk/lukehalsall/store/products/hoodie-reality-killed-the-vigilante/.
 
Luke will be apart of the third issue of reads: http://www.averyhillpublishing.com/reads/.
 
He's basically kind of a big deal. Follow him on Twitter @LJHalsall.