Five Things We Want To See in the Green Lantern Corps Movie

As the DC Extended Universe continues to lumber forward, two new films slated for release in 2017, more and more eyes have been turning toward Green Lantern Corps, one of the last films on the development slate and a revival of the company’s most recent big-budget bomb.

The film will reportedly be “Lethal Weapon in space,” co-starring John Stewart and Hal Jordan, with no actors yet cast in the roles.

What we don’t know yet is…almost anything else. The previous Green Lantern spent a lot of time on Hal Jordan’s training on Oa but didn’t actually see him superheroing on Earth very much, or spending that much time in space outside of training.

That…didn’t work. It’s one of the most loathed movies in our movie database, and even though it’s arguably a technically better film than a lot of those above it, the movie just so consistently missed the mark on so many things that it ended up getting trashed.

(You can rate it yourself here, if you want)

So what can they do to deliver the goods the next time around, and prove to casual fans that Green Lantern isn’t a doomed property?

Read on. Here’s some of what we think could make the Green Lantern Corps movie special.

THE EMOTIONAL SPECTRUM

While we don’t want to see a ton of time spent on establishing the various power ring corps — one of the criticisms of the first Green Lantern film is that there were too many scenes that amounted to data dumps — we hope there are at least more than just a green and yellow ring pictured or referenced at some point in the movie.

It would help to set up a broad universe of possibilities for the character that aren’t directly tied to the Justice League, and also provide some cosmic-level villains who could be threats either in future Green Lantern movies or in Justice League films if they wanted.

THE SINESTRO CORPS

Yes, this is technically an extension of the first point, but here’s the thing: if you’re starting with Green Lantern, then Sinestro is a great bad guy. If you’re starting with the Green Lantern Corps, then he’s just one guy with a nearly-identical power set to the literally thousands of good guys (and in this case, two leads). With those kind of odds, the longer he stays competitive the more you run the risk of making your heroes look a bit incompetent.

(This is similar to the criticism some people had about DC’s Legends of Tomorrow‘s first season, when the team kept losing to Vandal Savage.)

Giving Sinestro a team and setting him up as a guy who has history with the Corps and a point of view, makes him essentially Magneto from the first X-Men movie…but that’s fine. It’s an archetype that Sinesto fit during Geoff Johns’s bestselling run on the Green Lantern comics, and it worked.

THE DC UNIVERSE

Emphasis on the Universe. 

With a movie set in space, how about we get a glimpse of Thanagar, Daxam, Bolovax Vik, or any of the other dozens of worlds in the DC Universe that are populated by characters fans know and love? Setting up the idea of alien life existing — and maybe not all being just another potential invader in a  Superman sequel — would be a pretty cool way to use the scope and setting of Green Lantern Corps.

CAMEOS — BUT PLEASE, CAMEOS

When fans got to see The Flash and Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, there were some critics who claimed it was too much, too soon, and that the presence of those characters and others detracted from the main narrative.

It was nowhere near the level of excitement & enthusiasm that came out of the rest of the audience.

Let’s try and emulate that model with the Green Lanterns in the film. Instead of having 3 or 4 recognizable characters and trying to give them all more screen time than the script can afford, how about giving a bunch of characters cameos and helping to do some worldbuilding without derailing the story to make sure everybody understands Tomar-Tu is supposed to be important?

HISTORY

Last time around, audiences learned of Krona’s folly, the event that led the Guardians of the Universe to start trying to restore order to the universe and to harness the emerald light of will for good.

But there was basically nothing else about Green Lantern history that was learned. How about this time we hear something about The Manhunters, or even the Starheart and its ring, which ended up with Alan Scott?