How to do the Green Lanterns Corps Reboot Right

Green Lantern has been one of the biggest comeback characters of the 21st century, having overcome […]

September 5, 2017, 3:54pm

Green Lantern has been one of the biggest comeback characters of the 21st century, having overcome a turbulent transition in the ’90s to relaunch himself with a new creative architect (Geoff Johns), a resurrected hero (Hal Jordan) and a revamped mythos, made for the fan base of the new millennium. It’s been strange, then, that Green Lantern has also been one of the last characters to make the jump to live-action superhero universes on the big and/or small screens.

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Today, DC Films revealed more exact plans for its Green Lantern Corps reboot, and based on those early details, we have some suggestions on how to do it right! After all, nobody wants to repeat the failure of the 2011 Green Lantern movie…

Nail the Lethal Weapon Dynamic

We now know our principal Green Lanterns in the film will be Hal Jordan and John Stewart, in what is being described as “Lethal Weapon in space” type movie. That’s all well and good – if the filmmakers nail that dynamic.

Lethal Weapon works because an uptight by-the-book cop (Danny Glover) has great odd-pair banter and chemistry with a reckless and “any means necessary” cop (Mel Gibson). That’s absolutely a fit for the character archetypes of John Stewart and Hal Jordan (respectively), so let’s focus on it, and let be a driving force of the story.

Practical Effects

Let’s just put this out there: The 2011 Green Lantern movie tried to use too many GGI effects, and suffered for it.

Green Lantern Corps may be arriving in theaters nearly a decade later, but it still needs to learn from mistakes of the past, and keep things grounded Star Wars style with some practical effects.

Green Latern Movie 2011 CGI — (Photo: Warner Bros. )

A Proper Mission

The Green Lantern Corps is essentially a police force. The Green Lanterns Corps movie is essentially buddy cop movie. Therefore, our cops need a proper case/mission to work.

Instead of going to deep into Green Lantern mythos and/or trying to throw a generic “untested hero vs. ancient evil villain” storyline at audiences (two mistakes of the previous film), having two galactic cops with unique guns trying to investigate and solve a case across a sector of the universe is both small and grandiose enough to serve this film perfectly.

Green Lantern Corps Mystery Story Investigation

A Good Wedge Character

A buddy cop movie needs friction between its two cops, and a lot of the time that friction arises as a result of a wedge character. Sometimes it’s an informant only one cop trusts – other times it’s a femme fatale, and sometimes, it’s that one cop is dirty.

For Green Lantern Corps, there are plenty of great characters that could serve as a wedge between John and Hal. It could be reckless authority figure like Ganthet the Guardian; a disruptive element like Guy Gardner; or (as many fans would probably prefer), it could be militant and manipulative mentor figure, such as Sinestro.

Either way, we need that character in the movie, stirring the pot.

Unified Light

We’ve already seen the Green Lantern power ring effects in live-action – however, the combined might of the Corps (or even just one or two GLs battling together) is another spectacle altogether.

In Green Lantern Corps, there can be a whole other subtext to Hal and John’s relationship based on how they work together (or not) in combat action scenes. The filmmakers need to capitalize on that opportunity, by giving something more than pretty laser lights.