Green Lantern Script Review

Aside from Batman and Superman, Warner Brothers has been notoriously slow in getting their pantheon of DC Comics heroes onto the big screen. In short, Marvel has been kicking their ass, and as an old time DC fanboy, that has been particularly painful for me to watch. Warners is sitting on a gold mine, one that they have been very unwise to neglect. Well, It looks like things might be changing, as Green Lantern is looking to film sometime early next year for a Summer 2010 release. Having just finished reading the script, dated June 2008, I suggest that Warners greenlight this one right now.

This script is good. Actually, I think It’s really, really good and will be a hell of a lot of fun to watch on the big screen. Adapting long running super hero comics isn’t easy because you have decades of stories by so many writers and artists that there isn’t a consensus on just who a character is or how they should act. For all the noise you hear about how hard it’s been to adapt Watchmen or Y: The Last Man into a screenplay, in a way it’s easier, because those comics are essentially stand alone novels with a singular voice. Not so with Superman, Batman, Spidey and the rest. And Hal Jordan (yes, that’s the GL they are going with… as if there was any doubt) has been written many different ways over the years. First like a hot shot pilot and ladies man, then a man with a decade long mid life crisis (I think he spent most of the 80’s on the road “looking for himself” or some shit) and even a drunk driver. It’s fair to say that until Geoff Johns brought Hal Jordan back in 2004’s Green Lantern: Rebirth, no one ever really nailed who Hal is as a character.

If I had to compare this script to any other superhero movie, the obvious choice is Iron Man. Hal Jordan, with his tragic backstory with his test pilot father Martin Jordan, his supporting cast of confidant Thomas Kalmaku and potential love interest Carol Ferris, are all introduced with ease and humor within the first few pages of the script in the same great way that James Rhodes and Pepper Potts were in Iron Man. If you can get actors of equal quality in the supporting roles, this has that kind of Iron Man potential for being a breakout hit. Like Tony Stark, Hal Jordan is a lovable lothario, although he’s not rich obviously, and is known for letting people down. But Hal Jordan is THE best test pilot, and proves it in an early action scene that if filmed right, will be a great action beat at a point in this kind of movie that is usually reserved only for exposition and introductions. I was sitting there reading it thinking “Oh, the audience is gonna eat this up” and this is well before Hal gets the power ring.

The screenwriters, comic book writers Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, as well as director Greg Berlanti, really did their homework. They took beats not only from Green Lantern’s 1989 re-telling of his origin Emerald Dawn, but also from Geoff John’s recent retelling this year with Green Lantern: Secret Origin. There are hints of the seminal run of Green Lantern/Green Arrow from the 70’s, and even a few visual cues from Emerald Twilight, the story where Hal Jordan becomes evil and destroys the Green Lantern Corps. No, there is nothing quite that retarded in this script, but there is a moment where Hal has to wear the rings of his fallen comrades to defeat the bad guys. And it’s pretty damn sweet. Everything you would expect in a Green Lantern movie is here: The Corps, the Guardians of the Universe, the planet Oa, the Green Lantern Oath, and tons of weird aliens to give the filmmakers a chance to out-do the Star Wars cantina.

Instead of giving a plot synopsis (and really, the plots in these movies are pretty standard… it’s not why we watch them) I’ll instead give a character breakdown of who is in the script and how well they are handled, as well as how they match up to their comic book counterparts.

Hal Jordan:

At 27 years old, Hal is the best pilot, although reckless, and gets his ass grounded a lot. Still not over the death of his test pilot father when he was a kid, he’s fearless, which is why the ring chooses him. But he is never prtrayed as stupid. He’s given enough self deprecating lines so that he doesn’t come off as a full of himself jock asshole type, like Tom Cruise in Top Gun or something. His relationship with his younger and older brothers is also a factor in the movie, just as it has been in the recent comics, although it plays a bit differently here. If you get the right actor in this part, he could easily be as likable as Tony Stark in Iron Man, and maybe even more relatable. Not the drunk Hal of the late 80’s comics, or the mid life crisis Hal of the 70’s, the script’s Hal is an amalgam of the original 60’s comics and the Geoff Johns version. Which all works for me. As far as i’m concerned, this script contains quintessential Hal Jordan, if there is such a thing.

Thomas Kalmaku:

Hal’s best friend. Half Eskimo, half something else. Total nerd, he’s the audience’s identification character. He is the guy who always bails Hal out at the last minute. He’s given a lot of funny lines without going over the top. Unlike the comics, he is Hal’s contemporary age wise, so he’s more a Jim Rhodes than a Jimmy Olsen, but I like him better this way. Having Hal’s best friend be a geek is a nice way of showing that while Hal may be a pussyhound hot shot, he’s the kind that would have a best friend who is a total nerd and doesn’t care what the cool kids think.

Carol Ferris:

Hal’s love interest. She’s known Hal and harbored a secret crush on him for years, but continues to be disappointed with his selfish behavior. Just like the comics, her father is Carl Ferris of Ferris Aircraft, Hal’s boss and formerly his father’s boss. Carol was with Hal the day his father died, and that bond over a horrible incident never goes away for the rest of their lives. They need to be careful how they play her though. She shouldn’t come off as a bitch, which she almost does at some points. Hopefully they can find the right actress for the role who can pull off bitchy and likable in that Lois Lane way it could work. Overall I liked her, but they might have to tone her PMS down a notch.

Abin Sur

The alien who famously passes the ring on to Hal Jordan. He’s been more a plot device than a character in the comics. In a way he is to Hal what Uncle Ben is to Peter Parker….someone who was always referred to who we really don’t get to know. In this regard, Abin is given more personality than in the comics. This is a character who we mostly find out about in the way others regard him, and it seems the other GL’s regard him as an exemplary officer and an all around stand up guy, especially to this next figure…

Thaal Sinestro

In this script he’s not a bad guy yet (thank God), but just a kick ass GL who takes Hal Jordan under his wing as his trainee. Sarcastic yet likable, I really think they need someone smug and British to play him. The seeds are all sown for Sinestro’s eventual turn to the dark side in this movie, without being too over the top about it. He and Hal have a kind of Yoda and Luke vibe, only if Yoda were a prick.

Hector Hammond

There is a space villain as well (Legion from Emerald Dawn), but Hammond is the Earth-bound bad guy in this script. Hector Hammond is a character I know has been around for ages in the comics, but my most recent exposure has been in Geoff John’s Secret Origin arc. His origin is similar here, but not identical. He’s that creepy, smarmy guy, who suddenly has the ability to read everyone’s minds and finds out just how much no one really likes him. He’s got major issues surrounding his father, so in many ways he’s the shadow side of Hal Jordan who has been dealing with similar issues most of his life. Like the recent comics, Hammond gets his abilities due to something that was on Abin Sur’s crashed ship, so it ties his origin into Hal’s in a neat way. Some of the best parts of the script are all the things people around him think of him while he is able to hear it.

Pipe

A government agent in his 60’s, he seems to have a knowledge of the Green Lantern Corps and aliens going back a long ways. Who he really is is not revealed until the very end of the movie, but when I found out who it was, I gave out a litte fanboy squeal. I won’t give away who it is, but let’s just say that the writers did their jobs and covered ALL of the Green Lantern mythos by including him, and I think for DC fans this will be the equivalant of Nick Fury showing up at the end of Iron Man. If that’s not a big enough hint I don’t know what is.

Smaller roles are filled by veteran Green Lanterns like Kilowog and Tomar -Re, and there is even a reference to Guy Gardner when Abin Sur’s ring is looking for a new bearer. And not just Guy….the ring also flies by the desk of a certain reporter at the Daily Planet. I have a feeling he’ll be cut though, because the script treats Green Lantern as Earth’s first true contact with alien life, not something that’s makes sense if everyone knows about Superman. Still, it would be a fun cameo for sure, even if it doesn’t really make sense.

If this script has a fault, it’s that it’s not that terribly original. Some of the dialouge is just kind of there…never Star Wars Prequels clunky, but not as clever as it could be (although there is a lot of clever funny dialogue as well to balance things out). Whether or not those moments work depends on the directing and acting more than anything. If I were to read Peter and MJ’ s exchange about “I’m gonna see you light up Broadway” from the first Spidey flick on paper, I might have winced, but those actors sold it, and if they do the same thing here I don’t see a problem.

Warners needs to go with this script if they know what’s good for them. I can’t imagine one that would be much superior, or encapsulate the Green Lantern saga much better. Now just get Joss Whedon back on Wonder Woman and all will be right with the world. That’s right. I ain’t letting that one go any time soon. No sir.

Editor’s Note: I am starting my “Gilmore For Ganthet” casting campaign ASAP. Who’s with me? Who’s got a bucket of blue paint?