Green Lantern Screenplay Reviewed By El Scoob

So: a little gem falls into my lap. Only a little one--it's something that has made the rounds already. But it's something cool nonetheless.

I got of a copy of the Green Lantern script.

We won't discuss how I got it, but the obvious idea came to me, needing stuff to write about. So I ran it by Wayne, who was all for a script review--albeit a spoiler-free one.

I've never written a script review before, let alone one that avoids spoilers. But I'll give it a whirl. The odd spoilery thing might slip in here, so be warned... but I'll try and work around 'em.

The script, a first draft credited to Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, is pretty decent. We get a good, solid telling of the story of Hal Jordan and how he became Green Lantern. All of the characters you'd expect are there--Hal, Tom Kalmaku, Carol Ferris, Sinestro, Tomar-Re, Kilowog, the Guardians, Hector Hammond. All the characters are what you'd expect, stepping from comic page to screenplay page pretty well intact. Hal is very much the Hal we know and love, the archetypal 50's jet-age Right Stuff test pilot. It's interesting to see that character placed firmly in the modern day. Tom, though, is pleasantly updated from Hal's Eskimo grease-monkey to a modern-day tech-head geek--he knows Hal's secret, just as in the comics, and here his geekiness serves him well. He might be more excited than Hal is about the ring and the possibility of alien life (but he's almost as excited by reaching a new personal-best in Halo). Sinestro is a dedicated warrior, occasionally evoking Gerard Butler as King Leonidas in 300... but he's also the Sinestro we know, a bit arrogant, willing to disagree with the Guardians, and perhaps more than a touch power-hungry.

The overall mythos are well-represented, too. The script is filled with Easter eggs (mentions of Gotham, St. Roch, Fawcett and Star Cities, for instance). And there are no major changes in the mythos--a few things that might be chalked up to valid artistic interpretation of the facts as we know 'em, but nothing big. Certainly nothing even on the level of organic web-shooters.


And for the record, I'm not someone who balked at organic web-shooters in Raimi's Spider-Man. As it happens, it was a nice piece of story-telling economy--it helped move the film along, and maybe reduced the strain on credulity a bit; if a guy develops all these other spider-powers, why not the power to make webs? Easier and neater than taking the time and effort to show Peter inventing web-shooters. But I'm not here to talk about Spidey today!

Overall, the script owes a big debt to both Emerald Dawn and Geoff Johns' more recent Secret Origin. Both stories provide fodder for the screenwriters here, though I'd have to say Johns' version informs the script slightly more heavily. In the end, its a nice blend of both stories. It nicely balances between Hal and his experiences as a new Green Lantern on Earth with the more epic, cosmic stuff of the Green Lantern Corps. There's plenty of action, too, and with that we have many, many oppurtunities for blowout eye-candy visual effects. The script describes the action well enough, and I have to think that in the hands of a solid director the script's framework will provide a good foundation for a visual effects smorgasbord.

I enjoyed the script quite a bit. At times, I have to admit, it seemed a bit derivative of other comic-based films; whether that's a lack of imagination or more a case of stealing from the best/standing on the shoulders of giants remains to be seen. At times in the reading, I got a definite Iron Man vibe; at others, something more like Donner's Superman (and there were some hints of Spider-Man as well). Given that those are all three very solid and successful comics adaptations, you can't fault the screenwriters for following those models. It's different enough from those films--particularly when we get into the more cosmic areas with Oa and the Guardians and the Corps--that it could stand on its own. I certainly got a sense that the writers did their research. Not only do they have a good handle on the comic mythos, they handle the aviation references (of which there are many, of course--Hal's being a pilot and his history with Ferris loom large in the film) pretty well. Hell, the biggest nit I can think of to pick--in the whole script--is that they suggest at one point that a split-S is the same thing as an Immelmann turn. Which--though I speak under correction--I don't think they are. They're very similar, but not the same. Or so my increasingly-dim memories of my youthful obsession with combat flight sim-type games tells me. But the point is--they screwed up on the real-world stuff worse than on the comic book stuff. And they didn't screw up too big on the real-world stuff.

Given that this is a first draft, some of the little rough edges can probably be expected to be sanded down before cameras roll. But overall, this a good foundation to build on, I think, and as long as it doesn't get mishandled (fingers crossed) it ought to turn into an entertaining film. My biggest worry would be the word that's been going round, since Dark Knight, that DC/Warner want to take all the film properties they have in the works in a darker direction. There's not a lot of darkness in this script, really--a touch here and there, mainly with the villain of the piece--but overall it's a fun, feel-good super-hero action script. As long as the corporate suits recognize that and don't bog it down with the darkness obsession, GL fans should be in good shape..