WARNING! I'll avoid direct SPOILERS where I can, but there may be some SPOILERISH allusions here.
Green Lantern
I'd keep the basic structure of that initial script intact. Maybe tighten up a few things here and there, expand on certain elements of characterisation. But I'd keep the Hector Hammond fight as the main event, after Legion. Is it as big in scale? Maybe not. But one thing it has, that Legion lacks, is the personal touch. Legion is ultimately a special effect. Hector Hammond will have an actor behind him, and so - if he does a good job in the role - that will be the conflict whose resolution feels most climactic. Guillermo Del Toro has stated his biggest regret about Hellboy was not saving Kroenen for the final battle, as audiences related to him as a villain more than the big giant CGI monster. I wouldn't want the GL filmmakers to make the same mistake.
Green Lantern 2
Using the energy he harvested from Legion, Sinestro has fashioned a yellow power ring. But we'll get to that later. The film begins with Sinestro and Hal Jordan now firmly established as partners and friends. We open with the emergence of a new threat: the Manhunters, an army of deadly androids led by a cyborg known as Hank Henshaw. (I think Henshaw is a better GL villain than Superman villain, so I'd redesign him a little to remove all "Cyborg Superman" elements, lean more heavily towards his "Manhunter Grandmaster" role.) These Manhunters ravage and destroy a planet in Hal's sector, but the Guardians refuse to mobilise the Corps against them.
Sinestro approaches a frustrated Jordan with a shocking discovery. Long before the Green Lantern Corps were born, the Guardians created the Manhunters as a means of maintaining order in the universe. However, a flaw in the programming meant the Manhunters saw life itself as disorder. When they went rogue, wiping out the entirety of Sector 666, the Guardians banished them to the furthest reaches of space, beyond the known, sectored universe. But now, Henshaw has brought them back.
Sinestro informs Jordan that the Guardians are corrupt, and are incapable of running the universe. It is time to form a new Corps. Sinestro, Jordan, and a number of other GLs confront the Guardians, and resign from the Corps. Handing in their rings, replacements are immediately sought, including Katma Tui on Korugar for Sinestro, and Guy Gardner on Earth for Hal. Hal, Sinestro and co. then adopt a set of yellow rings - duplicated from Sinestro's original - and form a new group of freelance heroes..
As we enter the film's second act, we see Hal and Sinestro's group clashing with the Green Lantern Corps in a couple of missions, building up a Hal/Guy rivalry. But Hal is unnerved by the dark impulses entering his mind while using this new, yellow ring, and the dangerous, volatile nature of the power he now wields. When there is a reported emergency in Korugar, Hal rushes there to investigate. What he finds there horrifies him. Sinestro has turned the whole planet into a dictatorship, with him as its ruler. And his army? Henshaw and The Manhunters. It turns out Sinestro masterminded this whole Manhunter resurgence, in order to expose the Guardians and disenfranchise key members of the Green Lantern Corps, Hal included. Sinestro tries to persuade Hal it was for the greater good, that they can police the universe better than the GLC, powered not by will, but by fear. But when Hal rejects him, Sinestro tries to have him killed, prompting Hal to retreat back to Oa.
Upon his arrival on Oa, Hal is imprisoned and put on trial as a traitor, for collaborating with a tyrant. But when Hal explains the situation, and the enormity of the threat facing the Corps, the Guardians restore his power ring to him, but to the chagrin of Gardner - who is kept around as Hal's second to keep an eye on him.
A group of GLs go to Korugar, only to find that Sinestro, Henshaw and most of the Manhunters are gone. After a brief skirmish, it becomes apparent that most of the force has found a new destination for a full-scale attack: Earth. Hal rushes ahead alone, saving Carol, Tom and his family from Manhunter attacks. Then you have a huge Manhunter VS Green Lantern Corps battle, POSSIBLY (undecided on this) ending up with Hank Henshaw destroying Coast City (though Carol, Tom and Hal's family would have been taken to a safe place earlier, and be out of harm's way). We then segue into Sinestro battling Gardner, Kilowog and Tomar Re all at the same time, while Hal fights Henshaw. Hal succeeds in defeating Henshaw, but Sinestro outmatches his opponents, and kills Tomar Re. A furious (possibly grieving) Hal attacks Sinestro, and he too is beaten. But the death of Henshaw perhaps triggers the destruction of the Manhunters, and so Sinestro retreats.
In the aftermath, Carol leaves Hal - her father has died, either in the destruction of Coast City (if you do that) or in the midst of battle. Hal, meanwhile, once again quits the Corps, disillusioned and angry.
The film ends on Qward, where we see Sinestro has retreated to. He looks up at something, smiles. It is a new Central Power Battery. A yellow one. Thousands of rings then begin to depart from Qward, spreading out across the universe. We follow one, as it makes its way through the cosmos, entering Sector 674, descending into a savage, wild planet, and stopping in front of a huge, monstrous beast.
"Arkillo of Sector 674, you have the ability to instill great fear. Welcome to the Sinestro Corps."
Ideas for part 3 coming up later...
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