Well, it's about what I expected when I saw the script "reviews". This reads like a JJ Abrams written GREEN LANTERN, without the depth. The first thing I notice is that while it does draw from the mythology, it's not THAT faithful. That's good and bad, depending on how much you care about Green Lantern. The script is fairly well-written, but it's also inconsistent, ranging from intelligent to juvenile. It's sort of like TRANSFORMERS in terms of the writing.
The introduction to the idea of the Green Lanterns is cool and all, but it's execution is a bit...meh. The concept is good, but the dialogue feels a bit awkward. I can't put my finger on it. I'll have to think on that for a bit.
The death of Martin Jordan is handled well. So are the ramifications for everyone involved, including what happened to Ferris, Carol, Hal, his mother and the Jordan family. It's nice to see the Jordan family get a nod. I do wish Hal's memories of his father and the significance of his father's death went beyond "I'm going to have another flashback now" stuff, and had more to do with who Hal became.
I like most of the banter between Hal and Carol. Two actors with very good chemistry will make this work well. Carol's not that interesting, though, as her arc seems to revolve around always being disappointed with Hal, and not about herself, and their relationship is a bit derivative of other superheroes. It needs something to make it unique (Star Sapphire in the future perhaps). Dialoguewise, Hal is a bit annoyingly vocal. He reads like Shia should be playing him. Seriously. He's almost Spider-Man-level vocal.
Tom Kalmaku is here, but he's also modernized, occassionally annoying and relatively useless. Having him being involved in Hal's discovery of Sur's ship kind of makes sense, and at least gives him something to do. His entire arc seems to revolve around getting his very own spaceship.
The dogfight between Hal and the sabres is cool. Anytime Hal is in a jet is cool.
Abin Sur's death is handled realistically. I wish we had time to get to know him a bit more, that he was fleshed out just a little more. Perhaps in a sequel. It is interesting to see his wife later on. That gives Sur a tiny bit more dimension and relevance.
Hector Hammond is completely shoehorned into the story and is a subpar villain with a really stupid subplot. He reads like Dr. Doom. Spouting cliches, turning into a villain and hurting people for no apparent reason beyond hatred of his enemy (and his father, because he's a failure in his father's eyes), etc. He does not make a compelling or particularly interesting villain. He discovers he has the power of a god and becomes a bank robber, for god's sake. But oh no! He has a giant head! There's just not much to him, really. They do a few interesting things with him, but it's always the obvious thing.
The same holds true for Legion. It's a killing machine, sure, but that's all it is, beyond a really forced Manhunter-style story element. Oh, and apparently Legion is also essentially Parallax now. I guess it doesn't matter, since he's still relatively boring as a character. Interestingly enough, the weakness to "yellow" is never explored. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Hal’s first trip to Oa is a bit short, but welcome to see nontheless. Oa will look amazing, and the Guardians have the potential to be really, really cool. I do wish Ganthet had been featured. However, Hal learning all about all Universal Sectors while he sleeps is kind of stupid, especially when the script never comes back to this plot device. Isn’t that the point of the Power Ring?
Green Lantern’s debut on the airfield brings to mind THE ROCKETEER and will be stunning if handled properly.
From there it becomes rushed, and everything you'd expect to happen, does. On a personal note, I am sick and tired of forced-as-hell one and a half minute long “Gosh, things are tough, I want to quit” scenes in superhero movies. Sick of them. Script loses points for going that route for all of one and a half pages.
The Corps VS Legion and then coming to Earth to help Hal stop Hammond is cool.
A few beefs:
-I wish the nature of willpower/fear had been explored a little more.
-Sinestro is too reckless. That's not Sinestro. Whoever wrote this clearly didn't understand, or didn't care, about the core of Sinestro's character. He's not just "some veteran Green Lantern" who half-trained Hal Jordan. He's obsessed with order, and he's obsessed with keeping it. He's not some revenge-driven hothead. He doesn't really deal much in "fear", either.
This script gets a lot right, and it has a lot of potential. I'd put it at or near the same level as the X-MEN movies, but without the same kind of depth. At times, it can be really cheesy, but there are some bits of genuine humor and the potential for decent drama. The potential for action and visual effects is obvious, and almost everyone wants to see Green Lantern realized in live action. There may be a few too many characters here, though, which causes some of them to suffer. Characters like Kilowog and Tomar-Re, become essentially cameos, and comic relief at that. The script could do without Hector Hammond entirely, which would free up a lot of screentime. I really think a story about Sinestro and Hal should be the basis of the first film. None of the characters are particularly well developed because of the script constraints, and that's because the script is a lean 105 pages. It could use another 20, and wouldn't suffer for it on any level. Overall, it's a solid first draft, and one hopes they keep moving forward. Because they're at least on the right track.
And as for the dialogue, it's actually very "Eli Stone". Quite quirky.
