Warner Bros. has revealed a surprisingly deep amount about the plot of its upcoming Green Lantern movie, as well as who the film’s villain will be.
Warner Bros. has been rather tight-lipped about the Green Lantern movie. Up until now, the general public has learned little about the film aside from occasional press releases revealing various casting choices (such as Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan and the delightfully evil Mark Strong as Sinestro), but Warner Bros. has suddenly decided to reveal a ton of information, including a plot summary.
Surprisingly, it sounds like Sinestro isn’t going to be the film’s main villain. Instead, he’s going to be Jordan’s mentor/trainer who will help the rookie Green Lanter go up against Parallax, the living embodiment of fear from the comics:
“In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.
Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity.
With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax… he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.”
I’m not entirely sure Parallax works as a movie villain, since the creature first surfaced by inhabiting Hal Jordan’s mind, forcing him to go somewhat nuts and, you know, kill off the entire Corps back in the 1990s. The creature may be a little too abstract to work in a film without some Hollywood retooling. This is an origin story, though, and Jordan wasn’t exactly aware of how deep Sinestro’s nastiness went for a while in the comics.
A safe guess would be that Sinestro will be set up to become the main villain in the movie’s sequel, provided that the first film is successful enough to get a follow-up. That’s a shame, because Sinestro has proven to be such a great villain over the years, especially under Geoff Johns’ writing tenure with the comic. The recent “Sinestro Corps War” story arc was pretty epic and showed just how Machiavellian the character could be, too.
From the sound of things, Sinestro and Parallax aren’t going to be the only antagonists Jordan will be facing in the movie. Angela Basset has been cast as Amanda Waller, the woman behind Suicide Squad in the comics, and Peter Sarsgaard is going to take on the role of psionic villain Hector Hammond.
If the movie is done right, it sounds like it’s going to be stuffed to the gills with awesomeness.
Source: FilmShaft
Published: May 31, 2010 08:00 pm