In Brightest Day: Green Lantern Impresses At WonderCon Panel

 

Ryan Reynolds: the ladies love him. That's one lesson to take away from the panel that he, Geoff Johns, and Blake Lively threw here at WonderCon in San Francisco today; one fan made a comment that he must've chosen this particular superhero project because the outfit he was wearing gave him a chance to show off his abs, leading to multiple calls for him to take his shirt off from the distaff portion of the audience. Unfortunately for all, he politely demurred, explaining: "They did not provide a pole for me to dance on. If you sing Total Eclipse Of The Heart, though..."
 
Say what you will about Reynolds, but he's almost impossible to dislike in person, and always seems happy to be doing what must be the umpteenth press/fan event that he's been asked to show up for in his career. Luckily, he's supporting a project that he seems thrilled to be a part of: the big-budget release of Green Lantern this summer. The panel started off with a good six or seven-minute chunk of new footage, showcasing the hard work that hundreds of CGI artists are no doubt slaving away on even as we speak. It was much more impressive than the first trailer for the film, so let's break it down for you: 
 
The footage begins with Abin Sur on board his spaceship, heading to parts unknown. Upon summoning a vision of Sinestro via his ring, he's informed that the Green Lantern he's heading to meet has been killed. Unfortunately, the audio in the convention hall was a bit rough, leading me to miss some of the dialogue here, but that wasn't necessary for the next sequence: upon hearing an odd sound outside of his ship, Abin is immediately attacked by the massive Parallax entity, represented here as a kind of massive yellow cloud of infuriated faces. 
 == TEASER ==

It quickly does a number on Abin and his ship, knocking Abin back into his ship's power core, then knocking him back into the superstructure of the ship, where he takes a beating as he falls down into its innards. It looks to be a fairly big ship, but he manages to escape into a set of corridors. Not fast enough, though; despite a stream of green bolts that he flings at Parallax, it manages to land a vicious blow on his shoulder, forcing him to retreat to an escape pod, which quickly lands on Earth. 
 
You can guess what happens next: Hal Jordan stands at the edge of the water, looking aghast at the spectacle before him. In a nice little moment, he's knocked out of his stupor when he sees Abin flailing in pain; his heroic impulses knock in and he jumps into the water to try and free him, only to be confronted with the spectacle of a big purple alien. Abin quickly dies, but not before he hands over a suspiciously green ring and lantern to Hal, telling him to recite the oath before the lantern to unlock the ring's powers. 
 
Hal, of course, has no idea what the oath is, so he attempts: "I, Hal Jordon, do solemnly swear...to pledge allegiance." That nonsense seems to activate the lantern in some way, forging a psychic link of some sort, which allows Hal to say the actual Green Lantern oath: In brightest day, in blackest night...
 

Cut to Hal being shot out of Earth's atmosphere in a ball of green energy, warping past astonished astronauts at the International Space Station. (These clips are not going to be sequential in the movie, it seems; I'm sure the "big green fist hitting bullies" moment from the trailer will be somewhere in between him getting the ring and flying to Oa.) After a bit of interstellar travel, Oa appears, where Hal lands and finds himself ensuited in the famous green suit, where he's met by Tomar-Re, a fish-like Green Lantern (already sporting the voice of Geoffrey Rush, despite his involvement only being announced this week) who explains that he's there to help Hal learn the ropes of Lantern-dom. Hal quickly realizes that his ring has imparted a great deal of galactic knowledge to him, such as the number of intelligent species in each sector that the Green Lanterns protect. 
 
The footage wrapped up with a rousing speech from Sinestro; imagine the Morpheus speech to the assembled masses of Zion in The Matrix Reloaded and you'll have an idea of the number of Lanterns assembled in front of the massive Central Power Battery. He outlines them all on the threat posed by Parallax and says that this is what the Corps was created to fight. A snide tone comes into his voice when he speaks of the death of Abin Sur, "our greatest warrior," whose suit will be difficult to fill. [Cut to the assembled Lanterns looking askance at the newest member of their organization.] Sinestro rallies the troops by saying, "I don't need to tell you who we are!" "WE ARE THE CORPS! WE ARE THE CORPS!" All of the Lanterns shine their rings in unison, creating a huge green beam that extends off of Oa into the interplanetary vacuum.
 

A montage sequence follows, showing more of the Earth-based action that I assume ensues when Hal is assigned back to his original sector. Flashes of Hal attempting to prevent a semi truck from exploding (perhaps a nod to Superman II), lots of Peter Sarsgaard as big-headed Hector Hammond, and a glimpse of what looks like Parallax attacking a warehouse on Earth, enveloping it and cracking its windows as it breaks inside. It'll be curious to see how they make the Earth-based stuff feel compelling after showing you the interstellar drama of Oa, but it looks fantastic. In theaters June 17th!  
 
To read the Q & A portion, head over to Screened.com to read the rest!!