Green Lantern: Brightest Day

Green Lantern: Brightest Day is a 2017 superhero film based on the DC Comics superhero of the same name. It is also a sequel to Green Lantern: Blackest Night. It was directed by Zack Snyder and written by Chris Terrio. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, James Franco, Tom Hiddleston, Zachary Levi, Mads Mikkelsen, and Javier Bardem. The film ran 120 minutes and was released on July 14, 2017.

Plot
3 years after the events of Justice League: Legion of Doom, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern and Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire have been protecting their Lantern Corps. However, suddenly they get a call from A.R.G.U.S. that the White Lantern energy that was thrown out, has manifested into a man, calling himself White Hand, opposed to Black Hand, the leader of the Black Lanterns. Hal and Carol along with the other Corp leaders Sinestro (Yellow), Saint Walker (Blue), Atrocitus (Red), Indigo (Indigo), and Larfleeze (Orange), arrive in Smallville and find the man with the White Energy. They discover he is having visions of the ancient entity, Parallax, the Yellow entity. The man is overloaded by the energy and an explosion is set off, obliterating the entire town, except the lanterns. The Lanterns reveal to the public what is happening and Hal goes to Star City to get the help of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, who uses a bow and arrow to stop criminals.

The Lanterns, Oliver, Kilowog, Arkillo, and Jade then go to outer space where they find Parallax. He reveals that he is using the White Energy that has been manifesting to create enough energy that would allow him to recreate the universe, in his image. They realize when the man exploded from the energy, it didn't disappear, it just manifested into another person, this time Hal. Hal begins to realize the changes inside of him and they realize it cannot affect a Lantern, or else the entire Corp would be killed by the energy. Hal's human friend Thomas Kalmaku volunteers to keep the energy until they find a way to stop it. However, Hal and Carol are forced to watch their friend die after the energy grows too fast.

The team then goes to Ganthet and the Guardians of the Universe where they reveal that the only way to stop Parallax would be to create another Black Lantern, the only thing strong enough to stop White. They are allowed by the Guardians to return the Black Lantern energy to Jade, who once had the energy inside her. The white energy embodies itself into Oliver. Oliver and Jade fight with their energies having taken over. Hal tries to get the white energy into Parallax to kill him. However, Jade's energy overcomes herself and she injures Oliver. The white energy is transferred into Parallax, who now has enough to recreate the universe. He begins with Earth, but Hal manages to redirect him to Saturn. Jade is strong enough now and fights Parallax. However, he easily kills her and uses the Black Lantern energy to turn into White.

The Lanterns unite to fight Parallax, including a healed Oliver. Parallax easily kills several of the Lanterns, including Kilowog and Arkillo. Hal, Carol, Sinestro, Saint Walker, Indigo, Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Oliver fight Parallax, who then kills Larfleeze, and his entire corp is obliterating, causing the Lantern lights to come unbalanced, as a corp has left. Oliver takes the white energy and is forced to balance the Lanterns by creating a new corp, White Lanterns. Parallax tries to kill Oliver to take the corp as his own, but Ganthet knocks down the Lantern lights, causing the universe to stop. Suddenly, it repieces itself, but the Lantern Corps are no longer available to the former Lanterns. Ganthet reveals it was the only way to stop Parallax, who was crushed by the universe itself. Hal realizes there is no longer a space police, and that over half of the lanterns were all killed in the event. Most of the lanterns retire, including Atrocitus and Indigo, who goes off on her own with her tribe. Hal, Carol, Sinestro, and Saint Walker take their remaining lanterns, not even 3% of the original corps, to create a new corp, with the white energy leftover creating a new, one color, Green for Bravery.

In a mid-credits scene, Oliver returns to Star City, where he finds a note from Dinah saying her mother is back and she has answers. In a post-credits scene, Ganthet discusses his actions with Sinestro. Ganthet reveals that he destroyed the Lanterns due to Darkseid not wanting competition when he comes.

Cast

 * Chris Hemsworth as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
 * Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire
 * James Franco as Sinestro
 * Tom Hiddleston as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
 * Zachary Levi as Saint Walker
 * Clancy Brown as Kilowog
 * Dwayne Johnson as Atrocitus
 * Meghan Markle as Indigo
 * Bradley Cooper as Larfleeze
 * Josh Brolin as Arkillo
 * Charlie Cox as Thomas Kalmaku
 * Emilia Clarke as Jade
 * Mads Mikkelsen as Ganthet
 * Javier Bardem as Parallax

Box office
Green Lantern: Brightest Day grossed $223.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $424 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $647.1 million.

Critical reception
Green Lantern: Brightest Day received mixed reviews, with critics praising the action sequences and performances (particularly Winstead and Franco) while criticizing the thin plot, CGI and the underdeveloped villain. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on 290 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Green Lantern: Brightest Day leaps over several of the DC movies, but its single bound isn't enough to shed the murky aesthetic, thin characters, and chaotic action that continue to dog the series." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 45 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, whereas PostTrak surveyed audiences scored the film 4 out of 5.