Movie:
Disc:
Green
Lantern is of course the DC comic book superhero who is part of the Green
Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force of sorts. This full-length
made-for-DVD animated movie is an "origins" story in which it is retold how
a test pilot named Hal Jordan came to be in possession of the ring powered
by alien technology that gives him superpowers as the Green Lantern.
To be honest about five
minutes of the movie is concerned with how Jordan came to be the Green
Lantern. The rest is a sort of Training Day in outer space as Jordan
is shown the ropes by a fellow Green Lantern named Sinestro who turns out to
be a bad guy (no surprise there - what do you expect with a name like
that?). Sinestro thinks that the so-called Guardians of the Universe - the
blue-skinned alien geezers who are the Lanterns' bosses - are too soft on
galactic crime, which probably makes him a Republican or something. Jordan
has to foil his plot to usurp the Guardians even though no-one trusts him
because he is the new guy.
Lauren Montgomery who did
Wonder Woman, the previous DC Universe flick,
directs the movie. Wonder Woman turned out to be an unexpectedly fun
outing largely thanks to some welcome humor and a nice comic turn by Nathan
Fillon of Firefly fame as Wonder Woman's male
cohort. (Or is that sidekick?) Unfortunately the sense of fun and humor that
made Wonder Woman so enjoyable is
largely missing from Green Lantern - First Flight.
Clocking in at a mere 77
minutes, Green Lantern is action-packed right from the start, but the
action comes at a price: not much effort is made to make Jordan an
interesting or even likeable hero. In fact he is an excruciatingly
one-dimensional character that is simply swept along from one action scene
to the next. Maybe a slightly longer running time would have benefited the
material more - perhaps some scenes early on in which Jordan maybe has some
difficulty getting to master the ring's powers. Or maybe misuse them for
some minor personal gain - maybe getting back at the guy who cuts in front
of during peak hour traffic or something. Anything! After all, what would
you do if you came into possession of a ring like that? Such scenes would
make Jordan a bit easier to relate to as a character.
Also, the movie is rated
PG-13 largely thanks to some unnecessary violence and "strong" language.
This is a pity because the plot and the material never really rise above
that of your average Saturday morning cartoon. There is nothing "adult" in
it to be honest and it is a shame that smaller children won't be able to
watch it.
So file Green Lantern -
First Flight under "disappointing, but not outright bad" - a bit like
many of the DC Universe Original Animated Movies line released by Warner
Premiere and Warner Bros. (This film is the fifth movie in the series. (The
others were
Superman: Doomsday,
Justice League: The New
Frontier, Batman:
Gotham Knight and
Wonder Woman. Next up is
Superman/Batman:
Public Enemies in September 2009). After all the animation is up to the
high standard one would expect of a movie in this series, the voice talent
is adequate and it never really bores. Well, not too much anyway.
THE
DISC: The movie could have been better than it is, but the disc is worth
it if only for the five bonus Justice League cartoons picked by
producer Bruce Timm. That is of course if you don't already have them on
disc. Any of these episodes are actually better than the main feature itself
because they spend some time on characterization, even if it is in the
passing by.
The extras made especially
for this release is on the disappointing side when compared to those found
on previous DC Universe flicks. A feaurette promising to ?look at the
symbolism of the ring in literary lore as reimagined for Green Lantern?
turns out to be nothing of the sort. A lot of talking heads on display, but
it is good to see that talented comic book writer Geoff Johns is quite a
busy guy as of late. Johns penned the upcoming Blackest Night, "the
epic DC Comics super hero event in which the dead rise." Sure, it sounds a
bit like Marvel Zombies, but we're certain Johns will pull off something
worthwhile.
WORTH IT? Not if you
already have the five bonus Justice League episodes bundled with this
disc.
RECOMMENDATION: Rent
it if you're into comic book superheroes. If you seriously want to purchase
it, go for the Blu-Ray which is only marginally more expensive than the
two-disc DVD edition.
NOTE: Am I the only
one who is irked by Blu-Ray's so-called "superior" menu navigation system,
especially on smaller TVs on which the text become illegible at times? Sure,
I know one is supposed to watch Blu-Ray discs on a huge TVs, yadda, yadda,
yadda. But this sort of elitist attitude only means that this is a format
that will ultimately struggle to gain mainstream acceptance.
