Green Lantern First Flight Blu-Ray Review
Warner Premiere Presents DC Universe Animated Movie
Jul 21, 2009
Warner Premiere has been getting a lot of things right with direct-to-DVD animated films like Batman: Gotham Knight and Wonder Woman. However, Green Lantern: First Flight stands as their best film yet: a thrilling origins tale that takes its cues from cop movies like Training Day.
Bruce Timm Produces Warner Premiere's Green Lantern: First Flight Starring Christopher Meloni, Tricia Helfer
WP hits the ground running with this story and never looks back. Within the first 10 minutes, test pilot Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni from Law & Order: SVU) has received a mysterious ring from a dying alien, one that changes him into Green Lantern, part of an elite squad of superheroes who maintains order in the galaxy.
However, Jordan has to convince the skeptical members of the Green Lantern Corps, including blue-haired Boodikka (BSG's Tricia Helfer) and brutish Kilowog (Kill Bill's Michael Madsen), that he deserves to wear the ring. Jordan ends up paired with veteran Green Lantern Sinestro (Victor Garber), and embroiled in the red-skinned alien's sinister (geddit, geddit?) plot to alter the Corps forever.
Despite the script's rapid-fire pacing, the flick is never rushed, or feels like it's missing crucial information. Even better, scripter Alan Burnett presents a villain who actually sees himself as the good guy trying to reform an imperfect system.
It also helps that, unlike Wonder Woman, actors were cast more for their abilities rather than their marquee value. All the actors turn in solid performances, and clearly have fun inhabiting their characters.
This film is rated PG-13, and it deserves the rating. Several characters die during the film (including one bloody, albeit brief, impalement) and Jordan and Kilowog throw a few choice words in their lines.
Quibbles? The biggest one is WP's decision to throw in the occasional CGI sequence alongside the usual cel animation used for the characters in this film. Although the blend is cleaner than, say, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the CGI work still looks out of place next to the attractive, manga-influenced character animation.
Another issue is that Jordan somehow manages to harness his ring's powers to such an extent that he even outperforms veteran members of the Green Lantern Corps. Certainly, he's the hero of the piece – and must do heroic things – but it seems odd that he becomes such a virtuoso with his ring in such a short span of time.
Blu-Ray Extras
Yes, this is still the romance period of Blu-Ray, so Warner Premiere has really packed in the extras.
"Behind the Story With Geoff Johns" features the Green Lantern writer discussing the history and mythology of the comic character. Not bad, but some more analysis would have been appreciated. Thankfully, that's not a problem with the absorbing featurette "A Look at the Symbolism of the Ring in Literary Lore," which features various experts discussing how various ring tales from Greek myth, Arthurian legend and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings have influenced this film.
There are two sneak peeks: one for Blackest Night, the comic storyline in which former superheroes return as sinister zombies, and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the next Warner Premiere movie based on Jeph Loeb's story arc of the same name.
Want more? How about Green Lantern Corps profiles of the various characters, 5 bonus cartoons introduced by Bruce Timm (Batman: TAS) and the Duck Dodgers episode "The Green Loontern," in which Daffy gets the Green Lantern's costume, due to a mistake at the dry cleaners.
The Final Analysis
With Green Lantern: First Flight, Warner Premiere has managed to make a direct-to-DVD animated movie that looks more expensive than it is. Add a tightly wound script and great voice acting, and you have WP's best animated flick to date.
Green Lantern: First Flight gets an 8/10.
 |
