Review of Green Lantern: First Flight (2009) by Matt R — 13 Nov 2009

Wow. I was impressed with the animated version of "Wonder Woman" even with some of its flaws, but this "Green Lantern" origin (of sorts) story easily surpasses the quality of the series.

Green Lantern was one of the superheroes that I never really dabbled into as a comic book reader. Intergalactic police forces that use rings of shape shifting and almost unhindered power never really caught my fancy, but with the recently announced feature film starring Ryan Reynolds announced (which I still think is bull shit casting, now even more since I've seen the cartoon) I thought I would give "First Flight" a chance.

Once again, this cartoon has a rather short run time, sitting at about an hour and ten minutes I believe, but the story is rather fulfilling and cohesive. It's an origin story of sorts for both the Green Lantern, for this film being the original Hal Jordan, and his nemesis Sinestro (not sure if I spelled that one right). It's a rivalry that is well developed and expressed even if some of the supporting cast tends to lose some character development from it. I also appreciate that this cartoon is PG-13 as it allowed some of the more action scenes to be a little more impressive (hell, they even have a bloody death in a few!) and it adds well to the story itself.

I could have done with even slightly more character work with Hal Jordan before his garnering of the ring in the beginning (mostly cause I don't know the story) but we got enough to make sure we knew that he was going to be a badass with the green light.

Overall, this was quite the impressive super hero cartoon that made a doubting thomas a believer in me. If the live action film is even as close to as good as this one (its hard for me to imagine that it will not be cheesy with Reynolds flying through space and glowing green) then I will be there opening weekend. Until then I'll just stick with this nice release.