Review of Green Lantern: First Flight (2009) by Jourdan C — 02 Nov 2009

Yet another good adaption of one of DC's greatest heroes from Bruce Timm and Warner Brothers. It begs the question as to why if we can get such good adaptations from DC's line-up such as this, then why is DC missing out on the live action movies against Marvel, who has had numerous of there line-ups adapted into films. But back to the point: This was a good movie.

Green Lantern: First Flight begins with an injured Green Lantern Abin Sur crash landing on Earth. Dying, Abin's ring reaches out to Hal Jordan, a test pilot for Ferris Aircrafts, taking him to a dying Abin who gives him the ring making him a Green Lantern. Giving us a quick origin story the movie then goes on to show that time has passed since Abin sur's death and Hal is used to his new powers as an "illegal" Green Lantern. Members of the Green Lantern Corp come to Earth taking Hal back to planet Oa to be assessed by the Guardians (Heads of the GL Corp). Although, sceptical of Jordan they allow to be a Lantern on the grounds that he is trained by Sinestro, a high ranking Lantern and known throughout Comic book readers as Green Lantern's arch nemesis. Now with Sinestro, Hal helps him search for Kanjar Ro who is suspected of stealing the Yellow element from the guardians, a substance able to resist the green rings of the Green Lanterns. As the story progresses, Sinestor starts to show his true colours making secret deals with Kanjar Ro, killing him and stealing the yellow Element to become a yellow Lantern, with his former protégé Hal Jordan being the only one to stop him...

This film was directed by Lauren Montgomery and is good job on her part and yet another successful production from Bruce Timm. The film gives us a brief origin of Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern, although that?s all you really need to get it, I felt they could fleshed it out a bit more, introduce us to some supporting characters from his Earth life. But it was a good origin, short and sweet and got us straight to the story.

The films feel throughout the movie is not that of a superhero movie, although it does feel like one, a lot of the time it feels more like a cop film. Which I loved. It was a cop movie in space, that's what the Green Lantern Corp is and that feel was good for the film. They even have similar narratives of a cop show; Hal Jordan is the idealistic rookie who is partnered with the bitter yet secretly corrupt veteran cop. It almost felt like Star Wars to me like in the prequels with the workings of the Jedi and such.

Cast wise it was cast really well, every bit of the cast suited the role; it was like they were born to play it. Christopher Meloni was good as Hal Jordan pulling off the idealistic yet cocky nature of Jordan. Jordan?s character is plotted and written well, he plays a good foil to the Sinestro character, who has become embittered and power-hungry from his time as a Lantern. He grew into the hero fairly well and shared some similarities with his mentor Sinestro both of them disagreeing with the Guardians but Hal sticking to the right. I liked how he slowly gained the trust of the other Lanterns, I felt it almost strange that the Guardians didn't feel that humans could be Green Lanterns, I mean is it a common assumption among aliens in the DCU to look down on Earth people. But it did give him a sense of importance as the first Earth Green Lantern.

With Victor Garber doing a masterful performance for Sinestor able to play two different characters and put them in one. He was able to play the cool, in control and commanding Green Lantern who could turn at any moment then turning into the insane, cold and calculating Sinestro we all know and sometimes in the same scene. His ability to switch between both sides of the character was seamless and flowed well.

Michael Madsen (Kilowog), Tricia Helfer (Boodikka) and Kurtwood Smith (Kanjar Ro) give great support to Garber and Meloni expanding the universe of these characters with Madsen serving as the distrustful, gruff Green Lantern Officer Kilowog, bringing in humour with a little bit of threat to him yet is a bit of a softy. Although, a good bad guy (ironic) I didn't much care for Kanjar Ro, but he served his purpose.

The setting, different from most superhero movies was reminiscent of something you would see from a Star Wars Clone Wars episode or from the pages of the comics themselves. Oa, the city looked spectacular, a golden city almost like Oz, an Oz in space. It was beautiful and was a stark contrast from the baron planet Qward and the trashy world Hal and Sinestro visited for answers on Kanjar Ro, both seeming a little too done and had been seen many times in other medias. But all in all still good.

The effects were fantastic and I loved how the rings worked with different creations almost slivering from them. The rings seemed to shoot out more of a whispery incorporeal substance. The creation of Hal's costume adding to this as it wraps around his body from the ring and even more so when at the end he glows all green making him look like Super Siayan/Green Lantern.

All in all this was good film and I highly recommend it.