Green Lantern: First Flight - And who says the only cool green are dead presidents.

While performing a flight simulation, test pilot Hal Jordan mysteriously disappears along with the equipment he's manning. He's carried off to a crash site where he encounters a critically wounded alien, who then offers him a mysterious green ring. The ring fits itself to Jordan's finger transforming him into a green and black clad warrior, in additon, the ring also gives him various powers. He soon receives a visit from others wearing the same uniform, who explains to him that he's become one of the protectors of the Universe called a Green Lantern. He's then taken away to the planet of Oa, where he's briefed by the Guardians of the Universe on his purpose, and placed under the wing of their most powerful Green Lantern Sinestro. -summary

The Emerald hero known as Green Lantern, for reasons unknown has always been overshadowed by DC's big three, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, despite being just as cool as they are, some would even argue that he's actually better than the three. I won't go that far in regards to the first two, but I will say that I was always fascinated by him, and I was amazed to hear when he was getting his animated feature. Although this animated feature suffers from a few short comings here and there, I think it was an above decent work and after revisiting it, I'm actually a little more amped up for the live action version due out later this month. Green Lantern: First Flight is the fifth movie in the DC animated original movies line up, and is directed by Lauren Montgomery, and for some strange reason, it still feels like he got shafted with that 75 minute run time.

The plot follows Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and the Green Lantern Corp as they search for the whereabouts on a power source called the Yellow Element, which was stolen from the Guardians of the Universe. Should the Yellow Element fall into the wrong hands, this could spell disaster, since yellow is the Green Lantern's weakness. I was never bored with the plot, as it contained a good amount of character development, and some imaginative action scenes that were well placed. Every battle seemed to escalate a little more in terms of violence, creativity, and excitement, with the final battle being a real good pay off.

The film centers around the most well known and popular Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and make no mistake, he comes off as that space cowboy, and displays that swashbuckling persona quite often. I enjoyed his creative use with the ring in battle, and this slight amount of character development is what set him apart from the rest of the Green Lantern corp. While a majority of them were mainly using their rings for energy beam attacks and lassos. Jordon would come up with over-sized golf clubs and fly swatters for bug like creatures. This revealed a more comical side to his personality, which I found refreshing for the serious atmosphere.

For every good hero, there has to be a good villain, and Sinestro pretty much defines the term bad-assery. He's very well developed, and comes off as a character with a lot of depth. He doesn't seek universal domination for petty reasons, and this is some of what sets him apart from all cookie cutter bad guys. To include, his ruthlessness and "by any means necessary" attitude is a plus.

Although I find the movie to be pretty entertaining, it does suffer from an undercooked story, that even casual fans who are not familiar with the characters will be able to pick up. I feel the length of the movie played a role in this, and at times, it was kind of hard to believe the things that Jordan was capable of; such as being able to fight a very experienced Sinestro, while the rest of the Corp couldn't stand up to him, and he was the least experienced out of all of them. It wouldn't have been a bad idea to add a bit more depth into what gives the ring its power, and that's the will power of the user. And there's other smaller elements like these too.

The action scenes are well animated, and the backgrounds are very pretty, with some nice colors, and the CG blended in pretty well. I also thought the character designs were nice, and liked the small addition of the armored look to Hal's uniform. The soundtrack does enhance the mood, and I really did like the electronica song that played in the club, with the light keys and bass in the background. I can't comment bad on the voice acting. Victor Garber did a splendid job with Sinestro all around. He combined that menacing nature with his authoritative stature, that I thought was really cool.

Another thing that I enjoyed about the film was the sci-fi setting, that set it apart from the usual superhero flavor, that we get from Batman and Superman every time. Overall, this is still a fun film and I doubt the flaws will bug most folks. Is it the best DC has to offer? Not by a long shot, but it's good enough to hope for a few sequels.

Other DC animated Features:

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Superman/Batman: Apocaylpse

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Pros:
-Action, animation, Sinestro


Cons:
-Underdeveloped story