Green Lantern: First Flight Animated Movie

It’s no secret I’m a Green Lantern fanboy. How could I not be? Green Lanterns are Jedi Knights, old west Sheriffs and interstellar explorers all wrapped up in one cosmically-powered package. Their power comes from will – or, just being plain stubborn.

Not that I empathize with that or anything.

So when I saw DC had produced a Green Lantern animated movie, I had to check it out. Like the Wonder Woman animated movie before it, First Flight is an adaptation of an iconic origin story, re-telling the thrilling tale of how Hal Jordan began his career as one of the most decorated and respected space cops in the DC Universe.

I came to the movie with certain expectations. Wry quips, derring-do, a bit of violence, and a lot of ring-slinging. I had hopes of seeing Sinestro’s fall from grace and of watching Hal Jordan show the Guardians of the Universe that humanity is more than capable of playing in the cosmic big leagues.

I was not disappointed. The movie is fast paced, leaving out a lot of unnecessary and distracting detail, boiling the story down to it’s foundational elements. The story is fluid and smooth and doesn’t leave anyone confused about what’s going on. Even newcomers to the Green Lantern mythos will know exactly who is who and what’s going on. Longtime Lantern fans will be able to appreciate some of the finer details and the subtle references to the decades of Green Lantern stories out there.

The story opens with Hal Jordan in a flight simulator, out (once again) to prove he’s the best pilot out there, but Hal’s infamous bad luck strikesm, and he finds himself transport – simulator and all – to a wrecked starship belonging to Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of sector 2814. With his dying breaths, Abin Sur passes on his power ring to Hal Jordan, because he is a man without fear. He is a man capable of wielding the awesome power of a Green Lantern. In a flash of bright green light, Hal Jordan is transformed from a brash test pilot into an interstellar policeman.

After being inducted into the Green Lantern Corps by the Guardians of the Galaxy in a somewhat probationary capacity, Hal partners with the greatest Green Lantern of them all – an alien named Sinestro. As Hal follows Sinestro on a mission to uncover a threat to the universe at large, Hal begins to doubt Sinestro and some of his allies, and he doggedly searches for the truth like any good police officer would – by asking uncomfortable questions, doing violence to the bad guys and poking his very human nose where no one wants him to.

Hal eventually does get to the bottom of the mystery, but solving the case comes with a price, and Hal is forced to act on his own and face his own limitations – and his own mortality – at the hands of a hidden enemy. If you’re familiar at all with Green Lantern, it’s easy to figure out who the villain is, but the revelation is handled so well you feel like you’re seeing it for the first time. Along the way, Hal meets new allies, many of whom are familiar faces to Green Lantern fans such as Kilowog, Bodikka, Tomar Re, Ganthet and the Weaponers of Qward.

Overall, the writing is superb, managing to capture the flavor of the Green Lantern comics without losing any of the action or adventure we’ve all come to expect from DC movies. The animation is crisp and clean and reminiscent of the original Batman animated series. The dialogue is fantastic, combining police and psuedo-military lingo with the witty banter superheroes are so well known for.

One cautionary note. This movie is rated PG-13 for a reason. It has it’s fair share of gore and violence, and even a bit of language, but nothing is over the top. Parents might want to preview this before letting younget children see it, because the movie – like the comics it is based on – does not shy away from the dangers of being a police officer.

I highly recommend checking out this movie (Dragon’s Lair has it for rent) and falling in love with the Green Lanterns all over again.

~alan m rogers