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Welcome to another brand new installment of STS! This week is all about going green…Green Lantern, that is. In anticipation of the release of the Green Lantern movie on June 17th and the new animated series which premiers later this year, it was a perfect time to check out Green Lantern First Flight.

Title: Green Lantern First Flight
Written by: Alan Burnett
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Company: Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment
Distributed by: Warner Home Video
US Release Date: July 28, 2009
Length: 77 min.
MPAA: Rated PG-13

This animated epic from 2009 features a new spin on Hal Jordan’s origin with more modern elements from current GL lore. The voice cast does a pretty good job, but doesn’t feature anyone that particularly stands out. Many of the Green Lantern Corps staples are represented in the movie with the exception of the other human GLs, as this is Hal’s first mission and he is the first human GL. Many other lesser known Lantern Corps members can be spotted by true die hard fans in the background of various scenes. Carol Ferris also makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the movie, but since a majority of the story takes place in outer space, we don’t see very much of Earth at all.

The origin part of the story moves pretty quickly as Hal is summoned by the dieing Abin Sur to take his place as the new Green Lantern of this sector. Hal then plays around with his new power ring for a bit before being taken to Oa to meet the Guardians by Sinestro, Kilowog, and company. Once on Oa, Hal does not receive the warmest reception from the other Lanterns or the Guardians, who make it very clear that they don’t believe a human is up to the task of being a Green Lantern. In fact, it’s only after Sinestro volunteers to take Hal under his wing and train him that the Guardians reluctantly decide to let him keep the ring. It doesn’t take long, however, for Hal to discover that Sinestro is not the Guardians’ biggest fan, nor is he a very good person.

The remainder of the adventure focuses on Hal and Sinestro butting heads as they try to find the missing “yellow element,” which is the greatest weakness of the Green Lanterns and was recently stolen from the Guardians. Their investigation leads them and the Corps on the search for the prime suspect, Kanjar Ro. It is soon revealed that Sinestro has been secretly working with Ro trying to develop a weapon capable of destroying the Guardians and GL Corps using the “yellow element.” To this end they enlist some weapons makers to build a “yellow element” power battery that gives life to Senestro’s Yellow Lantern ring. It’s up to noob GL Hal Jordan to prove himself to the Corps and Guardians by stopping Sinestro and his cohorts from destroying Oa and the Green Power battery. Is he up to the task? With many twists and turns, deaths and betrayals, the only thing certain is that only one power battery will survive.

Green Lantern First Flight is a pretty fun, action packed movie, but not much else. I know Hal Jordan is supposed to be the best Green Lantern and all, but in this movie he is either the fastest learner EVER or all the other Lanterns just plain suck. In EVERY instance Hal makes the other GLs, including Kilowog, who is the “GL trainer,” look like rank amateurs. The Guardians are also portrayed as little blue dimwits, as Sinestro is able to easily toy with them and out fox them at every corner. I also found that there isn’t much character depth given to any of the characters save Sinestro and Hal. If you are looking to find some great kick ass moments from your favorite Green Lantern that is NOT Hal Jordan, don’t look here. Other that those issues, the movie is a really fun way to kill 77 minutes. Like  Hulk vs. Thor, this movie will definitely help to get you somewhat familiar with some of the major players that will be featured in the upcoming movie. The bottom line is, if you are looking to watch a fun adventure movie and learn a little bit of background about Green Lantern, then this movie is definitely something you will want to check out.

Nick Zamora
nickz@comicattack.net