Green Lantern First Flight

Plot

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Before any other sentient beings existed in the universe, a race of beings calling themselves the Guardians of the Universe harnessed the power of the green element, the greatest power in the universe, to create theGreen Lantern battery. However, the battery was vulnerable to the color yellow, the one part of the light spectrum that could resist green. The Guardians hid the most concentrated source of yellow energy, the yellow element, to prevent others from using it against them.

After the death of Abin Sur, several Green Lanterns arrive to take Ferris Aircraft's test pilot Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni) to the Green Lantern Corps on Oa. He is placed under the supervision of respected senior officer Sinestro (Victor Garber), who is investigating Abin's murder. While undercover on the ship of Kanjar Ro (Kurtwood Smith) searching for the whereabouts of the stolen yellow element, Abin had come under attack.

Fleeing to Earth, he had his ring find his successor and died of his injury shortly after. Unbeknownst to the other Green Lanterns, Sinestro had provided Kanjar with the location of the element in order to have it fashioned into a weapon of comparable power to the Green Lantern battery.

Jordan quickly comes to understand that Sinestro's beliefs are not in line with those of the Guardians: Sinestro believes that the Guardians have reduced the Corps to merely picking up the messes criminals create as opposed to proactively dealing with the problem. During a mission to capture Kanjar Ro, Jordan is knocked unconscious by Kanjar's energy staff. Sinestro comes in and kills Kanjar, pinning the blame on Jordan. As punishment, the Guardians strip Jordan of his ring.

While Jordan waits to be taken home, Sinestro uses his ring to temporarily animate Kanjar's corpse, allowing him to learn the location of Qward where the yellow element weapon is being fashioned. Jordan convinces fellow Lanterns Boodikka (Tricia Helfer) and Kilowog (Michael Madsen) that Sinestro is not what he seems. When they catch Sinestro enacting his plot, Boodikka reveals her true allegiance and incapacitates Kilowog, allowing Sinestro to escape. Jordan tricks her into destroying Kanjar's unstable energy staff, the explosion launching her into the tools hanging from the ceiling and killing her.

On Qward, the Weaponers bestow Sinestro with the yellow ring and battery, the latter of which resembles Ranx the Sentient City. Using its power, he lays waste to Oa, the yellow light easily overpowering the Green Lantern rings. The yellow battery destroys the green battery, rendering all the Green Lantern Corps' power rings inert and causing death by asphyxiation of countless Green Lanterns who were in space at the time of their rings' failure. Jordan, having recovered his ring moments too late, finds the battery and pounds on the inert green element. He places his ring on the small crack that appears, absorbing the whole of its power. Imbued with the full might of the green energy, he destroys the yellow battery by crushing it between two moons.

Having exhausted most of the green power to destroy the yellow battery, Jordan is left to fight against Sinestro under his own power. After an intense hand-to-hand battle without constructs, Jordan uses the last of his power to knock Sinestro to the surface of Oa where Kilowog crushes the yellow ring (as well as Sinestro's hand) with his foot. Having regained partial power to his ring earlier, Kilowog takes to the air and saves Jordan from a fatal fall to the planet's surface.

Once Oa is rebuilt and the Green Lantern battery restored, the Guardians give the privilege of leading the Corps in reciting the Green Lantern oath to Jordan. Jordan then leaves for Earth to check in with his other boss,Carol Ferris (Olivia d'Abo), remarking on the long "commute".

To end my first night covering the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, I attended a screening of DC Universe’s latest animated feature, Green Lantern: First Flight. With buzz on the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Green Lantern building fast, Green Lantern: First Flight will likely be an early barometer of the public’s interest in the character.

So was the film any good? I gotta say: GF:FL is not DC Universe’s best. I was actually a little bit let down on all fronts – the story, the dialogue, the animation quality, even the sound effects – which is a shame, because I came to the screening with nothing but high hopes after seeing the wonderful feature-length Wonder Woman animated film earlier this year at the New York Comic-Con.

And why shouldn’t I? The creative team behind First Flight is pretty much the same one behind Wonder Woman: DC’s Bruce Timm is producing and Lauren Montgomery (Superman: Doomsday) is directing. Word is that this film is Montgomery’s last before a well-deserved leave, and if the little lady is feeling any signs of burnout, then the symptoms definitely show in the finished product of this film.

Here’s a quick rundown of what Green Lantern: First Flight is all about: an updated re-telling of the origin of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, via a story that felt overly-rushed and totally devoid of character. For instance: five minutes into the film Hal Jordan has already gone from a test pilot we know nothing about, to a guy adorned with an emerald ring we know nothing about. Ten minutes in, Hal (mysteriously accustomed to his brand new super power) is blasting off to planet Oa with the Green Lantern Corps (who we know nothing about).

The main problem I can pinpoint: after a rushed intro, the film diverts its focus from Hal Jordan (voiced by Christopher Meloni) and his journey to become a Green Lantern, instead steering narrative focus onto the character of Hal’s mentor-turned-nemesis, Sinestro (who is voiced by Victor Garber from ALIAS). Sinestro really does take up a lot of the screen time/POV, and the story really does end up being more about what makes Sinestro go bad, rather than what makes Hal Jordan (more of a foil for Sinestro here) rise to the status of a hero.

And the fight scenes… There are some clever moments in the film where Hal uses his ring to manifest some pretty cool stuff, but on the whole, the fight scenes get a bit repetitive and after awhile, seeing so many green (and yellow) lights zipping back and forth pretty much made my brain glaze over.

The voice work was ok, but when you’re reading bad dialogue even hearing Barry White whisper in your ear would make you cringe. And the choices of actors was a little strange: Meloni was OK, Garber did pretty well, but hearing Michael Madsen voicing Kilowog??? It never quite “rang true” to my ears.

Main Cast

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Christopher Meloni as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern

Victor Garber as Sinestro

Tricia Helfer as Boodikka

Michael Madsen as Kilowog

John Larroquette as Tomar Re

Kurtwood Smith as Kanjar Ro

Larry Drake as Ganthet

William Schallert as Appa Ali Apsa

Malachi Throne as Ranakar

Olivia d'Abo as Carol Ferris