DVD Review - Green Lantern: First Flight

Plot: [From Amazon.com] Green Lantern: First Flight is an animated and lively origin story about the transformation of test pilot Hal Jordan into a member of an intergalactic society watching over the universe. Flying an experimental jet one day, Jordan (voiced by Law and Order: Special Victims Unit's Christopher Meloni) encounters a dying alien who is a Green Lantern protector of Earth's sector of the cosmos. The alien's ring, a repository of enormous power granted by a council of elders called the Guardians, zips onto Jordan's finger, but neither the Guardians nor other Green Lanterns are ready to accept him as an unproven member. Complicating things for Jordan is the fact that the Green Lantern tasked with mentoring him, Sinestro (Victor Garber), is plotting the destruction of the Guardians with the acquisition of "yellow power," the only force that makes the Lanterns' green power useless.

My Thoughts: My excitment for this DVD was immense, I couldn't wait for this DVD to come out in stores.  sadly, budget restraints kept me from getting it right away.  But I finally managed to pick it up last week!  I of course immidiately watch it.  And I must say, it does have an equal amount of good and bad qualities.

The film did not waste any time getting into the death of Abin Sur and Hal Jordan reciving the ring.  I barely had anytime to get into the feel of the movie when Jordan was already inducted into the corps and off fighting the bad guys.  I felt this was too quick of a beginning and doesn't allow the audience enough time to understand the setting and framework of the film. 

The storyline overall was decent, but not enitrely what I expected.  It followed the original origin story very well, but at the same time, pumped through it so fast that there wasn't enough time to figure out what was going on.  I think someone who knows nothing about Hal Jordan watching this can still figure out the story, but it would take a few rewinds to get it.

The casting is excellent as well as the animation.  If you follow any of the recent DC animated films, and enjoy their animation style, you'll enjoy this very much.  I raised and eyebrow to the costume designs at first, but decided it was a good choice after watching it a while.  The armor-like feel to the costumes gave the a more "policing" and "militaristic" attitude to the GL Corps.

My biggest gripe with the story was the floating yellow power battery, destroying everything on the planet Oa.  At this point, the film became silly and cheesy and I was hoping for a much more serious tone to the film. 

I would say this isn't the best DC animated film, but definitely not the worst.  I would rank this film the 2nd best DC animated film right under Wonder Woman.

3.5 out of 5 stars