Green Lantern: First Flight (2-Disc Special Edition)

I was pleased with this movie. The animation was mostly excellent (with a few brief moments of really bad animation), the voice acting was superb, especially Victor Garber as Sinestro. The plot was a little over the top, but that's par for the course in a superhero movie.

One thing that prospective buyers should beware is that the digital copy is Windows Media format only. It will not work on iPods or iTunes. I bought the DVD (at a brick and mortar store) and I did read the fine print before buying it. However, I'm sure some iTunes/iPod users may balk at the idea of paying extra for the special edition, which contains an essentially useless (to iPod/iTunes users) digital copy. It seems especially silly since the iTunes ecosystem is much larger than the Windows Media ecosystem.

The special features are also compelling. There's a two-part episode of the Justice League, some documentaries, a first look at the Superman-Batman animated movie, and more.

The title I gave this review - "A run of the mill origin story" - pretty much sums up my take.

Our tale begins with an alien green lantern crash-landing on Earth. He dies shortly thereafter, but not before giving his power-ring to Hal Jordan: the hero of the piece, and the character all true fanboys will recognize as THE definitive green lantern.

This movie does differ from most other superhero origin stories in that the part where the hero actually gains superpowers is dispensed with very quickly. The focus is on the hero's first adventure - the one where he earns his spurs as a superhero. Hence the title "First Flight". But in all other respects this piece is pretty formulaic. There are a couple of twists here and there, but nothing major. The production values and the voice acting are all up to the exceptionally high standards that we've come to expect from DC's animated offerings. Otherwise...

Meh.

A lot of the animated DC stuff Bruce Timm has released over the years - in particular I'm thinking of Justice League Unlimited and Batman - Mask of the Phantasm - has had real depth; far beyond what most people expect from the superhero genre. This one just doesn't. Don't get me wrong: there's nothing especially bad about this movie. It's more that there's nothing that really stands out as especially good about it either.

The up side is, if you're after a rocket-fueled, high powered action flick, this movie delivers in spades. What you see is what you get, and what we get is a grand, galactic-scale adventure. Space opera with superpowers in the best tradition of the green lantern corps. It's only if you were hoping for anything more than that... well...

Meh.

And the extras? To be honest, after watching the actual feature I just didn't care enough to bother looking.

Theo.

Green Lantern First Flight is yet another in a very long line of animated mini-movies from both the DC and Marvel universes. This one centering on the origins of Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern.

The plot is simple. Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot gets picked by a dying Green Lantern to take his place; begins his training with the Green Lantern Corps, faces distrust and eventually betrayal and ultimately saves the day. In other words; it's your typical origin storyline.

Now it's not my favourite of these animated movies out there. Frankly I find the plot in the Green Lantern tv series more compelling and the Superman/Batman Apocalypse and Wonder Woman movies have much better and more moving storylines. But it is a reasonably solid piece of work; has a good if not outstanding dub and does have it's moments.

As for this blu ray itself, it's your typical 1080P, l.78:1 widescreen presentation and comes with either a Dolby True HD 5.1 or a Dolby Digital 5.1 sound track. On this particular edition, there are no other audio options. It's also a BD only edition, no Combo Pak here and came without a slip cover so it doesn't quite match with my other DC BD movies. So once again, satisfactory but could have been better.

However, like all of these small animated movies from either DC or Marvel; the Bluray does come loaded with a huge rash of extras! Among them being an 8 min. documentary on the revival of the Green Lantern franchise, a 22 min. documentary on the rings as possible mythological talismans, two 4 min. shorts on the origins of both Sinestro and the Guardians and most interesting of all, a 10 min. documentary on the Blackest Night DC comic franchise!

In addition, there are four extended documentaries of approximately 10 min. each on other DC movies from Superman/Batman Public Enemies right through to Wonder Woman. They also throw in three full episodes centering on Green Lantern from the Justice League series, two episodes from the Justice League Unlimited series and even a parody episode from the Duck Dodgers comedy series.

Overall, a good movie but not a great one. I'd rate it at 3-1/2.

J. A.