Green Lantern: First Flight Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Beware His Power
When pilot Hal Jordan accepts a mysterious, powerful ring from a dying alien creature, it transforms him into a Green Lantern - one of an elite force of heroes. These heroes patrol the universe to ensure peace and justice under the leadership of the Guardians of the Universe. Unsure of their newest recruit, the Guardians assign Hal to their most-honored Green Lantern Sinestro for training, unaware that Sinestro wants to overthrow the Guardians and create a new order he'll control. It's a battle of might and willpower as Hall must prove his worth by defeating Sinestro to save the Green Lantern Corps.
| Christopher Meloni | Hal Jordan, Green Lantern |
| Victor Garber | Sinestro |
| Tricia Helfer | Boodikka |
| Michael Madsen | Kilowog |
| John Larroquette | |
| Kurtwood Smith | |
| William Schallert | |
| Larry Drake | |
| David L. Lander | |
| Rob Paulsen | |
| Olivia d'Abo | |
| Juliet Landau | Labella |
| Lauren Montgomery |
7.40 out of 10 (191 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Always a treat from the animation studio
posted on 26 Aug 2009I've said it before, I'll say it again. The people who put together Warner Brothers animated DC universe movies have a lot more on the ball than the people who spend millions of dollars putting together the live action films.Fans already know the story... A dying aliens finds test pilot Hal Jordan (the second of five Green Lanterns) and bestows upon him the ring of the Green Lantern. He is teamed with Sinestro, a Green Lantern with ambitions of his own. Sinestro makes a deal with the Weaponers of Qwad to develop a Green Power Ring that gives him the ability to beat the Lantern Corps.Okay, that's the basics, but this movie really elevates an old story into an art form. Christopher Meloni of Law and Order Fame does a respectable job as the voice of Jordan. The action scenes are quite intense for an animated film (almost being on par with Anime) and I'm almost inclined to say too intense for small children, but what do I know.
Good stuff from DC Universe!
posted on 26 Aug 2009Although I have seen Green Lantern being featured in the the few Justice League/DC comics that I have read, I never did know the hows and whys of the original character. This animated movie explains how he came to being without lingering too much on just the origin and continues with solid action throughout. The twists in the story were engrossing and the climax was spectacular and lived up to it's name. I was also riveted by the score, almost as chilling as how Dark Knight was. Some room was also made for wry humor although the content veered more towards PG-13 than PG. All in all I am very impressed by the movie which leaves me eagerly awaiting for the Martin Campbell one of 2011. 8/10.
I see Green - "Green Lantern: First Flight"
posted on 24 Aug 2009I have to admit that I had a really good time watching director Lauren Montgomery's animated feature "Green Lantern: First Flight." Here we get just about everything about the DC Comics character set up in some pretty quick tempo. Green Lantern is probably my favorite DC Comics character from the Silver Age of comics, who appeared about a decade-and-a-half before the Silver Age run of a newly revamped Batman. Just to keep things in check here, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (of DC Comics' rival, Marvel Comics - my favorite comics company, by the way) is my favorite superhero of all time, and "Spider-Man 2" (2004) is my favorite superhero movie of all time, and my #2 favorite movie of all time.Green Lantern struck my fancy only because I thought he had one of the coolest superpowers of any superhero from DC's Silver Age, and that was the "power ring," which was first given to test pilot Hal Jordan by the dying alien Abin Sur and thus immediately indoctrinated him into the elite Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force that patrols the galaxy in an effort to maintain universal peace and stability. The power ring, of course, was cool because it WAS the power, and Jordan didn't receive his powers from an industrial accident or anything, and was instead, for the most part, a normal human being. (Though, true to comics at the time, he accepted his mission without hesitation, was stalwart, and was hard to relate to on an emotional level and didn't suffer from the mundane personal problems that say, Spider-Man and other Marvel Comics characters would become famous for and change the comics game completely.)The movie blazes through Green Lantern mythology pretty quickly, leaving out a lot of back-story and time for proper character development (and since the movie dives right into the action from the get-go and never really stops until the very end, there's no way you could possibly say this movie is ever boring), and the movie may only serve as a quick introduction for new viewers and as a supplement for established veterans; I fall somewhere in between both categories, having been introduced to the Green Lantern two years ago and have spent time quickly catching up on all his Silver Age adventures.I already mentioned the details of how test pilot Hal Jordan (voiced by Christopher Meloni of television's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit") obtains the power ring and is inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, and later undergoing training by Sinestro (Victor Garber). It turns out that Sinestro thinks that the Green Lantern Corps, who are under the leadership of the Guardians of the Universe, are going soft as the universe around them is polluted with crime and the Guardians of the Universe are too powerless to doing anything about it.Sinesto has plans to usurp the organization and form a new order under him, using the "Yellow Element," since while the powers of a Green Lantern power ring are virtually limitless - strength is determined by the user's imagination and willpower - their only real vulnerability is caused by an impurity in the power ring itself that renders them powerless over anything made of yellow. And only the newly minted Green Lantern Hal Jordan can stop him."Green Lantern: First Flight" is a great movie, let me just get that out of the way. The animation is also great, mixing traditional hand-drawn animation with computer-generated imagery (CGI). I also like how the story also seems to briefly include some sci-fi variations of the detective-noir genre. The voice acting is pretty much flawless from everyone involved, especially Christopher Meloni as Our Hero and cult actor Michael Madsen as tough-talking fellow Green Lantern corpsman Kilowog. Kurtwood Smith, who I just loved as the main villain in my #6 movie of all time "RoboCop" (1987), is also quite impressive as interstellar gangster Kanjar Ro. There is also some light-hearted humor sprinkled in here and there, just to liven up the mood and remind us that we really shouldn't take all this stuff seriously.However much fun there is to be had here, though, you could complain about how the film just sort of jumps right into the action without really establishing just who is the daredevil that is test pilot Hal Jordan, or his attempts to win over the heart of his boss Carol Ferris, who is only in the film for the first five minutes and then we never hear from her again. (This could, more or less, be blamed on the film's 77-minute running time and its attempts to condense as much story into its running time as possible.) Or I could also complain, why Hal Jordan? My personal favorite Green Lantern is John Stewart. Why couldn't the movie focus on John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan? The Green Lantern title is significant in comics history for breaking down racial barriers by including John Stewart, the comic's first black Green Lantern, amongst its ranks; this was during the early 1970s when this happened. And lastly, why is so much of the action set in outer space, rather than on Earth?"Green Lantern: First Flight" is a great movie, though I wonder why Warner Bros. didn't just go ahead and funnel funds into a live-action movie, and also include John Stewart. (Maybe Green Lantern's not popular enough, and they're still busy raking in money from "The Dark Knight"? I don't know.) I can say that at least my hunger has been satisfied - albeit temporarily - for a cinematic rendering of one of my favorite DC Comics characters. I'm sure a live-action movie is on the way soon, but all we can do now is just wait for that special moment.9/10
"First Flight" soars to new heights
posted on 20 Aug 2009So…..this is not an origin story?? It can't be since the origin of how Hal Jordan became a green lantern is over and done with in the first 5 minutes. By another 5 minutes he's already been brought before the Green Lantern guardians or whatever and on his way to becoming a full fledged member.My main beef with this show is that it tries to cram too much into too short a time. The effects of this cramming were not as jarring as with the previous direct to DVD animated features like Superman Doomsday and Wonder woman. But for Green Lantern, its story can easily span 6 standard TV episodes (20 minutes each, totaling at 120 minutes of material). More time could have been spent letting the suspense and intrigue play out so that the whole "cop drama in space" feel can be fully appreciated.My second beef is with the main character. The main character of Hal Jordan is possibly the most under-developed character in the whole show. The only thing that sets him apart from the rest is his creativity with the power ring(and mind you, the things he makes with that ring are really cool and adds a little humor here and there.) Other than that, he comes across as almost one dimensional. Sinestro on the other hand is given a refreshing take as a villain. His motives no longer come across as just purely "Bad guy" motives. He honestly wants the universe to change for the better, even if he has to take over the reins of power. Sounds like some of the antagonists from Gundam or something, but a very well developed character overall; his motives leading very logically into his actions. Side characters like Kilowog and the Guardians are so much more interesting than Hal Jordan. Though i would blame Jordan's lack of character development on the short running time again.Other than those 2 little gaffs I find, the rest of the show is highly entertaining. After the first 15 minutes or so, The story starts to shares a number of elements similar to "The Recruit". New guy gets recruited into a law enforcement organization, though there are those that don't quite trust him. What was thought to be a run-of-the-mill mission soon turns out to be something a lot deeper, encompassing betrayal and hostile takeover. Excellent material there, pity it never got a chance to fully develop its potential due to the shortness of the movie.The animation is gorgeous. The same high frame rate is applied here again, as with previous DC animated features. Characters movements flow smoothly and with some scenes looking as smooth as rotoscoped footage. The level of detail in the art has also been taken up a notch since "Wonder Woman". One or two of the fight scenes could have been staged a little better though. The director is good at what she does, except fight scenes. The final duel between Hal Jordan and Sinestro for example. What could have been a galaxy spanning duel of epic proportions with each combatant utilizing every trick in the book, turned into a simple fist fight in space. The character designs in Green Lantern are not as angular as previous DC style designs. The men characters are more realistically proportioned, no longer overly muscle bound, and The Women characters bear a very feminine "European anime" look like in Totally Spies and Martin Mystery. The alien characters here are also something new for DC animation. They actually LOOK ALIEN, and not like humans wearing makeup and prosthetics like in the Justice league animated series. Most of the designs are really original though one or 2 look like they were ripped off from Ben 10.What shines is really the dialog and acting. Top notch acting all the way that just lends to the believability and realism of the show, Coupled with an intense musical score that is quite different in feel from the other superhero animated features(This one uses an interesting mix of traditional instruments and electronic synthetic sounds to create a very unique theme for Green Lantern.) A word of warning though. This film EARNS its PG13 rating. A little swearing in the dialog, some innuendo here and there and lots of violence. There are a couple of scenes that some people may find disturbing like a guy getting sucked out into space through a tiny hole for example. Definitely not for kids(and kids wont appreciate the complex story anyway).Green Lantern: First flight is really a gem. A pity it was so short though, which seriously affected some character development and pacing issues. DC's DTV animated features have been improving with each installment. I just hope the next improvement they can make is to allow a longer running time.
Good but not a Great Start
posted on 14 Aug 2009I'm going to admit that I don't know anything about The Green Lantern mythos or the characters and my only real experience with them is Green Lantern: First Flight but Hal Jordan the main protagonist of the movie is actually very boring. He's very one dimensional and the only thing that we really learn about him is that he is a test pilot and in the beginning of the film we can assume that he is a thrill seeker. Hal Jordan gets the power of The Green Lantern from Aben Sur (Incorrect Spelling) Now Hal doesn't get any training with the ring as many other critics have pointed out and he's thrown into doing a mission shortly after he gets his power. But we do get a scene where he gains knowledge from the core of the ring which is satisfying but at the same time disappointing. I thought it would have been interesting to have a inexperienced Green Lantern get thrown into a mission before he's ready and have to quickly deal with life threatening obstacles but Hal Jordan quickly gets the hang of using the ring.Surprisingly the most interesting character is Sinesto who is voiced by the always talented Victor Garber (Alias, Titanic) who actually believes that The Green Lanterns are too soft on there enemies and does Justice his own way. Things get interesting when he finds a new power source and turns on the lanterns. There are nice twists in the movie and the ideas are there. There's not a lot to really nitpick about it and I didn't feel like I wasted a hour and a half of my life. This movie didn't make me want to pick up the books though
Walt Disney Animations - nuff said
posted on 14 Aug 2009What did you expect from this? Animation that is decent, but nothing spectacular, lots of pretty colors and funny faces, everyday guy with large manly jaw becoming galactic marshal rookie, rookie fighting evil, rookie defeating evil. I knew what was going to happen, who was the bad guy and how good will prevail from the first 10 minutes, yet it still was fun :) Sneaky sobs!Bottom line: it's a cartoon for kids. Nobody sings, thank you very much, but there isn't much humour in it either. A simple plot which explains the birth of the Green Lantern superhero. To their defense, I doubt they could have squeezed much in it anyway, as the plot was packed with action from beginning to start.
Pretty darn Good
posted on 12 Aug 2009Super Hero stuff = check Animation = Check Plot = Check Loads of Aliens = Check Action = CheckNuff said.It gets an 8. No an 8.3 no an 8 wait... an 8.2 ..Lets just give it an 8.(for the people who don't know how to vote 7=watchable 8=pretty good 9=brilliant 10=I had an out of body experience while watching this film)(ignore this text)(ignore this text)
In blandest day...In dullest night
posted on 08 Aug 2009I felt "Green Lantern: First Flight" had a lot of promise. The trailer looked and felt right, leaving me hopeful. Since blindly buying this film, however, many of my hopes have been dashed.First off, the animation and character design was superb. Hal Jordan and company looked great. I liked how Sinestro's appearance was more grounded and less "gaze upon my forehead". Kilowog's design enabled him to look jovial and, in the next frame, highly menacing. Visually, the Guardians stood apart from each other (with different facial types, receding hair lines, etc). The rest of the Corp also had minor revisions to their design that further emphasized their extraterrestrial nature from past incarnations. But, when these characters moved, this is when it became how visually lush this production was. There are only two words that come to mind for describing it—fluid and seamless.The action scenes were very well directed, gripping, and pulled no punches. They always said it in "Justice League", but this is the first time I've ever really seen anything to make me see the power ring as a devastating weapon. Kanjar Ro gets a greenish hole punched through his middle by Sinestro. Later, Sinestro uses the ring to briefly reanimate Ro by reconnecting his neural pathways. Boodikka and Kilowog get into a fight and proceed to tear up a rather spacious and sturdy environment. The scene culminates in a character dying in a very graphic and almost R-rated manner. Then there's the fight between Jordan and Sinestro. It starts off as a really cool, bi-color outer space dogfight. But, before long, devolves into a brutal, no holds barred slugfest. I could almost feel the pain coming off each landed blow. However, there's a problem with "GL: FF". And this would have to be Hal Jordan and, by extension, the script.When we're introduced to the lead, he's in a flight simulator. Then it gets pulled from its housing and dragged miles through the air to a crashed spaceship. When Hal is faced with this and the alien Abin Sur, he doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Most people would probably freak out just a little bit. When Hal is charged with being a Green Lantern, he doesn't seem to really care. Even when he's faced with Kilowog, Tomar Re, and Boodikka, the weight of his predicament never seems to register with him. Then, of all things, without any training, Jordan is operating his ring at expert levels. The script should've handled this better and made the lead more human. But, beholden to a truncated time limit, it glossed over some highly needed plot points. However, it's not all the script's fault.I was surprised with Christopher Meloni, who is a really solid actor. I've seen him on the big screen and in "SVU". Yet, in this, he fell kind of flat. The scene which really displayed this is when it was being decided if he would be a Green Lantern. The Guardians were just ripping on him "...and then there's the smell…" Hal's defense of himself and the human race against these humorous and scathing charges just came off as halfhearted. Half of the time Meloni's delivery felt this way, like it was more of an afterthought. This really stuck out since every other actor, especially Garber and Madsen, brought their A-game—if they didn't, damned if I could tell.In my review of "Wonder Woman", I said these films need a longer running time. Well most of what was wrong with "GL: FF" probably could've been fixed with another ten to fifteen minutes of length. This way Hal would've had the time to be appropriately unnerved by the vast and dangerous world he was abruptly pulled into. It wouldn't have hurt to see him spend a minute or two on Earth, trying to figure out how he was going to handle the immense responsibility dropped in his lap. We also could've seen him properly earn his skills in a training montage (clichéd, but effective). These changes would've enabled me to better empathize with his story. But as it stands, Hal was more of a cipher for the nobler aspects of humanity than an actual human. In short, he was not relatable."Green Lantern: First Flight" is just an okay film which should've been a great one. It looks beautiful. It has truly outstanding action. Sadly, it's dragged down into mediocrity by an extremely abridged story and a lackluster lead character. It's definitely one to rent first and, assuming you're not too disappointed, buy later.On another note, to the producers (should one of them ever read this), it's time. These DTV films are pulling in some respectable cash, so more money should be poured into them. I'm not talking about doubling or tripling the budget, just a little bit more cash. This could increase the running time, enable more satisfying story lines, and help create the kind of production that makes the mainstream, which is normally dismissive of animation, finally take notice of your work. At any rate, I hope "Batman/Superman: Enemies of the State" is handled better than "GL: FF" was. And I really hope the DTV after that (Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad) finally sees a change for the better in how these films are structured.
Go Green Somewhere Else
posted on 08 Aug 2009I don't mean to downgrade 'Green Lantern: First Flight' too much – giving it only 2 out of 5 stars (or in IMDb 3/10) as it wasn't really that bad. But, as one of my favorite secondary superheroes growing up (as good as he is, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hulk, Spider-Man, etc, thoroughly rise above him) I really wanted to see a little more realism and maybe more than 5 minutes on planet Earth. I mean, yeah, I get it it's an origin story and we have to introduce all the alien green lanterns in the universe, but he is human. And yet, he's not really human, is he? I kept thinking as the big screen live-action version is coming soon, boy they can do so much with cartoons that they can't with live-action. Take for instance, Hal Jordan gets his ring for the first time and not only instantly learns to fly, use the power and protect himself, but he's thrust thousands of light-years away into a brand new galaxy with new aliens he may/may not have thought existed and into a sordid mystery. Yes, it's a cartoon, but there are so many better ones with a lot more realism. I mean, this guy barely blinks when he's thrown into extraordinary circumstances. This leads me back to the theater-version of this coming soon. Thankfully, I'll bet it's based more on Earth and with more depth to real humans. Again, it wasn't too bad, but it was predictable as all Hades, and very little depth was shown to any of the main characters – in fact, they were all as two dimensional as the film was. As little of it was on Earth, it was as if they had made 'Wonder Woman' stay put on Paradise Island never seeing the real vision of her storyline.
Good story but nothing out of this world
posted on 06 Aug 2009Basically the retelling the origin of Hal Jordan. It is great to see a character that I grew up reading on the screen. Hal Jordan's character does seem a bit generic or two dimensional. Sinestro's character is way better developed. Some discrepancies:When the flight simulator lands Jordan next to Abin-sur, then the ship explodes and Jordan is seen floating above an empty crater but no flight simulator. Then it magically reappears when he comes back to the base.Also if the dead lantern's ring's are drained of power how do they come back to Oa? Why did the guardians not use telepathy on Jordan to prove his innocence guilt? O Overall a good movie, not a great one but pretty good.
a very fine intro for the unfamiliar, and a possibly welcome treat for the fans
posted on 06 Aug 2009Green Lantern is part of a group of superheroes in comics that I'm only familiar with on the periphery, either from seeing some parts of Justice League or hearing here and there about his powers, the ring, the whole fleet of Green Lanterns, the color codes and space battles, etc. It's safe to say then than, for the novice crowd, First Flight is an ideal choice to watch. It has all of the fast pace and (mostly) terrific animation that one's come to expect from the Warner brothers animation with collaboration from DC Comics. This comes now after a few other new animated straight-to-video movies: Superman Doomsday, Justice League New Frontier and Wonder Woman (the last one not yet seen by me). And it's safe to say that Green Lantern can claim its rank with those other examples, nestled most likely in quality and entertainment between Superman and Justice League.It basically plops us into his origin story, or at least a solid re-telling of it. We get the story of Hal Jordan, who was a test pilot until he came across a dying alien with a green ring on his finger which he entrusted to Jordan. From then on, he's the Green Lantern, but not the only one: he's met on Earth by Sinestro, a red-skinned arrogant jerk, and a few other alien Green Lantern folk, who take him along into space to meet with the council that guides the Lanterns in their adventures. In this case, they have to find the "Yellow element", which is like a yellow machine that is the one weakness of the Green Lanterns: this color is the one thing that can block their power, and in the wrong hands it can wrought devastation on the whole universe. And, meanwhile, Sinestro maneuvers behind the scenes...Oh, it's not exactly the 'easiest' sort of story and world, so to speak, to enter into on a first viewing with only limited experience to Jordan and the Lantern corp. But once one is acclimated to everything, the animators and filmmakers take it from there and make it a rollicking science fiction action story, with touches of the space opera (sometimes blatantly, like with the rip-off of the Cantina scene from Star Wars when Hal and Sinestro go to interrogate someone). While some of the supporting characters are quite stock-like (i.e. Madsen's honorable pig character), and the usage of CGI, especially during the back-story exposition on the Yellow Element, is sub-par, it's mostly compelling thanks to Jordan being a heroic hero and Sinestro being a complex enough villain in the story. In fact, Sinestro was what made this far better than I initially expected, as a character who is on the side of good, but has his very questionable methods - and then crosses that line where he can never go back from.I imagine that for the die-hard fans of Lantern from the comics, who perhaps aside from the die-hard fans of WB/DC animation, this might not be anything too new storywise, but the best thing about it is it doesn't need to be. This is the first time we've seen any kind of direct-to-video, or just perhaps any, actual feature film version of the Lantern story (until the Martin Campbell film comes out anyway), and as an origin story it does what it needs to. It sets up its universe (again, so to speak), delivers us interesting characters (more or less), and is jam-packed with intense action and some very particular and amazing scenes of animation. Another Bruce Timm produced effort worth watching, if not an immediate must-see unless one is itching to learn more about one of DC's most popular characters (after, you know, Batman and Superman and maybe Wonder Woman too).
a fairly solid, if not particularly satisfying, origin tale
posted on 31 Jul 2009Telling the origin of Hal Jorden the Green Lantern (with some tweaks here and there), the Green Lantern Corps and Hal's arch-enemy Sinistro, this animated movie, while not as good as the previous Wonder Woman animated film, is still able to keep one's interest due to the pretty good amount of action in the film. While it's far from perfect it still did it's job, a primer to drive up interest for the upcoming live movie, well enough. Furthermore, the voice acting was good for the most part with some minor exceptions and it was well story-boarded. The animation,however, was a bit inconsistent.My Grade: C+
Good film
posted on 29 Jul 2009I was always a lukewarm Green Lantern fan growing up but this film was very good and makes you realise that the character is quite unique. I have always been more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan but dammit DC makes the better animation films. they are far more adult oriented than those put out by Marvel. This film definitely deserves the PG-13 rating it received and you will see why when you watch it. Granted the film is only an one hour 17 minutes, but an animated film rarely needs to go beyond that. If you have always been a Lantern fan then you know who the villain will be in the first film. If you are not a fan then I wont spoil it for you.
Action Packed Beginning
posted on 28 Aug 2009This starts a new tale of Green Lantern and features his most famous supervillain, Sinestro. Christopher Meloni did a great job voicing this Superhero and it was plain to see that Green Lantern's powers can match even Superman's.The story starts with the ring choosing the new Green Lantern, Hal Jordan who is a test pilot. He is then brought to the circle of the other Green Lanterns and explained that they are a Corps that protected the Universe since its inception. But they now have a new foe who is dangerously close to taking the Yellow Crystal that is the Green Lantern Corps' only weakness.Good story (7/10), good action (8/10), swell animation (8/10), and great voice-over work by the actors (9/10). This movie has great jokes (the constructs Hal Jordan conjures up to defeat enemies had me cracking up) and surpasses the director's previous work on Wonder Woman.The language in here is a little raunchy and the action gets a little graphic with blood. It should be PG-13 and is a good straight-to-DVD movie. Enjoy!