Green Lantern: First Flight

Although 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.

Good origin animated movie, quite entertaining and with a more than decent villain. The level and type of animation is interesting, as it's far from what DC Animations normally offers in its movies. It has a good kinetic flow and the character design fits very well considering this is an animated space opera.

We could make a direct comparison between this animation and the Live Action Green Lantern movie from 2011. Leaving aside the bad CGI and the changes of antagonists, I think that the story that the animation offers is better. There's a better consistency, Sinestro is more complex and has a gradual evolution within the movie.

The animated movie has good pacing too, filling half of Act 2 and all of Act 3 with fast-paced action and revelations that make it all the more engaging. While the power levels are somewhat unbalanced, it's satisfying to see the outcome of First Flight, after all.

In its negative aspects, some characters are very underpowered, the humor doesn't quite work and the patterns of power become repetitive.

Recommended for those who follow the animated series of DC movies.

What 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.

I've never been a huge fan of the Green Lantern, I think it's because I'm not a big "Space" and scifi guy and let's be honest Green Lantern is certainly DC's premier space traveller.

This is an origin story, I suppose. But the actual origin is basically compacted into 5 minutes, no....really.

It then immediatly moves onto his first mission which none too surprisingly involves longtime nemesis Sinestro and yadayadayada.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying in any way shape or form that First Flight is bad, it's just so incredibly paint by numbers and I needed something special to take my attention away from not being keen on Hal Jordan.

Yes, no doubt this is considerably better than the live action movie which I'm still in denial about but this really is one for fans and perhaps fans only.

The Good:

The chair shot made me laugh

Great voice cast

The Bad:

Highly rushed origin story

Highly generic

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Super heroes in space simply don't work for me *Ahem* Except Guardian Of The Galaxy

The blue men group are ancients? This explains so much

It just fails to really introduce us to Hal Jordan before he gets the powers, and after that, he's kind of a "Gary Stu" (male's version of Mary Sue) that in my opinion is a pretty weak character beyond some fine jokes here and there.

Yet, when the plot of the actual story takes off, it has great pace, good twists and particularly violent action (compared to other movies of the genre), that serves the (considerably serious) tone well.

The third act is more "typical", but the animation finds another gear (and the great use of color and good desings help) and the action is good enough to end the movie on a high point.