by KING King Impulse » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:03 am
Hate-free Green Lantern: First Flight review
[spoiler]Well, I enjoyed that a lot. It's a great way to introduce an audience to a new character, the movie never panders or expects less of its audience. It's Boom! Origins done. Boom! Here's the corps! Boom! Here are the Guardians. Boom! Here are the bad guys. Let's go. I didn't really hate Hal Jordan in this, the word I'd use would be endearing. He's the Hal Jordan that Hal Jordan fans want Hal Jordan to be. Cocky, but affable, if I was a lesser person I'd use the cliche 'Men want to be him, women want to be with him' (Oh, balls, I just did). I like that they embraced the goofyness of his ring constructs. While everyone else uses green tentacles, grappiling hooks and the like, Hal sticks with the (I hate to say) classic boxing glove style of ring-slinging. Over the course of the movie, he uses a giant green wicker basket to carry something, giant green golf clubs, baseball bats and sledgehammers and to my delight, he creates a steel chair to finish off a bad guy. The movie doesn't do this ironically , but it doesn't take it too seriously either, so it's just something that's there.
The corps was handled really well, all the fan-favourites are there; Kilowog, C'hp, Arisia, Ganthet, Tomar-Re and I swear I saw a Green Man cameo. Once again, the movie doesn't go into too much detail, trusting the viewer to follow the story and the characters, and by the end of it, you really care for the whole corps. One of the most heart-wrenching scenes I've ever seen in any animation is when Sinestro cuts off the power battery and the Lanterns lose their power. All the ones on Oa are saved by the Guardians, but then, hundreds of rings rain down over them as all the Lanterns off in space die, with no-one to save them.
One interesting deviation this movie takes is the abandonment of the 'emotional spectrum' concept. Instead, the Green Lanterns are powered by a mysterious 'Green Element' at the heart of the Power Battery and Sinestro is powered by the 'Yellow Element.' I really like this as I've never been a massive fan of the emotion stuff (Willpower is an emotion?). If the viewer is still watching a movie about a dude with a magic ring that responds to his every though, they're going to be fine with 'mysterious Green Element'
I'm not sure what rating this movie is, but there's a few moments where that stood out to me as not for children. Language is a small issue, Sinestro says 'Your ass is mine' (I was more concerned that it sounded out of character for Sinestro) and Hal Jordan is quick to tell people that he's not gonna take any of their 'crap' but as I said, it's a small issue. Violence and gore is another thing though, Boodika suffers a grizzly, bloody death and you get a good look at the insides of Kanjar Ro on the mortician's table. It doesn't bother me really, but I'd be hesitant to give this to, say, one of my cousins or little brother's of my friends.
Overall, I did enjoy this a heck of a lot. Want more please.[/spoiler]
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