Movie Review: Green Lantern: First Flight (2009) Directed by Lauren Montgomery
Test Pilot Hal Jordan is practicing in a flight simulator when that non-vehicle is suddenly surrounded by a green glow and transported to a nearby desert. There he finds a crashed spacecraft and its dying pilot, an alien named Abin Sur. Abin Sur bequeaths his power ring, a device that uses green energy to create various effects, to Hal. The ring creates a uniform for Hal, making him a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an elite force of universal peacekeepers and law enforcement. To start with, he uses this power to become a superhero on Earth.
The story proper picks up several months later. The Guardians of the Universe have finally found time to send a delegation of Green Lanterns to Earth to summon Hal Jordan for examination. The squad is led by Sinestro (whose name in his native Korugarian means “trustworthy person who will never turn evil on you”), a top-ranked Lantern; and also includes attractive woman Boodikka, who seems sympathetic towards Hal; and Kilowog, a Lantern drill sergeant who is less than impressed that a human got hold of a power ring. They take him to Oa, center of the universe, and headquarters of the Corps.
The aliens that have previously visited Earth have given it bad reviews, and humans have a less than stellar reputation. So the Guardians are skeptical about Hal Jordan’s qualifications for the Corps, and annoyed by his non-deferential attitude. “And then there’s the smell.” Named Guardians are Appa Ali Apsa, the nominal leader, Ranakar the hide-bound conservative, and Ganthet the relatively progressive. They’re about ready to dismiss Hal out of hand, but Sinestro steps in to propose that he personally take charge of Hal’s training to see if he’s really got the stuff for the Corps.
Sinestro turns out to be a hardass who believes in on the job training, and the first case he’s taking his rookie on is “find and capture the being who murdered Abin Sur.” This turns out to be a nasty fellow name Cuch, who works for alien warlord Kanjar Ro. Hal intervenes when Sinestro’s questioning of a contact looks more like torture than interrogation. Then the suspect shows up, a firefight ensues, and Hal eventually captures Cuch. Sinestro is less pleased by Hal’s success in completing the actual mission, and more angry that Hal is “soft” and made Sinestro look “weak” in front of others. Sinestro’s not satisfied with his role as a space cop, and wants to bring order and a lack of crime to the whole universe using the power that the Guardians now fritter away on “cleaning up garbage.”
Sinestro interrogates Cuch, uninterrupted this time, and learns the location of Kanjar Ro, who is in possession of something called the “Yellow Element” which is the one thing the Corps’ green energy is vulnerable to. The Guardians are not pleased with the comatose state Cuch is left in, and demand that Sinestro bring in Kanjar Ro alive and unharmed so the Guardians can do their own questioning. Sinestro grudgingly agrees.
The hunt for Kanjar Ro begins, but as long time fans of the Green Lantern Corps and/or people who just know how superhero stories work guessed, Sinestro has ulterior motives, and this spells trouble for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.
Since much of the same crew had previously worked on Justice League: The New Frontier which had covered Hal Jordan’s origin story in some detail, they decided to recap it very briefly and move on to newer material. This movie’s continuity is largely based on the Post-Crisis version of Hal Jordan’s early days, having the later organization of the Green Lantern Corps retrofitted as something already existing when Hal gets the ring, and characters who originally joined the organization after Hal preceding him as established Lanterns, as well as giving him a personal relationship with Sinestro before that person left the Corps.
The animation is decent and gets the job done, and I also enjoyed the voice acting without thinking about it too hard.
Hal Jordan is sometimes considered the “boring” Green Lantern, as a standard straight white American man whose schtick was fearlessness. All the subsequent Green Lanterns were designed as complements or contrasts to him, so he sometimes comes across as generic, and too often his “fighter jock” personality traits are exaggerated to give him “personality.” Here, that’s somewhat muted by his being the “rookie” who’s learning the ropes of his new job. Mind, to make him the central hero of the movie, in the last act the rest of the Corps is forced on to the sidelines to let Hal shine. I’d have liked to have seen the other Corps members trying to think of ways they could contribute despite their rings not being useful at the time.
I did like this version of the Weaponers of Qward, who were nicely creepy and do a good job of foreshadowing later developments, and the very E.E. “Doc” Smith way Hal deals with the Yellow Element.
Overall: An acceptable movie for introducing Hal Jordan as a solo(ish) character for potential future movies or a continuing series.
My DVD set also included a Duck Dodgers episode in which Dodgers (played by Daffy Duck) temporarily joins the Green Lantern Corps, and Sinestro is played much more in his Silver Age dastardly villain who just wants personal power mode; and two episodes of the Justice League Unlimited series in which Green Lantern John Stewart, Batman and Wonder Woman are sucked into the Wild West and then the dark future of Batman Beyond by Chronos the Time Thief. The second episode has a brief Hal Jordan appearance.
