Green Lantern: First Flight Review (Spoilers)

[matt_zimmer]

Also Reviews for Justice League Unlimited's two part The Once and Future Thing and the Duck Dodgers episode The Green Loontern.



Green Lantern: First Flight

Sort of a middling movie in the DC Universe Original Animated Movie pantheon it's not as good as either Justice League: The New Frontier or Wonder Woman, nor as bad as Superman Doomsdays or Batman: Gotham Knight. It's just a pretty diverting way to kill an hour and a half.

I liked the voice cast. Hal Jordan is one of the most boring superheroes ever so at least Christopher Meloni is able to, if not make him interesting, at least make him likable. But the revelation here is Victor Garber as Sinestro. I know he's a great actor but I expected him to phone it in the way Alfred Molina did in Wonder Woman. But he takes his role seriously here and is all kinds of awesome.

The Betrayal in the movie surprised me and I thought it was a good twist. I am also impressed that this movie didn't seem to revel in the adult themes they were able to get away with like some of the earlier films. It was still a little bluer than my tastes like but it didn't flaunt it.

Good, but not great. I still enjoyed it though. ***1/2.

Duck Dodgers "The Green Loontern": One of my very favorite episodes of Duck Dodgers (along with "Samurai Quack") this is geek nirvana. Besides the obvious fanboy excitement of DC Comics character teaming up with Looney Tunes characters in an animated cartoon the episode also features the voices of John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Q) as Sinestro, John Dimaggio (Futurama's Bender) as Killowog, and nerdiest of all, Kevin Smith in a cameo role as Hal Jordan. I loved seeing Daffy Duck/ Duck Dodger's selfishness and idiocy contrasted with the rest of the Green Lantern's especially when Sinestro is trying to tempt him to join forces. I wish they had somehow found a role for Marvin the Martian/ The Martian Commander as they DID manage to give a small role to Porky Pig/ The Eager Young Space Cadet but other than that minor quibble the episode was perfect. A great episode of a great cartoon series. *****.

First Look: Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies: Awesome trailer for a movie I am now REALLY looking forward to. I'm ambivalent usually to these DC movies but this one looks fantastic. And it's coming out in two months! Sweet! *****.

DVD Menus: Nothing special. **.

The Once and Future Thing: Part 1: Weird Western Tales: This episode is a blast and a half. Anyone who can't enjoy cowboys and flying robot dinosaurs shouldn't be watching cartoons. Only quibble: Did they REALLY need to put Jonah Hex in his comic book Confederate uniform? I liked him better as a cowboy like he was in Showdown. I think Ben Browder as Bat Lash is a riot and the cliffhanger with Batman Beyond, Static and Warhawk is probably the best cliffhanger in DCAU history: ****1/2.

The Once and Future Thing: Part 2: Time, Warped: If only they had been able to deliver on this episode! Outside of some funny Chronos scenes the entire episode is a huge disappointment. Nothing matters with the clock resetting at the end and despite us FINALLY getting Terry and Static as guest stars on Justice League they both wind up getting punked. This is probably the most overrated episode of JLU EVER. **1/2. Two Part Average: ***1/2.

Comments

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Green Lantern

I found it to be my favorite because Meloni and Garber created a great relationship and tension between Jordan and Sinestro. Wonder Woman is my second fave. As good as the New Frontier was, I still prefer the comic better because its the original. Cooke did such a great job in researching and blending history with comics and the movie just cut stuff out and redid a couple scenes.

Even though I never watched Law and Order, I did watch Training Day, and Alan Burnett framed the movie pretty well. I did like certain changes that other fans didn't such as making Qward a planet not part of a parallel reality. It still made sense because Qward was still barren and where the yellow power ring was constructed so it still acted as an opposite of Oa.

The Weaponers were pretty cool, too. They sort of got another layer of character by making them telekinetic and telepathic blacksmiths for hire. Based on the first one that was fixing the explosive thing, I thought about Sylar's Intuitive Aptitude and it makes sense for them to have it and be able to make anything.

I was sort of thrown off that they made Kanjar Ro a villain, when he's more of a Hawkman/JLA one. But adapting the hokey Energi-Rod and Cosmic Boat airship into the movie seamlessly was cool enough. Kurtwood Smith was great as Ro, I still can imagine him saying "Dumbass" all the time.

I agree that the violence and innuendo were well executed in this movie. Let's face it, Amazons were a gateway to a ridiculous amount of decapitation and stabbing.

One of my gripes was the power rings. I'm pretty sure that the ring has a failsafe energy reserve so no one gets killed in space, yet all those dozens got murdered at the end. I guess for thematic purposes, it scares the Corps into giving up and is imagery for the brutality that Sinestro's new order would entail. Another was Jordan just believing in this stuff after a brief pause.

Kilowog grew on me. It was funny when he was apologizing to Jordan and later when he totally pwned Sinestro at the end.

Green Loontern

The gags were still great! The high school rivalry, the friendly microbe, the homage to Super Friends with the GLC logo spinning, and Ch'p's exploding nut still made me laugh as hard as when I first saw it years ago.

Weird Western Tales

Cowboys and robot dinosaurs were the bee's knees. I remember we talked about Hex before and I thought about. The only way I can justify it is time. The Civil War takes place from 1861-1865. Weird Western Tales takes place in 1879. Showdown takes place in 1883. I'm thinking it took a while for the Civil War to end in the minds and hearts of people so guys like Hex still wore their clothes and the whole ideology behind it wasn't frowned on until as soon as the 1880's when Reconstruction ended formally.

Time, Warped

I think the episode earned its overrated-ness because it was a major coup. Static appeared in it, the Beyond era was revisited, Warhawk became part of the crazy love triangle, and Hal Jordan appeared. It was a total crazy romp for the fans to delight in. Personally, I loved the end: the chase scene when Chronos goes after the Great Hand, Batman and GL have their Groundhog Day moment, and how Chronos got defeated.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

First Flight: Interesting take. I agree Meloni and Garber were marvelous. Have you ever watched Alias? Garber was great in that. I didn't know Ro was a Hawkman villain.

Green Loontern: Agreed.

WWT: Good explanation for Hex in the DCAU. I always preferred the cowboy version better (his voice actor rocked) but the Confederate uniform always threw me.

TW: Which is kind of weird considering both Terry and Static got punked. But yeah, Peter Macnicol as Chronos was funny.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't watched Alias. I remember Garber from various shows he's done.

Me neither until I started doing research for my website.

William McKinney did do a great job on that episode as Hex. Yeah, there are a lot of on-screen references that throw me off at times.

I thought Peter MacNicol was so entertaining ever since he did Ghostbusters II and Addams Family Values and then years later as X the Eliminator on Harvey Birdman. I practically grew on watching this guy.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Garber: It's from the creator of Lost. I think you'd enjoy it. Look for the DVDs. They're pretty cheap on Amazon but you could rent it first to see what it's like if you need to.

Hex: Why didn't he voice Hex in JLU? Is he dead or something? No offense to Adam Baldwin whatsoever but McKinney was absolutely perfect.

Peter MacNicol: I first noticed him in the short-lived Normal Lear sitcom The Powers That Be. That show was a breeding ground for a lot of comedy actors like him, David Hyde Pierce and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

Garber: Mm, J.J. Abrams? I think I will try it out when I finish adding sections to DCAUR this summer.

Hex: I don't know, I think McKinney is in his 70's now and still doing movies. Three this year, I believe. I have a feeling that it could any reason: he wasn't interested, schedule conflicts, or Timm and co. wanted to recast him with a less heroic voice (and/or Joss Whedon obsessed).

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Garber: Yeah, it's Abrams. My addiction to that show was the reason I gave Lost a shot in the beginning. The original premise of Lost held no interest for me but I trusted Abrams.

Hex: What movies has McKinney done this year?

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

According to IMDB: Fuel, Second Coming of Mary, and Shattered Glory then Algona in 2010.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of any of those. He must be a B-movie actor.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Ever see Sophie's Choice?

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Green Lantern was sort of in the middle, I agree. It was a good plot, but it could've been more (Geoff Johns' "Secret Origin" arc in Green Lantern had him balance his life as Hal Jordan while running off to space to train as a Lantern). Plus the designs were kind of ugly. It was cool, though, and I didn't see the Boodikka thing coming since she's a good guy in the comics.

Green Loontern - A LOT of fun. I've only seen a handful of Duck Dodgers, but this episode was great. I need to see Samurai Quack, but the one where Space Cadet goes back to his home planet to marry a princess is also geek nirvana.

Weird Western Tales - So much fun! I particularly loved the Justice League theme - Western style!

Time, Warped - The episode is overrated because people do tend to geek out over cameos (and aside from Warhawk, the cameos didn't amount to much), BUT I really liked the episode just because it gets my heart racing the entire time. Not one of the best, but very exciting nonetheless.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

First Flight: I disliked it a lot upon rewatches. It doesn't hold up the way New Frontier and to a lesser extent Public Enemies do.

Samurai Quack was great because they actually had a role for Genndy. I didn't see the one with the Cadet you mentioned. It must have aired in the third season which was largely first run on Boomerang.

Weird Western Tales: One of the highlights. And even better was the absolutely awesome cliffhanger.

Time Warped: I keep hearing people jumping out of their skirts at Hal Jordan's cameo but it didn't really amount to much. Plus, it was completely wiped out of canon at the end of the adventures.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Aw. I may have a DCDTV marathon ad watch them all and see which is better and which is worse than I remember (although I have seen S:D ad NF multiple times already).

The Duck Dodgers episode was awesome because it had Rob Paulson, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille as Space Cadet's nephews and neice, Porko, Peurko, and Sow. Also, he rides a flying carpet, wields a lightsaber, and saves the Little Mermaid from Lex Luthor.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Superman Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, and Wonder Woman don't hold up either. In the case of the first two they actually seem terrible rather than mediocre.

That episode sounds sweet. The show needs a season set DVD release in the worst way.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Superman: Doomsday definitely, and Gotham Knight...you just sort of need to be in the mood to watch, I think.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I'm never in the mood for Gotham Knight. And I REALLY hope I never am.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Maybe not content-wise, but how about visually?

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

It looks terrible. I can barely only stand the animation in the Working Through Pain and Deadshot sections. The rest is headache inducing.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Dang. Especially since from the way I hear it, there will be anime style-influenced DTVs for Wolverine and Iron Man coming up.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind the animation so much if the story was better. But it wasn't.