Welcome back. Another month, another trip to the comics shop to get your favorite issues, and another installment to be had of my glorious series…
As we’ve seen so far, we’ve had the Man of Steel beat an indestructible being AND death, the Dark Knight weave through multiple tales to end a gang war AND a sharpshooter, and an Amazon defeat a force of destruction AND grow an appreciation for men. We’ve also seen these three join forces with multiple heroes to prevent the end of the world. In said movie, I mentioned how three certain heroes were the main focus of the tale: Barry Allen who saved his lady love and helped shrink a fierce foe as the Flash, J’onn Jonzz help a top government official grow an appreciation for him as the Martian Manhunter, and Hal Jordan whose character arc goes from Korea to Ferris Aircraft to becoming a new found hero in order to be a part of something big. For this entry, Hal Jordan gets a chance to ride solo in a film called…
Originally released on July 28, 2009, this film served as the third directorial outing for Lauren Montgomery (who previously directed Wonder Woman and was one of the three directors for Superman: Doomsday). Unlike the majority of the films in this series which served as adaptations of certain comic book stories or even an anthology (as we previously covered in Batman: Gotham Knight), this is actually an original story involving the Green Lantern mythos. As such, the same format applies (what happens in story, character analysis, and overall review).
We open to a flight simulation in progress, being run by test pilot Hal Jordan (voiced by Christopher Meloni). He continues to ascend while making sweet talks to his lady love.
Said lady love also happens to be his boss Carol Ferris (voiced by Olivia d’Abo) of Ferris Aircraft who temporarily interrupts the simulation to get Hal back on track, asking him not to pull any stunts or surprises.
Miles away in the desert, a spacecraft is rapidly descending with smoke coming from it. In the cockpit, an alien figure (voiced by Richard McGonagle) is badly bleeding from his stomach. He ultimately crash his ship, resulting in fiery rubble. He then utters a simple command to his ring, “Find Him”.
The ring doesn’t take long as it reaches Ferris Aircraft, blinding Carol and her fellow co-workers with a bright green light. To their shock, they see the training simulator has been ripped from its base.
When Hal tries to exit the pod to find out what’s going on, he finds out that it’s enveloped in green light and flying. Ultimately, he arrives at the wreckage and sees the wounded figure. He tries to pick him up and get him medical attention, but the alien refuses. Hal is amazed that the figure is able to speak English, but finds out that it’s because of his ring.
The ring then slips off the alien’s finger under its own power as Hal is told to take it. After the ring works its way onto his finger, Jordan gets enveloped in green light and gets clothed in a new outfit.
He’s then told that he’s now a Green Lantern and that it comes with being a universal protector. After saying that “The Guardians” will send for him, the alien succumbs to his injuries and passes on. Not too long after that, the wrecked ship blows up. The ring is able to protect Hal, but the blast took the shattered ship and the alien’s body with it.
Following the opening credits, we cut to Ferris Aircraft as Carol is reporting to an official on what happened. Suddenly, she and her fellow co-workers see a green figure carrying the training simulator in a giant green basket (which was formed from the ring). After Green Lantern places the pod down, he able to get back into his work clothes and get inside the pod before Carol and the rest of Ferris Aircraft’s staff arrive. Hal then exits and acts surprised that he ended up outside, allowing Carol to smirk.
Later that day, Hal uses his ring to call up Carol and inform her that he’ll be away for a whole week as he plans to do some traveling while the training pod gets repaired. Suddenly, he sees three streaking green beams of light in the sky that start to redirect their path towards him, forcing Hal to end his call. Also suddenly, a green claw juts out and hits Hal, carrying him towards an out-of-town cliff and pinning him there.
It turns out to be three figures wearing the same uniform as Hal’s, thinking that he was the one who harmed the alien named Abin Sur. One of them asks what happened to their fallen comrade and when Hal informs them of the situation, the muscular alien of the group doesn’t buy it and try to forcibly relieve him of his ring. Jordan is able to use it to knock the big guy away from him, but the other two quickly fight back and get forced into a stand still.
They suddenly hear a voice as another figure arrives to break up the fight. He introduces himself as Sinestro (voiced by Victor Garber), the woman of the group as Boodikka (voiced by Tricia Helfer), the odd-faced fellow as Tomar-Re (voiced by John Larroquette), and the muscular alien as Kilowog (voiced by Michael Madsen). After Hal introduces himself, he’s then told by Sinestro that they’re members of the Green Lantern Corps, a intergalactic police force hailing from the planet Oa, and were sent by the Guardians to get him.
Hal is then informed that he must come to Oa so that his ring can officially belong to him, which he agrees. Tomar-Re then uses his ring to construct a spaceship and they then head off for headquarters. Unlike any spacecraft created by man, this one quickly flies past the various planets of our solar system with ease.
Ultimately, Hal arrives on Oa and confronts the Guardians. The lead Guardian Appa Ali Apsa (far right and voiced by William Schallert) informs Hal of the duties that comes with protecting one of the thousands of sectors in the known universe and that wielding a Green Lantern ring requires concentration. Despite Hal stating that he’s “got the hang of it”, the guardian known as Ranakar (middle and voiced by the late Malachi Thorne) disapproves of the ring’s selection just because Hal is a human being. He delivers the usual shtick of “humans are SO inferior and disgusting to us” and some of the other Guardians even seem to agree with him. An insulted Hal then states that he never asked for this, to which another Guardian states that the ring wouldn’t have chosen him if it found him inferior. Sinestro then comes forth and offers to properly train Hal, to which the Guardians vote upon and agree. After being officially placed under his wing, Sinestro then leads Hal to a special part of Oa.
Inside said building, Sinestro shows Hal the Central Power Battery. Not only does it contain the very knowledge of the cosmos, but it also allows every single Green Lantern to recharge their rings. Since they’ll be working in Space Sector 1215, Sinestro requires Hal to use the battery to know what kind of perils await.
Hal walks up to the battery and holds out his ring while thinking of Space Sector 1215. As a result, a steady flow of creatures begin to enter his consciousness as he feels the sensation. However, Sinestro uses his ring to force Hal’s ring into the battery, causing Jordan to get mentally rushed with numerous creatures being pounded into his mind. After a small while, Sinestro then yanks Hal away from the battery and tells him that he’s impressed since a prior alien Green Lantern didn’t turn out as well. He then bring up the fact that he feels the Guardians are getting soft in their duties, but feels that he can make them be impressed with Hal as they head off to track down the being who mortally wounded Abin Sur.
The two of them arrive on the planet Cadmendoh, to which Sinestro describes as “a pustule of a planet” where criminal scum reigns. There, they plan on finding the individual that’s supposedly responsible for Abin Sur’s ultimate death, Cuch. They arrive outside of an alien night club called Labella’s, which constantly changes its address. They confront the club bouncer named Boolywatt and Sinestro asks him if he’s seen Cuch. When Boolywatt says that he hasn’t seen him, Sinestro then uses his ring to bend him over backwards and choke him. Boolywatt then swears that he hasn’t seen Cuch, causing Sinestro uses his ring to toss him aside after letting him know to report to him should he ever show up.
They enter the club and make their way towards the owner herself, Labella (voiced by Juliet Landau). Sinestro tells her that he’s trying to find Cuch, but Labella states that not only has she hasn’t seen him, but that he also left town. Sinestro then makes Labella use a moon ball as incentive. The device seems to drain Labella of her strength, but Sinestro uses his ring to tie her hands to it. Every single time Labella tries to tell Sinestro that she doesn’t know where Cuch is, the moon ball continues to zap away at her energy. Hal tries telling Sinestro to cut it out, but he refuses and continues his vicious interrigation. Hal then uses his ring to destroy the moon ball, to which Sinestro looks at him with disdain.
Just then, Cuch (voiced by Richard Green) comes in looking for Labella. When he sees the two Green Lanterns, he retreats and has his henchmen try to gun them down. Not only that, but every one in the club manage to whip out various guns to join in. Hal and Sinestro quickly construct a shield around themselves just as everyone starts firing on them. When he sees Cuch escaping, Sinestro quickly gives chase. They zip through the marketplace at breakneck speeds as Cuch launches lightning strikes to try and get the pursuing Green Lantern off his back. Back at Labella’s, Hal is still protecting himself from the constant gunfire. Just then, he notices one of the aliens pulling out a bazooka-like weapon and shoots out a shot. The “fragger” ends up stuck within the shield, but Hal notices the constant beeping. He quickly digs himself out just as it explodes, convincing the alien patrons that they got him.
Back in the marketplace, Sinestro pulls a roundabout tactic to get the upper hand on Cuch. It knocks him into the water and Sinestro then uses his ring to form a net to try and get him. However, all he acquires is various pieces of junk as Cuch escapes into the nearby sewer system. Hal then comes across him and the two begin to tussle.
The fight ultimately leads to another part of the sewer system. Seeing Cuch lunging towards him, Hal quickly uses his ring to form a folding chair and smacks him with it to send him flying into a series of pipes. Hal then forms an energy cannon and fires at the pipes, causing Cuch to get smothered by the debris and be defeated.
Using his ring to form a drilling machine, Hal makes his way to the surface with Cuch in his arm. Sinestro arrives but instead of being happy that Hal wrangled up the fugitive, he uses his ring to get Jordan in a choke hold for going against his brute ways.
Sinestro goes into full-on irate mode as he says that the only way to confront people like Cuch is to instill fear into them. He’s supposed to be sending a constant chill into the criminal heart and Hal “made them forget that”. He continues by berating the Guardians for using the Green Lantern Corps as their personal lapdogs, despite being given incredible power. He dreams of one day seeing crime no longer posing as a threat, but he won’t put up with Hal’s method. The rest of the Corps arrive sensing a disturbance, but Sinestro denies it as they take Cuch back to their nearest substation.
At the substation, Hal finds himself in a bit of a mope while trying to get accustomed to the alien food that’s served there. Just then, Boodikka joins him to give him comfort. She informs him that Sinestro is interrogating Cuch (with his usual method) and that he’s only a bit player to someone bigger named Kanjar Ro, who’s trying to discover the “Yellow Element”. She then puts her ring up to Hal’s and further informs him about it.
Back during the early days of creation, the Guardians formed the battery before there ever was a Green Lantern Corps. It would recharge the rings and it is powered by the Green Element, where its origins are only know to the Guardians themselves.
Hal then learns about the Green Element’s lone weakness, the color yellow. The Guardians had discovered the Yellow Element and tried to hide it away in another dimension where Kanjar Ro and his men found it and took it for themselves.
During an emergency meeting with the Guardians, Abin Sur volunteered to go undercover. He found out that Kanjar Ro had the Yellow Element, but he couldn’t locate where it was exactly. Just as Abin Sur slipped away to inform the Corps, Cuch finds and mortally wounded him in the stomach. Abin Sur managed to escape in a spacecraft and make his way to Earth, ultimately coming across Hal.
Afterwards, Sinestro is have a meeting with the Green Lantern Corps. He informs them of Kanjar Ro’s whereabouts at the Kadian Space Terminal and that they’ll eventually head out there to track him down. Just then, the Guardians request a chat with him in the briefing room. He get reprimanded for his harsh actions on Cuch and that this isn’t the first time that the Guardians have told him to halt his brute tactics. Hal is about to walk by but stops to listen in, which continues his suspicion of Sinestro’s motives.
Sinestro leads a group of Green Lanterns towards the Kadian Space Terminal and orders for one of them to stand watch on the outside perimeter. Hal ultimately takes the position while the rest head inside to begin their inspection. Secretly seeing this from a waiting room is our foe himself Kanjar Ro (voiced by Clarence Boddicker himself, Kurtwood Smith) who asks his men to briefly leave him alone, allowing him to use his staff which contains part of the Yellow Element. He uses it to contact Sinestro in which they proceed to chat in an astral plane. During their chat, Kanjar Ro informs Sinestro about the whereabouts of the Yellow Element being worked on by “The Weaponers” and that it’s ready for pickup. They both agree to head out and acquire the new power source together, as long as they each call off their own groups and agree to meet up in 30 minutes.
Hal continues his outer perimeter watch until he gets informed by Boodikka to meet up with the rest of the Corps. Just then, he sees a baggage checker fall down. When Hal picks him up, the figure claims that he felt like something bumped into him. Jordan proceeds to inspect this and halts the baggage trams to further investigate. Using his ring, he eventually comes across a silhouette which proceeds to fire on him. Hal then using his ring and disables the cloaking device, revealing that it’s one of Kanjar Ro’s men. Just then, Jordan is able to shield himself as further henchmen begin firing on him. Hal manages to elude them and finds a way to disable their cloaking devices, by cutting off some electrical wires and jab them into the floor.
The excessive electricity makes its way towards the henchmen and Kanjar Ro himself, causing their cloaking devices to malfunction and exposes them to the public. While Hal has himself occupied with his thugs, Kanjar Ro uses his staff to blast his way out. After forming a fly swatter and a giant boot to deal with the henchmen, the Corps arrives to get informed by Hal of the whereabouts of their target. Sinestro gets informed by Tomar-Re that Kanjar Ro is heading for the West Gate and proceeds to head off.
Kanjar Ro and his two bodyguards are making their way towards their spaceship when they spot the Green Lantern Corps flying towards them. As a means of distraction, Kanjar Ro uses his staff to attack another spaceship, causing it to crash through a walkway and clip another space craft. Various Green Lanterns stop by the walkway to rescue innocent civilians while a few more prevent the initially -amaged spaceship from crashing into another one. For the clipped craft that’s heading towards the terminal, a small group of Green Lanterns use their rings as grappling hooks to try and slow it down. Seeing that it won’t stop in time, Hal gets in front of the terminal and forms a spring to bring the craft to a halt. As other Green Lanterns join in to take care of the small blaze left behind by the craft, Sinestro scolds them in that the civilians aren’t important at the moment and won’t truly be safe until they catch Kanjar Ro.
Just then, they see his spaceship taking off and making its way into a warp tunnel. The Corps gives chase as Kanjar Ro’s men start firing at them. They discover that if anything touches the outer part of the warp tunnel, it gets vaporized into a fiery debris. Hal is able to save Kilowog from said fate after he gets shot and is able to use his ring to smack a few of the thugs off the ship, causing them to get destroyed by the warp tunnel. Seeing how the Green Lantern Corps is gaining ground on them, Kanjar Ro’s lead bodyguard starts breaking off parts of the spaceship, causing unfortunate henchmen on board to get wiped out by the tunnel. The resulting debris slows down the majority of the Corps, but Hal is able to catch up to the ship just before it reaches a rift. Once the ship makes its way out of the warp tunnel, Hal then proceeds to make his way onto the craft.
Jordan makes his way to the main hull of the spaceship and uses his ring to illuminate the area. Suddenly, he sees a mecha come alive and smacks him as Kanjar Ro’s bodyguard unleashes his attack. However, Hal is able to withstand the abuse and uses a tank to attack the mecha. The bodyguard is forced to eject before it gets completely destroyed and tries using his gun, but Hal forms a shield which deflects the laser shot and pierces through the hull. This causes a huge vacuum decompression to form as it violently sucks the bodyguard out into the vastness of space. Afterwards, Hal uses his ring to twist a pipe into a knot and stuff it into the hole, ending the decompression.
Hal makes his way towards the cockpit, but doesn’t find Kanjar Ro in it. Suddenly, he gets hit by a blind side shot from the Yellow Energy staff and gets knocked out in the process. After deactivating his cloaking device, Kanjar Ro prepares to finish off the unfortunate Green Lantern. However, Sinestro has made his way into the cockpit and holds his ring as him. Kanjar Ro states that he’s the only one who knows where the Weaponers are and that if he’s taken into custody, he’ll prove that Sinestro was involved with his evil deeds all along. Despite various variables against him and a security camera showing Tomar-Re and Boodikka making their way through the ship, Sinestro discovers another option. He begins progress on said option by shooting a quick beam from his ring and killing Kanjar Ro. He then takes the Yellow Element staff and disappears just before the other two Green Lanterns arrive and find the unconscious Hal Jordan next to Kanjar Ro’s corpse.
Hal is then brought forth to the Guardians with the charge of killing Kanjar Ro. Sinestro then tells his false tale of how he arrived after Tomar-Re and Boodikka and claims that before he passed out, Hal used his ring to kill the subject. Unable to present a proper defense to his situation, the Guardians strip Hal of his Green Lantern status as he removes the ring from his hand (returning him to his civilian clothes) and hands it over to Kilowog. He’s then placed in ring-made handcuffs and gets placed in a cell to await for his inevitable return to his home planet.
As Kilowog and Boodikka arrive to take him back to Earth, Hal shares his revelations to them on how Sinestro absolutely hates the Guardians despite their trust in him. He also wonders about a quote that the Guardians said in “the energy rod might be helpful”, to which Boodikka states that the rod responds to Kanjar Ro’s thoughts and could even tell of the location of the Yellow Energy. Kilowog even states that because Kanjar Ro is deceased, the rod is pretty much useless. With that, they plan on finding out for sure.
Sinestro continues to enact his plan by visiting the Corps’ cryogenic morgue and uses his ring to reanimate Kanjar Ro’s body. He makes the corpse use the Yellow Energy rod to pinpoint the location of the Weaponers and the Yellow Element. Sinestro discovers that it’s Space Sector 324 and then more specifically, the planet Qward.
Just then, he sees Hal alongside Kilowog and Boodikka with them learning of his deceptive plan. Kilowog and Boodikka raise their rings towards Sinestro, but he’s able to hold the energy rod in front them and warns them that its core is very unstable. They learn of Sinesto’s inner motives and that working with Hal gave him a way to shift the blame. Kilowog them demands that he discards his ring.
However, Boodikka reveals her alliance to Sinestro as she uses her ring to deliver a strong enough blast to knock Kilowog out. Hal gets one last offer to join the two in their power-hungry quest, but he turns it down.
As a result, Sinestro takes off while Boodikka uses her ring to trap Hal in a green casing to try and suffocate him. Just then, Kilowog comes to the rescue and blasts Boodikka off to give Hal enough time to free himself. However, she quickly retaliates and manages to take Kilowog out of the fight. Hal quickly recovers in time to grab Kanjar Ro’s energy staff and make his way up into the inner mechanisms before Boodikka blows up the corpse.
Hal is able to continually dodge Boodikka’s sight and eventually manages to permanently take her out of the fight by throwing an object towards the ground. Responding to the noise, Boodikka attacks it with her ring. However, it turns out to be the energy staff and the explosion causes her to get impaled.
Sinestro makes his way to the planet Qward and confronts one of the Weaponers (voiced by the 1987 Raphael, the 2012 Donatello and the timeless Pinky himself, Rob Paulsen) in order to acquire the Yellow Element. Following the construction of a device, it gets sent out and blows open the way for them to get to the prized piece of power.
After making his way down to where the Yellow Element’s Power Battery is being made, Sinestro is given his yellow ring. After discarding his Green Lantern ring and putting on his new one, he’s given a surge of pain in his hand before his new outfit forms around him. Before they depart, the Weaponers tell him that it’s the most powerful weapon in the universe and that it’s only weakness is its user. With his newly-acquired power source, Sinestro finds himself ready to strike back against the Corps itself. Just as he made his way out onto the planet’s surface, Tomar-Re arrives with a small group of Green Lanterns who demand him to be brought forth to the Guardians immediately. Sinestro agrees, but it turns out to be under his own terms as his Yellow Power Battery rises up to the surface and annihilates them out of existence.
In a meeting between the Guardians and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardian named Ranakar doesn’t believe that Sinestro would turn his back on them, but Kilowog greatly disapproves otherwise. Just then, fellow Green Lantern Arisia (voiced by Kath Soucie) notices something in the vastness of space. To everyone’s horror, five green rings have returned without their prior owners.
Just then, the Yellow Power Battery begins to hover over the Counsel Room as Sinestro makes his appearance. The Green Lantern Corps tries to contain him with their rings, but he easily breaks out and sends them flying across the stars. He then confronts the Guardians and demands that they bow to his whim. However, they manage to use their power to bash Sinestro and contain him. During this, Hal sees his ring fall right in front of him. Just as he’s about to go get it back, Sinestro breaks free and sends the Guardians’ own power back at them which causes them and Hal to get flung around. He then uses his Power Battery to destroy the Counsel Room.
The Green Lantern Corps is able to regroup, but they’re hardly able to put up a fight as Sinestro continues to swat away anyone who confronts him. Even his Power Battery is able to hold its own against them. Meanwhile, Hal tries to search through the rubble for his ring in order to join the fight with Guardian Ganthet (voiced by Robert G. Durant himself, Larry Drake) joining him in the search. By the time he finds his ring, the Yellow Power Battery had already made its way towards the Green Power Battery and unleashed its power onto it. A few Green Lanterns try to stop it, but to no avail. In the end, the Green Element gets rendered inert as the entire Green Lantern Corps loses their power and begin falling out of the sky. Even other Green Lanterns from far away end up dying in space without the ring’s protection.
Hal makes his way over to the now-inert Green Power Battery and desperately tries to get his ring charged up. Sadly, the Green Element is encased within a yellow tint. Still, Hal delivers a swift punch which cracks it enough to expose its power. With that, he presses his ring up to it and receives a full charge and more.
Meanwhile, Sinestro confronts the Guardians and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps to receive their unconditional surrender by demanding that they remove their rings. One by one, each of them discards their own ring as Sinestro collects them and then uses his own Yellow Ring to crush them. Kilowog refuses to take his ring off, causing Sinestro to hang him by his leg up to the Yellow Power Battery and prepares to wipe him out of existence.
Just then, a distant yet bright green light gets the attention of everyone. Sinestro lets Kilowog go in order to investigate. To his shock, he see the Green Power Battery back in operation. Emerging from within is Hal Jordan completely covered in the Green Element’s full power. Sinestro tries an initial blast from his Yellow Ring, but it does nothing. With Hal’s first blast, it sends Sinestro flying through two buildings, skipping many times across the water and crashing into a rock formation. However, the Yellow Power Battery is able to give Hal a fight. After the tussle causes an explosion, the Battery begins searching for the suped-up Green Lantern. While it continues to search, Hal constructs a giant golf club and smacks it off Oa. He even forms a giant baseball bat and hits it towards Saturn.
Just as Hal forms a giant sledgehammer and prepares for a third-straight strike, Sinestro catches up and blasts him with his ring. It also allows the Yellow Power Battery to send a powerful shot at Jordan with a direct hit. Hal is forced to go into hiding until he sees a key opportunity. He spots two moons and uses all of his power to bring them together. Sinestro sees in horror as the Yellow Battery gets trapped within the various asteroids as the moons collide into each other and blow up.
Even though he’s put a permanent end to the Yellow Power Battery, it cost him his extreme power form as he reverts back to his normal form. This allows Sinestro to use his ring and bound him up. He then prepares a yellow circular saw blade to cut off Hal’s arm, but Jordan manages to free himself as the two of them continue their tussle. They constantly manage to strike each other with successive blows while the Green Lantern Corps watches from below and Kilowog sees his ring come back online. After a spiked punch from Sinestro, Hal notices that the energy within his ring is starting to wain. As such, he concentrates all of his remaining power into one energy ball and fires away. Sinestro tries to defend himself, but the blast sends him plummeting down towards Oa as he crashes onto the planet’s surface.
He lands right next to the Green Lantern Corps in a decent-sized crater. As Sinestro tries to pick himself up, Kilowog comes in with his foot and smashes Sinestro’s hand with enough force to not only break it, but his yellow ring as well.
Kilowog then flies up to hear from Hal that he’s falling rapidly after exhausting all of his ring’s remaining power. Fortunately, Kilowog forms a triplet of fans to slow his decent enough to have a construct of a bed made for him to land and rest on.
After Oa and the Green Power Battery see a proper repair (along with the entire Green Lantern Corps having power rings again), they remember their fallen comrades and celebrate their perseverance. In the end, Hal Jordan is given the honor of leading the whole group in reciting the Green Lantern oath.
With every ring fully recharged, Hal then begins “a long commute” back to Earth to close out the film.
What serves as the main drive of this film is obviously our main hero (Hal Jordan) and our main villain (Sinestro). These two practically make up the whole film and are the most developed characters. With Hal, he starts out as a guy who gets an unexpected chance to join something big, goes on a mission where he develops his skills with his ring, gets blamed upon for Sinestro’s doing, and finds a hidden strength to confront his rogue mentor and become a respected (and vital) member. For his voice actor, Christopher Meloni does a respectable job. As a guy who held down a role like Det. Elliot Stabler on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” for 12 seasons, he’s able to bring his cop-like attitude towards this space tale. While I find some of the emotional tones questionable at various times, he able to bring on Hal admirably. With Sinestro, he’s an aggressive fellow who wants to see lowlifes wiped off the face of existence and is tired of being an “errand boy” for the Guardians where he feels that very little gets done under their watch. While it’s unknown (to me at least) how he’s able to make Boodikka side with his point-of-view, he brings a certain iron fist to his presence and wants to exhibit it in a big way. As far as his voice actor goes, Victor Garber owns this role. Like Meloni, he’s also been part of another popular TV show as Jack Bristow in “Alias”. He brings beautiful tones to his role and unleashes the frustration that Sinestro wants in delivering deep-seated wrath upon the Guardians.
There’s not too much to say about the other characters, but there’s always the effort. While Arisia (bottom left) doesn’t get a lot to work with in this film, she’ll have a bigger role when we reach my review of “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights”. Kilowog is our joyfully tough guy who brings a great sense of dependability and importance to his role in the Corps. There’s also another Green Lantern I didn’t bring up during the story recap, but is worth mentioning. The squirrel-looking fellow is Ch’p (on Kilowog’s head and voiced by David Lander) and he’s essentially a comic relief, but he’s helps out the cause for the Corps and he even saves Hal during Sinestro’s attack on the Counsel Room.
The only other notable character here is Boodikka, but I don’t see much out of her. She does get her first chance to show off herself when she sits with Hal during their eating period as she delivers some important backstory, but not much is made out of trying to manipulate things in favor of Sinestro and for her eventual alliance reveal. I feel like a much better character arc could have been made out of this (since she’s a lesser known Green Lantern), but she’s carrying a semi-weak character arc.
The action scenes are greatly invigorating. The one thing I love about Green Lantern is when the creative team uses their imaginations to come up with various constructs as possible to combat a foe. I giggled when Hal showed off a wrestler side by smacking a green chair at him. I also enjoyed it when he formed a golf club and a baseball bat to smack the Yellow Energy Battery around (I imagine Hal saying in his head ‘Fore’ and ‘Batter Up’ before he delivers back-to-back crushing hits). Other times thought, a green fist shows enough simplicity to work. Also, when Hal gets into his final battle with Sinestro, that’s a highlight.
Overall, this is an enjoyable film. While it’s far from my favorite of the series, I was able to be entertained from it. The animation continues to be stellar, the plot does its job to fill 70+ minutes, and the hero-villain relationship is the main driving force of the film. While hardly anyone else shined outside of Hal and Sinestro, the supporting cast do their jobs and the main stars give us a performance to watch time and again.
Next Time: What if the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight were branded as wanted fugitives? What if both heroes and villains alike were hunting both them down? Also, try to imagine a longtime adversary as the President of the United States. That’s what awaits you as we dig into “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies”.
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan created by John Broome and Gil Kane) is owned by DC Comics.
