GREEN LANTERN FIRST FLIGHT

GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT (2009). Director: Lauren Montgomery.

"You're nothing but a bunch of bickering old biddies!"

This full-length animated feature focuses on the popular DC Comics hero who is the subject off a new live-action movie opening later this summer. Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni of Law and Order: SVU) gets a ring from a dying alien and becomes the latest member of an intergalactic corps of space heroes, the Green Lantern Corps, who answer to diminutive old men called the Guardians of the Universe. The villains of the piece include a redesigned old Justice League foe named Kanjar Ro and Green Lantern's arch-enemy, Sinestro (Victor Garber), who used to be a Green Lantern himself  before he turned rotten. Green Lantern: First Flight is well-directed by Montgomery, looks great (with fluid animation and beautiful artwork and coloring), but the story itself is just a bit on the blah side. The voice characterizations are good with Garber a stand-out as Sinestro.  To read about the origins and early adventures of Green Lantern, check out The Silver Age of Comics.  

Verdict: Disappointing, but whets the appetite for the live-action theatrical release this summer. **1/2.