DVD Review: Green Lantern: First Flight

On his first day on the job, a rookie cop works with a rogue senior officer who isn't what he appears to be. But enough about about the Oscar-winning crime film Training Day, lets talk about Green Lantern: First Flight, the latest direct-to-DVD animated feature from animation legend Bruce Timm. The film documents the first mission of Hal Jordan (Christopher Meloni), the most enduring character ever to bear the mantle of Green Lantern. Sinestro (Victor Garber), a highly respected officer of the Green Lantern Corps, takes the young Jordan under his wing. However, Jordan soon discovers that Sinestro is involved in a conspiracy to take down the Corps, and must stop Sinestro before he takes over the universe. Wow, maybe this is Training Day.

The Pros: As much as I joked about the plot's similarities to Training Day, in no way to I consider this a ripoff. But despite the title, this film is not a origin story. In fact, his origin is over and done with within the first five minutes before the credits even role. This is not a bad thing, however, in fact, since his origin is covered in detail is Justice League: The New Frontier, you could very easily consider this a spin-off of that film. This film is basically like the second half of your average superhero film. Most superhero films spend the first half introducing the character and then transforming him into a superhero, then he usual meets his villain and has his first adventure as a superhero in the second half.

One of the best aspects of this film is the animation. Bruce Timm & Company have always been superior animators, but this is some of their best work ever. The explosions are beautifully realistic, and nowhere will you see better space battles involving no space ships. The redesigns on the characters are great too, particularly on Sinestro and Kilowog, who always looks somewhat ridiculous in the comics. Incidentally, Michael Madsen as Kilowog = AWESOME!!

The Cons: There seems to be an unwritten law that all Direct-to DVD animated features can be no longer than 80 minutes in length. It's a law that needs to be done away with because it's been seriously affecting the quality of these otherwise stellar DC animated films. Justice League: The New Frontier and Wonder Woman in particular suffered greatly because of their short running times. They simply leave too little time for real character development, and often the plots feel rushed.

It's my understanding that fans intially disliked the character of Hal Jordan when he first appeared in 1959. He was thought of a a bit of a stiffneck, with no real characteristics to distiguish him personality-wise. However, the more recent portrayals of Hal Jordan particularly is Darwyn Cooke's excellent graphic novel DC: The New Frontier, Hal is portrayed as someone more akin to Marverick from Top Gun, the hotshot pilot with a devilmaycare attitude. And while that is ostensibly the Hal Jordan portrayed here, the film rushes by so fast you barely get even a sense of that.

Hal doesn't even seem have time to react with suprise and awe to any of the fantastic events happening to him out of the blue. I don't know about you, but if I were suddenly recruited into an alien police force, I'd proabaly start babbling like an idiot. But Hal just takes it all in a stride. It would've also been nice to see Hal actually learning to use the ring. One of the best parts of the Iron Man film for me was the bits with Tony Stark getting the hang of his armor. Here, Hal pretty much masters the ring either instantly, or offscreen, either wat depriving us of some great comedic moments.

The Rest: Not that I'm complaining, but this film was way, way more violent than I was expecting. Superman: Doomsday wasn't as brutal as this. Blood is spilt almost literally every other scene. In fact, if not for the fact that most of it is alien and therefore not red, this film might've very well received a R rating. And not all of it isn't red. There's on seen where character is impaled and covered in his/her (no spoilers!) own very red blood.

The End: Overall, this is fairly average work for Bruce Timm. Of course even mediocre Bruce Timm is lightyears beyond most people. I would however reccomend watching this back to back with Justice League: The New Frontier, to really get the full Hal Jordan experience.

Overall, I give Green Lantern: First Flight a Silver Anarchy Coin.











Click here to visit the official website for Green Lantern: First Flight.

DVD Review: Wonder Woman

The live-action Wonder Woman film has been in development hell for years, and it doesn't look like it's getting out anytime soon. So in the meantime, animation god Bruce Timm is kind enough to bless us with this direct-to-DVD animated feature, simply titled Wonder Woman. The plot is pretty much your standard superhero origin story: Diana (Keri Russell) is the daughter of Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen), queen of the Amazons, a race of immortal Greek warrior women hidden on the mystic island of Themiscyra (no, there's no lesbian sex here guys, sorry). One day an American fighter pilot named Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion) crash lands on the island. The Amazons decide to chose their finest warrior through combat, who would escort Steve Trevor back to "Man's World", wearing the colors of the American flag (learned from Trevor's uniform patch) as a sign of friendship (look, it was that way in the comics, OK, just go with it). Unfortunately Ares (Alfred Molina), god of war and mortal enemy of the Amazons, chooses now of all times to break out of his prison on Themyscira. And if you don't have a good idea where the story goes from there, you've obviously been isolated on a mystic island your whole life.

The Pros: Memorize these words. Practice them in front of the mirror every night before bed. Make it your motto: Bruce...Timm...is...awesome! Just giving us Batman: The Animated Series would have been enough, but this guy also saw fit to grant us Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and Justice League. If I hadn't had Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero to crawl back to during the Joel Schumacher years, also known as the Dark Ages, I would have gone bat-crap insane. Not to mention he gave us the only good Superman film ever made, namely Superman: Doomsday (sorry guys, but the Christopher Reeve films sucked; ALL of them). So obviously, there's a lot to expect from this film. And does it deliver? Well, of course it delivers! Come on, when has Bruce Timm ever made anything bad? (Superman: Brainiac Attacks doesn't count! He wasn't involved with that one!)

The first thing that struck me about this film is that it wasn't a simple superhero action romp. It is better described as romantic comedy/fantasy war epic. The interaction between Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor is both hilarious and sweet, and it really makes the film. If there was ever a superhero film for girls, this is the one. But that's not to say the guys can't enjoy it too. Believe me there is plenty of Lord of the Rings-style battles and Clash of the Titans-style monster fights. The film has a great cast including Nathan Fillion, Rosario Dawson, and Alfred Molina. Keri Russell did an acceptable as Wonder Woman, though a part of me still missed Susan Eisenberg. Though honestly it's unfair to compare them, because the two have completely different interpretations of the character. In the Justice League series, Eisenberg played the character as somewhat meek an inexperienced, while Russell's Wonder Woman is more brash & forceful.

The Cons: Two words: the length. I'm not saying 75 minutes isn't a common running time with direct-to-DVD features, but this particular story desperately needed more screen time. They barely have time to finish the origin part of a plot before they have to jump right into the climax, and the whole thing just feels rushed.

The End: Wonder Woman has always been a tragically misunderstood character. In almost literally every appearance of the character onscreen and in comics she's been sexualized. There's never enough emphasis on her character, she's always just the hot warrior princess. And as usual, Bruce Timm seems to be the only one who knows how to treat these characters right. He was the only one that knew it was pronounced "Lex LuthOr" not "Lex LuthEr", or "Mix-yiz-spit-lick" not "Mix-el-plick". He was the first to portray Mr. Freeze and the Riddler as interesting original characters. And now he once again gives Wonder Woman the respect she deserves. And at the same time he actually makes a socially relevant statement about the male/female dynamic that not enough people are saying. For a comic book fan, this is obviously a must.

Overall, I give Wonder Woman a Silver Anarchy Coin.

Click here to visit the official website for Wonder Woman.

DVD Review: Hulk Vs

Who would win in a fight between the Hulk and Thor? Or the Hulk and Wolverine? Who cares as long and they smash stuff? Here's my review for the Direct-to-DVD double feature Hulk Vs.

DVD Review: Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow

For those hoping for a second sequel to Ultimate Avengers: The Movie, you're outta luck. Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow shares no continuity with previous Marvel animated films, and is decidedly aimed toward the younger spectrum of comic book fans, sort of like the Marvel Adventures comics. The backstory is that the Avengers were defeated and killed by the evil supercomputer called Ultron. One of the survivors, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Tom Kane), smuggles the children of the Avengers to safety. These children are James Rogers (Noah Crawford), son of Captain America and the Black Widow, Torunn (Brenna O'Brien), daughter of Thor, Azari (Dempsey Pappion), son of the Black Panther and Storm, and Pym (Aidan Drummond), son of Giant-man and the Wasp. Iron Man raises the children in a secret base in the Arctic Circle. 13 years later, the children have grown and developed their powers and skills. Unfortunately they inadvertently give away their bases position and are discovered by Ultron, who by now has conquered half the planet. Iron Man is captured, by the kids manage to escape with the aid of the damages android Vision (Shawn MacDonald). Encountering and enlisting the help of an aging Hulk (Fred Tatasciore), and the rebel leader son (Adrian Petriw) of the archer Hawkeye, these young heroes must rescue their mentor and stop Ultron, before he completely conquers the world.

The Pros: If you're into comic books this movie shouldn't bore you too much. Like most films based on comics, there of a number of references and in-jokes for fans (Jocasta cameos as a base computer, the Savage Land is mentioned, etc.) As usual, there's plenty of action, albeit tame action, but still enjoyable. Part of the plot even involves fighting Iron man robot versions of the original Avengers. The Hulk is sporting the old-and-grey look from Incredible Hulk: The End, which looks pretty cool, though certain shot look very cartoonish. The animation quality hasn't gone down since the other animated Marvel movies, though it isn't as spectacular on the whole. This whole story is very much in the spirit of other team super teams, such as the Teen Titans and the Power Pack, so if you were a fan of those franchises, you should enjoy this.

The Cons: Obviously this film is far tamer than other Marvel Animation works, seeing as it's their first PG-rated film (all the others were PG-13). Thus all real sense of danger is eliminated. No real violence here, just kid-friendly smash-fests and explosions. They're not even allowed to use the word "kill" or show anyone dying (except robots). Most of the dialogue is just fair to corny, and none of the jokes are really laugh-out-loud funny.

The End: In 2005, Marvel started a comic series called Young Avengers, featuring teen heroes who based their identities on the Avengers. Though that may have inspired this movie, they are nothing alike, in either story of tone. This actually has more in common with A-Next, a comic starring the Avengers' successors in an alternate future. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but personally would like to have seen the Young Avengers more. Rating this against Marvel's other animated features, this is definitely not their best. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but not their best. Certainly worth renting, but I personally wont be preordering this on Amazon.

Overall, I rate Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow as a 6 out of 10.

Click here to visit the official website for Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.