The emerald warrior translates well to animation again.
One member of the Green Lantern Corp is patrolling a sector of the galaxy. She's then suddenly attacked after coming across a sun. It's later revealed that the attack is from a powerful being by the name of Krona; an individual whom was defeated and imprisoned in the Anti-matter universe by the Guardians of the Universe. He seeks vengeance upon the Guardians, and while they evacuate the planet of Oa preparing for the worse, they dispatch the entire Green Lantern Corp to try and deal with the threat. -summary
This flick surprised me when I first saw it around its original release, and I doubt it was due to me lowering my expectations. Green Lantern: Emerald Knights isn't only the best Green Lantern movie, it's also one of the better DC animated features. Directed by Lauren Montgomery, Jay Oliva, and Christopher Berkeley, Emerald Knights focuses completely on the Green Lantern Corp, and it feels that way too since several of the members receive a fair enough amount of screen time, all the while paying respect to various parts of the source material. The movie has the feel where it's kind to the casual fan, at the same time it seems more geared to the comic fan with various references and characters from Blackest Night, Rage of the Red Lanterns, and even The Sinestro Corps.
The narrative uses an anthology format which was last seen in Batman: Gotham Knight. Hal Jordan voiced by Nathan Fillion, the most popular of the Green Lanterns, takes new recruit Arisia under his wing, and begins telling her various stories of Corp members. These stories aren't only meant to deliver some good action scenes in which they do, but also provide some background to the viewer on what it means to become a Green Lantern.
Those coming in searching for a Hal Jordan story are going to be disappointed, since he's mainly a vehicle to push the rest of the Corp and he isn't even really developed. It appears as if this movie assumes that the viewer is already familiar with First Flight. However, there's absolutely no connection between this movie and First Flight, and if they were making an attempt to connect the two; then we'll be looking at the biggest continuity issues ever. I recommend coming into this one and taking it as its own story, so not to be the least bit confused; but I have to admit that cover art with Hal Jordan in the foreground along with not calling this Green Lantern Corps can be very misleading, because some folks are going to come into this wanting to see Hal Jordan, and they're not going to be too happy seeing him used like this. I also had an issue with the main villain. He was established as a serious threat, but I feel he was only present to give the movie an initial story and an ending.
Ignoring the use of the most popular character and the villain, the movie does so many other things right I can kind of overlook those issues. The individual stories are very fun to watch, and the action scenes are nothing to look down on either. These are the best action scenes when comparing this to the other GL movies. The rings are used in some cool ways and they take great advantage of the animation. There's some really good choreography in the space battles as well as the hand to hand. The visuals also blend the CG with 2D animation a lot better than I seen in most DC animated features. There are plenty of beautiful backgrounds taking place in space and on different planets. I thought some of the character designs were cool as well. Krona looked the best out of everyone, with the appearance of an over-sized titan about to go super-nova. The voice acting was pretty good but I can't really point out any performances since no one really stood out to me.
I think this movie would have been a lot easier to digest had it been a direct sequel that acknowledged the events of First Flight. This way there could be an excuse for the lack of development on Jordan's part for those who may be bothered by it. However, if one is to look at this as its own story and not a Hal Jordan movie. Then they'll probably think it's a very solid feature. On another note, the violence level and that bit of profanity may not be too suitable for young kids, just a heads up for those whom are concerned about those things.
Pros: Nice visuals, action, entertaining narrative, a few references
Cons: Hal Jordan reduced to side character for some, misleading presentation, nothing truly epic