The Real Green Lantern Movie
Once again, as we've seen with Superman, Batman and Hellboy, the best movie version of this superhero is in animated form. This probably should surprise no one, given that 'live action' movies are motion pictures (photographs), whereas animated cartoons are literally motion comics. Anyway, this movie is the best Green Lantern movie so far.
After briefly retelling Green Lantern's (Hal Jordan) origin, the film (probably wisely) dispenses with any adjustment period of learning about his powers on Earth, or with any time developing his character and relationship with Carol Ferris, in favor of promptly whisking Hal off to Oa to meet the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe where he becomes a probationary Lantern officially under the tutelage of Sinestro.
From this point on the film takes the form of a police procedural, which was a really good way to go, given that the Green Lantern Corps is pretty much just a bunch of space cops (In a nice touch, the intergalactic criminal element refer to the Lanterns as "rings" a slang equivalent of "badges", "cops", "pigs" etc.). Much like Training Day, Hal is both informed and shocked by Sinestro's methods, and it becomes increasingly obvious that the two are headed for an inevitable showdown.
The film employs great animation techniques, including a simulated multiplane camera effect, shadow and special effects animation. The content is likewise more sophisticated than one might expect, with scenes of violence, even torture (albeit weird torture), and the Lanterns even occasionally cuss. While the film has some of the weaknesses inherent to all iterations of Green Lantern across media (the undefined limits of the rings powers and it's constructs, etc.) it also has some of its strengths, coming across as a true space opera in the tradition of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series something the live action film version failed to achieve.
Recommended - even if you don't think you're a Green Lantern fan.
