Green Lantern: First Flight Review Blu-Ray / DVD

DC animated films are on a roll. Wonder Woman was awesome, and now Green Lantern: First Flight comes around just at the right time. We've been waiting for that damn live-action movie to get off the ground for too long, so what better way to quelch our GL Corps thirst than with a PG-13 animated film? The best representation of what a good Green Lantern origin story can be usually involves Hal Jordan, lots of action, Sinestro turning bad, and lots of fun ways to use green light. If you're expecting way more than this, then you need to get passed the introduction of the character and get into his strong back-story in the comics... but this review is about an animated movie, not the comics he came from.

Hal Jordan (voiced by Christopher Meloni) is a test pilot with a remarkable skill set, strong will, and inventive mind. If he wasn't he wouldn't have been chosen to get a Green Lantern ring after Abin Sur crashed to Earth to die. Got that? I hope you did, because that all happens in a flash. Honestly, the start of the film is the weakest portion because you really don't get to know anything about Hal Jordan before he's a Green Lantern. To tell the story the wanted to tell, I don't see how they could have fit in much of it anyway. It also would have been a waste of making this film the animated way, since you want to do things you can't do in live-action. Human drama is not one of those things.

The space opera, anti-human bias, and xenophobia from the comics are all here, as are some of your favorite lanterns outside of Hal. There is also tons of action, some good plot twists (especially for newbies), and excellent voice acting, even from Michael Madsen who had become a pretty horrible actor. All in all, I got all I was expecting and hoping for, with the added dose of some very adult violence, in particular a certain impaling that shocked the green sh*t out of me. While it being only 77 minutes long is a little disappointing, you don't really notice it as you watch, so it isn't that big of a deal. Now can we get Guy Gardner in the next one? I'd be psyched for that.

The extra features are plentiful. Multiple behind-the-scenes features, Green Lantern retrospectives, a look at the current Blackest Night comic book event, and even some of the best cartoons to feature Green Lantern in it are included. One very nice bonus is a preview of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies that has me pumped for that release. Oh, and too add to the already robust list of features included, there is an episode of Duck Dodgers included, appropriately named "The Green Loontern." Ah, good ole Daffy Duck. The special features really help round out the experience and complete the package.