tek's rating: ½

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (PG)
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Caution: potential spoilers.

I was sort of wondering if this would be set in the same continuity as Green Lantern: First Flight, but it's clearly not. Not only is the voice cast different, but while Arisia was already a Green Lantern in that movie, in this one she's a new recruit. However, the animation style seems pretty much the same.

Anyway, this movie basically consists of a framework of Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion), who has been a Green Lantern for some time, telling stories to Arisia (Elisabeth Moss) about various members of the Green Lantern Corps. Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Universe have been moving all the important stuff off of Oa to a secure location, and evacuating the planet, while the Corps sets up observation platforms around Oa's sun, from which there was a recent attack by shadow demons on one Green Lantern, who was killed. The Guardians believe the shadow demons from an antimatter universe are under the control of Krona, an ancient enemy who was thought destroyed, but who had vowed revenge on the planet Oa. At the end of the movie, we get to see a battle between the Corps and Krona, in which Arisia plays an important part, but the main part of the movie is the stories Hal tells Arisia.

The first story is about the first four Green Lanterns, or really the one of them who is called the First, even though he was the last of the four to be chosen by the rings the Guardians had created. (BTW, the story makes it sound like the Green Lanterns were the first group of protectors the Guardians had established, with no mention of the Manhunters, who fans know predated the Corps, but it's not really important.) Anyway, the First was Avra, who, unlike the other three chosen, was not a warrior at all, and so was very unsure of himself (just like Arisia). But he ends up better understanding that the rings are powered by the wearer's will, and is the first to use his ring's power to create a "construct," rather than basically just using it to blast energy at his enemies.

Afer that, Arisia is worried about eventually starting boot camp, with Kilowog (Henry Rollins) as drill sergeant, since he has a reputation for being really tough. But Hal tells her a story about Deegan, the Green Lantern who was drill sergeant to Kilowog and a few other Lanterns when they had been new recruits (or as Deegan called them, "Poosers," a term which Kilowog himself now uses frequently towards newer Lanterns). In the story, Deegan seemed ridiculously hard on Kilowog and the others, but their training is interrupted when an emergency call sends them on a mission to stop a Khundian invasion of some nearby planet. The battle leads to Kilowog learning to respect Deegan.

The next story is about a Green Lantern named Laira (Kelly Hu). She kinda reminds me of Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender, though that may be mainly because of her hairstyle. Although her story also kind of reminds me a bit of Avatar; certainly her homeworld of Jade has a very Chinese nature about it, and there's a theme of lost honor and serious disagreement within her family.

Next is a story about a Green Lantern known as Mogo. Though actually, it's mainly about a warrior named Bolphunga the Unrelenting, who never lost a battle, and was always searching for new opponents. The last warrior who dared fight him, after losing to Bolphunga, told him of an even greater warrior named Mogo. So Bolphunga went to search for this Mogo, but he didn't even know he'd found him until it was too late.... (Mogo, btw, will also show up later, to help in the battle against Krona.)

Later, Sinestro (Jason Isaacs) tells a story to Arisia, about a Green Lantern named Abin Sur (who we know is the one that would later pass his own ring on to Hal). This story is about Abin Sur fighting someone named Atrocitus, with a little help from Sinestro. After defeating him, Abin and Sinestro talk about destiny, a concept Abin believes in but Sinestro doesn't. In the end, when Abin returns Atrocitus to the prison from which he had escaped, Atrocitus, who sees the future, tells Abin that someday Sinestro will betray the Green Lantern Corps, and destroy them all, though of course Abin refuses to believe this. It's after that story that the final battle against Krona finally takes place. After the Corps' hard-won victory, there is a celebration, and in the end, Hal says he'll tell Arisia another story (which we don't get to hear).

Well... the stories were all fairly good, I guess. And I don't really know what else to say. I feel like I'm forgetting some sort of commentary I wanted to make, but whatever. Maybe I'll think of it later. Or not. I'm sure it's not important....


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