Well before humans ever existed, the first living race, the Guardians of the Universe, concentrated the most potent power imaginable in the Green Lantern battery, which fuels the rings of the Green Lantern Corp., to protect reality. The only weakness the Green Lantern battery has is the color yellow, so its power was contained within a single element and hidden to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. In the present day, aircraft test pilot Hal Jordan is recruited into the Green Lantern Corp. to replace Abin Sur, who was on the search for the yellow element, which had gone missing. As Hal is trained by Sinestro, he gradually begins to suspect that his senior officer may have other, more sinister plans.
Pitch-perfect voice acting boosts this stunning origin story of the emerald exemplar, featuring Christopher Meloni killing it in the title role, Michael Madsen doing a stellar job as Kilowog, and Kurtwood Smith hamming it up as Kanjar Ro. The creators of “Green Lantern: First Flight” excel with the production and creature design, giving us all kinds of unique aliens and worlds to marvel at, all of which are rendered with wonderful animation. There’s plenty of action on tap, but the real highlight is the final explosive showdown between Green Lantern and Sinestro. However, even though much of the violence is fantastical in nature, it gets pretty gruesome at times and is probably best not shown to the little ones.