Green Lantern – Emerald Knights
I have to say DC has, to date at least, made the best animated movies of all the comic companies. I think the key to their success is a group of writers, directors, and producers who are tremendous fans and want to do right by their source material.
That said, while I enjoyed the anthology of stories, I’d read most of them in comic form. The better films have been those which deviated from the original sourcework with new twists, characters or dialogue. These are incredibly creative people, so why regurgitate previous storylines? The adaptations of the various animated series are amazing examples of taking established characters into fresh directions. My point is, why spend the money on movies if you have the comics already. All this notwithstanding, on to the grading!
Category 1: Characterizations were spot on. Nathan Fillon has always been a favorite voice in the DC animated universe and did well as Hal Jordan. It brought to mind the live action fan trailer for Green Lantern where he was cast as GL. The rest of the Corp and Guardians were brought to life like in First Flight, but with an bit less fervor. With all that considered, we have to score the characterizations of the characters with their comic counterparts highly.
Category 1 Grade - A+
Category 2: The action quotient was extreme! Battles in space and hand to hand were both done faithfully to the epic panorama which is the Green Lantern universe. As for the storylines, in some cases, they were exactly worded from their source stories. Having enjoyed the comics, I liked the sub-plots equally. The precursor to Blackest Night with Abin Sur, Sinestro, and Atrocitus hinted that story arc might one day find its way to cinematic light. All in all, given its faithfulness to the source material, this category too should be graded high.
Category 2 Grade - A
Category 3: As I stated above, Fillon did an excellent job narrating the histories of the Corp. Although, I thought Victor Garber was a phenominal Sinestro, Jason Issacs ALWAYS makes a great villain (or villain-in-the-making). Elizabeth Moss brought her innocent strength from her Zoey Bartlet/West Wing days to Arisia, the rookie Green Lantern. The rest were adequate in their performances, but the genius of Andrea Romano was illustrated by casting Roddy Piper as Bolphunga the Unrelenting. To sum up, while not Academy Award level, the acting was sufficient to convey the story.
Category e Grade - B
That gives us an overall score of: A-
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