Just in time for the upcoming live-action film, we’re treated to another direct-to-video animated Green Lantern flick: Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.
Since the street date for Emerald Knights isn’t until June 7th, I realize many of you haven’t seen this yet. (I got mine from Amazon, and they shipped it out early.) To make this post more readable for everyone, I’ll save any and all spoilers for the second half, and mark that section accordingly.
Rather than presenting a single story from start to finish, Emerald Knights is an anthology tale in the vein of Batman: Gotham Knight. (Unlike that film, though, a consistent animation style is used.) There’s an encompassing story, sure, but the main thrust of Emerald Knights is a series of tales describing the adventures of many famous Green Lanterns. Some of them are based on well-known Green Lantern comic book stories, such as “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize” (Green Lantern [Vol. 2] #188) and bits of “Secret Origin” (Green Lantern [Vol. 4] #29-35), while others are completely new, such as the tale of the First Lantern.
Now, even though this film uses the same art style and character designs as its predecessor Green Lantern: First Flight, it technically does not take place in the same continuity. This is unnecessarily confusing for viewers. Oh well; let’s just try to judge Emerald Knights on its own merits, shall we?
The Green Lanterns’ ancient enemy Krona is returning to wreak havoc upon the universe. As the Corps stands guard, Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and others recount stories to the Green Lantern Corps newest recruit, Arisia. This framing sequence works quite well, and gives the narrative an excuse to examine the history of the Corps without seeming forced. Each of the tales told to Arisia has some relevance to the task at hand; for example, the tale of the First Lantern helps Arisia overcome her nervousness as a new recruit, and when she meets Laira Omoto, learning her story helps Arisia understand the Lantern’s stoicism. Another tale directly ties into the final battle with Krona, but I’ll save that for the spoiler section later.
Let’s talk about the animation. It’s just as clean and striking as that in First Flight, with a particularly rich color palette used for the flashback stories. Most of the framing sequence is done in hues of green and bright yellow, with starfields as the backdrop. This makes sense given the stellar orbit the Corps is monitoring, but it’s not very visually appealing. However, I’m sure this was a specific choice, as the colorful tales stand out even more as a result. 3D animation was used sparingly, mainly for starships and a few constructs. I vastly prefer the 2D look, and it’s a credit to the animators that they didn’t overdo it with 3D renderings.
Much has been made of the voice cast assembled for Emerald Knights, and with good reason. All manner of actors were picked for various roles, and all of them did and excellent job. The most famous name attached to Emerald Knights was Nathan Fillion, of Firefly and Castle fame. Fillion plays Hal Jordan, but to be honest, it was a bit of a waste. Hal’s not the main character in Emerald Knights, and his few lines could’ve been handled by anyone.
Let’s take a look at some of the other actors providing voice work in Emerald Knights. Jason Isaacs is perfect as Sinestro, as the actor has a distinguished career playing arrogant, villainous, yet intelligent characters (e.g., Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films). Mad Men‘s Elizabeth Moss is excellent as the young and inexperienced Arisia. Legendary musician and wordsmith Henry Rollins seemed to be an odd pick at first for Kilowog, as he doesn’t have the gravelly voice many would associate with the character. However, his delivery was perfect, and that’s what really counts. Kelly Hu did a decent job as Laira, though I wonder if her ethnicity was a factor in casting her. (Hu is of Chinese ancestry, and Laira’s story is very Chinese-influenced. More on that later.)
And then…we’ve got Bolphunga the Unrelenting. When you think of a powerful blowhard of a warrior, who else would you pick but a professional wrestler whose career was playing the exact same type of character?
That’s right, friends, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper voiced Bolphunga, and I don’t think anyone could’ve done better. Piper handled the alien warrior’s lines with just the right amount of arrogance, overconfidence, and humor, making him the most convincing voice actor in the entire film.
The score for Emerald Knights was composed by Christopher Drake. Sadly, it’s one of the film’s low points; it doesn’t come close to Robert J. Kral’s sweeping orchestrations and leitmotifs from First Flight. Drake’s score isn’t bad, it’s just nondescript and forgettable.
Sound effects, however, fare much better. From the depths of space to war-torn planets, Emerald Knights has a rich audio backdrop that conveys the mood just as well as the animation. Some of the effects might sound familiar to longtime science fiction and animation fans. For example, the power ring energy blasts use the same sound effect as the Mega Buster from the 1990s Mega Man cartoon, and Bolphunga’s energy probes sound just like the classic Star Trek medical tricorder. I know I recognized a few other sounds, too, but they’re just not coming to mind right now.
Last but not least, for this section anyway, are the bonus materials. I haven’t watched all of them yet, so I’ll just give you a basic rundown. (I copied some of the text from promotional materials.)
- Audio commentary by Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns.
- Sneak peek at Batman: Year One.
- Behind-the-scenes of All-Star Superman.
- “Only the Bravest: Tales of the Green Lantern Corps,”, a featurette that “reveals and defines the bond that holds together the Green Lanterns’ affection for the ring, and the ring’s unwavering loyalty in return.”
- “Why Green Lantern Matters: The Talent of Geoff Johns,” a featurette about the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment and his “fresh and vibrant storytelling perspective” where he “discusses his contemporary take on the Green Lantern character and why that character resonates in our culture.” In other words, a fluff piece.
- “From Comic Book to Screen: Abin Sur” and “Beautiful But Deadly — From Comic Book to Screen: Laira Omoto,” two mini-featurettes spotlighting the respective characters.
- A digital version of Green Lantern (vol. 4) #1. It’s rather hard to read, even on a large HDTV.
- Two episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold: “The Siege of Starro Part 1″ and “Revenge of the Reach.” Odd choices, to be sure, but Bruce Timm picked them, not me!
Not all of these features are available on the DVD version of Emerald Knights, so if you want everything, go for the Blu-ray Disc edition.
Overall, Emerald Knights is a fun ride, and worthy of any Green Lantern fan’s time. The history of the Corps is just as interesting as any of the main characters we’ve had over the years, and it’s nice when the spotlight falls on someone other than Hal Jordan for a while. Emerald Knights is available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and as a digital copy, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.
I mentioned earlier that I bought Emerald Knights from Amazon, and my version came with an exclusive litho cel. It’s about the size of a postcard, and features this promotional image in a green cardstock frame:
Not bad for an exclusive, I guess, but it’s really nothing special. But you know how Green Lantern fans are with collectibles!
Okay, now for some in-depth plot analysis and nitpicking. You know what that means…
Still with me? Good! To make things easier, I’ll break my analyses down by story.
First up, the eponymous First Lantern. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Seeing a lowly scribe become chosen as one of the first four to wear a power ring, and then discovering its ability to create constructs is one hell of an underdog story. Avra himself had a simplistic design, meant to make him look weaker than the veteran warriors who were also chosen to wield the ring. As always, looks can be deceiving.
Longtime DC Comics fans will notice that the aggressors in this piece were the Dominators, the lipless douchebags behind many invasion plots across DC Universe history. It was cool to watch the proto-Lanterns kick the living shit out of them and decimate their fleets.
It’s hinted that the power rings were never designed to create constructs, and that Avra tapped into a previously-unknown ability. This means one of two things: one, the Guardians are total fucking idiots and had no idea what they’d built; or two, they specifically refrained from telling their new ring bearers about this power, knowing that they’d have to learn about it on their own to be successful. Guess which scenario is more likely.
I doubt this is the same First Lantern referenced in recent issues of the comics, however. Emerald Knights makes it clear that Avra fell and passed on his ring, while the comics imply that the First Lantern may still be among the living (and quite dangerous). Still, it would be nice to see Avra appear in the comics in some form, even if it’s just a flashback or history lesson.
Next up is Kilowog. The hulking Green Lantern drill sergeant was a rookie once, too, and this is a look back at his first real mission. Kilowog served under a tough-as-nails taskmaster; I’m guessing that Ermey wasn’t used because it’s just too ridiculous, but how great would it have been if they got his namesake, R. Lee Ermey, to voice him? Instead, we’ve got a new character in the form of Deegan, who’s just as much of a hardliner.
Deegan was awesome, and watching him torment his recruits in order to better prepare them for the harsh realities of the universe was an interesting look into the more mundane aspects of the Green Lantern Corps. Even watching the ugly bastard beat Kilowog’s ass barehanded was great! It was obvious from the start that Deegan wouldn’t survive until the end of the tale, but that didn’t make things any less entertaining; especially his passing of the torch to Kilowog and painting the Green Lantern symbol on his successor’s chest with his own blood. Deegan was an asshole, but he honestly cared about his recruits, the Corps, and protecting the universe at all costs. Like Avra, we can only hope he’ll transition to the comic books somehow.
Moving on, we’ve got Laira. I was honestly surprised that Laira was even in Emerald Knights, as she was a stereotypical early 1990s “extreme” character, something the current DC leadership cannot stand. Hell, she looks like she was lifted out of any Jim Lee book from that era!
At least she’s given a decent story here, based on her first appearance in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #6. Her costume’s been redesigned to look like less of an X-Men knockoff, and the entire tale has a strong Chinese flavor. Laira’s first foe has armor reminiscent of a jiāngshī, and the entire “Golden Dragon” concept has been reworked to more closely resemble a classical Chinese dynasty.
Much of Laira’s battle with her father did not depend on energy constructs, as the focus was more on martial arts action. Laira would make a few weapons here and there, but they’d often break on her father’s golden armor, and weapons are useless anyway if you’re not quick and skilled enough to use them. This made the story much more entertaining; a Green Lantern needs to be able to survive without using their ring as a crutch.
Changing gears a bit, there’s the Mogo story. As I said before, this one is based on the classic tale “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize.” If that’s not clear enough, characters mention that very phrase a few times within the film. Thanks, guys…we got it. At any rate, this story was my favorite of the bunch. The original comic book story was rather short, but here it’s fleshed out to feature a battle with another warrior prior to landing on Mogo, as well as Bolphunga spending a lot more time planetside before figuring out the truth. Bolphunga’s character design has been vastly overhauled like the others in Emerald Knights, and he looks a lot better here than he does in the comics. His original design was the epitome of 1980s monster silliness (no offense meant to illustrator Dave Gibbons).
I need to reiterate that “Rowdy” Roddy Piper really stole the show as Bolphunga. I could almost picture the alien warrior donning a kilt and “Hot Rod” t-shirt, challenging his opponents in the ring (especially when he broke out a megaphone to call out Mogo). I know stuff like that can take you out of a movie, but luckily this tale was designed from the get-go to be a humorous piece. Mission accomplished!
I’ve got a feeling that the Abin Sur segment will be the favorite of many newer Green Lantern readers, simply because it features Atrocitus. I’m not a big fan of the Red Lantern leader, but I actually think his depiction in Emerald Knights is better than his comic book incarnation. For starters, Atrocitus looks like less of a generic first-person shooter grunt, and more like an alien. Not only that, no mention whatsoever is made of the Red Lanterns, which would only be confusing in this film’s context. Atrocitus is much better as a thorn in the Corps’ side, rather than yet another power ring wielder.
Atrocitus does still speak of prophecies though, including Abin’s impending doom and the fall of the Green Lantern Corps. This scene in particular is great, as it features Sinestro triumphant…along with his Corps! There’s many fan-favorite Sinestro Corpsmen from the comics represented here, like Kryb, Mash, and an incorrectly-colored Lyssa Drak. The Yellow Lantern remote weapon from First Flight is also seen, which again may confuse some viewers. Unfortunately, we don’t see the titanic battle between the Green Lanterns and Sinestro Corps, but this is better than nothing. And before you ask, no, none of the other rainbow Corps are mentioned, which is a good thing.
Another notable change is that Ysmault is clearly a regularly-maintained prison planet, rather than just a wasteland. What’s the last big surprise in Abin Sur’s story? The appearance of a personal power battery. These were conspicuously missing in First Flight, and remain unseen and unused in Emerald Knights except for this one story. Very strange, and the appearance of the battery affects the framing sequence, as we’ll see later.
Last but not least, there’s the overarching tale of Krona; this story is the framing sequence for the entire film. Krona’s trying to break through from the antimatter universe, and it’s up to the Corps to stop him. This is very much the classic incarnation of Krona, not the heavily retconned version seen recently in the comics. He’s pure energy, he’s nearly the size of a planet, and he’s got legions of Shadow Demons at his command. Not good.
I liked how the Corps was nearly powerless to stop him, and it took the arrival of Mogo to finally defeat the villain. It just made things seem more realistic, and upped the tension and suspense. Arisia figuring out that using matter to stop the antimatter-based Krona was a bit cheesy — are the other Lanterns really that ignorant? — but the Corps voluntarily destroying Oa was a nice twist.
The Krona story did feature a few head-scratching moments, though. One bit of weirdness: why were the Lanterns charging their rings one by one at the Central Power Battery? Aside from the fact that they have personal power batteries for that, the Central model is more than capable of allowing multiple Lanterns to charge their rings simultaneously. Since time was of the essence, this seems like a colossal waste.
It was also strange that Hal and Sinestro revered the Book of Oa as “scripture.” It’s not a religious text by any means, and neither of those two characters were the Guardians’ biggest fans. It doesn’t make sense that they’d feel such a fervor towards the Book.
That’s enough commentary. Now get out there and watch Emerald Knights for yourself! The weird and confusing bits aside, it’s still worth it.
