Green Lantern: First Flight Review

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**SPOILER REVIEW**
• 0:00:00 - Introduction
• 0:04:17 - No-Prize Time
• 0:10:22 - Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl Revealed in Superman Set Photos 
• 0:15:01 - Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League Teaser Trailer 
• 0:17:47 - Question of the Week
• 0:18:34 - Kite Man: Hell Yeah! Official Trailer
• 0:20:26 - Green Lantern: First Flight Review
• 0:50:48 - Sign off
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Executive producers: Ken Johnson, John Starosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustyn Balcom, Miggy Matanguihan, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Austin Wesolowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Speas, Andrew Schunk, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, and Joseph Kersting
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#GreenLantern #FirstFlight #DC


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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

(00:24):
Dynamic duel Podcast, a weekly show where wereview superhero films and debate the superiority
between Marvel and DC by comparing their charactersin stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny
DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe.And in this episode, we were supposed to be
reviewing Hulk vs. but Marvel sucks and that'simpossible to find on any streaming platform.

(00:48):
So we're changing it up. Instead, we will bedoing a review of Green Lantern. first flight
a probably superior film even though I've neverseen Hulk vs. Well, yeah, I was so surprised
that I couldn't find Hulk vs. anywhere to streamthat wasn't like a skeezy torrent or streaming
site. You know, the only way you can watch Hulkvs. right now legally is by buying the Blu-ray

(01:11):
or DVD, which I'm not going to do because Ino longer have a Blu-ray or DVD player streaming
all the way. Same here, but that's probablytoward detriment in cases like this. But it's
also not like, you know, The Hulk vs DVD iseasy to buy, you just can't go to a store,
you have to like order it from Amazon or somethingand have it delivered. I guarantee you it's
in the DVD bin of my local Dollar General. Iguarantee you, no one cares that much about

(01:35):
it. Our executive producers cared, but I thinkGreen Lantern First Flight is an appropriate
substitute considering next week's episode isgoing to be Juggernaut vs Atrocitus. Atrocitus
is a Green Lantern villain, so this episodeties into that. Yeah, that's going to be a
fun episode. This film is actually pretty funand we'll talk all about it later on in this
episode. Before that we're gonna break downthe comic movie news from the past week of

(01:58):
which it's all DC news because Marvel's notdoing shit right now. Oh we got Deadpool and
Wolverine coming up in a few weeks so yeah wegot a lot going on. We're gonna talk about
Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl being revealed in Supermanset photos. We're gonna be talking about the
Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League teaser trailerand we're gonna be talking about the Kite Man

(02:18):
Hell Yeah official trailer. As always, we listour segment times in our episode description,
so feel free to check out the show notes ifyou want to skip ahead to a particular topic.
Our artificially intelligent duel simulatorAJ9K has a quick message for our listeners,
so listen up. Why, hello there. Do you wanteven more from this podcast? Then become a

(02:39):
part of the Dynamic duel community on Patreon,where you can choose from three tiers. The
Dynamic Duo tier gives you access to our Discordchat server. The Fantastic Four tier gives
you two bonus episodes each month, and the X-Forcetier makes you an executive producer of this
show. Lastly, the Diner Mike Podcast Networktier lets you create your own podcast using
this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe willhelp you develop your show, provide graphic

(03:03):
support and consultation, and get you simulationresults. Pitch the twins your ideas via email
at dyna Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel.Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to
everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure guysto tune into the other shows on the DynaMic
Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction,which pits your favorite action heroes from

(03:27):
film and television against each other. Thisweek, hosts Ken and Scottie are pitting Schwarzenegger's
Conan the Barbarian against King Leonidas from300. Yeah, that's going to be epic! Also tune
into the Send Your World podcast, where hostZachary Hepburn speculates on fights between
fan favorite anime and manga characters. Theshow is still on its season hiatus, but it's

(03:49):
coming back soon. So this is the perfect timeto catch up on its 40 episode library. And
finally, on the console combat podcast hosts,John and Dean find out who would win in fights
between popular video game characters. In yesterday'sepisode, they reviewed the 90s Mortal Kombat
movie. So if you have nostalgia for that, definitelycheck that out. Visit dynamic podcasts dot

(04:11):
com or click the link in our show notes to listento all of the shows. in the DynaMic Podcast
Network. But with that out of the way, quickto the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel
used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamicduel No Prize, is a digital award we post on
Instagram for the person that we feel gave thebest answer to our question of the week. Last

(04:32):
week, we asked you guys, who do you think isthe mysterious man in black in the Superman
set photos and why? And this is coming off ofthe Superman movie that's currently filming,
and we got a look at a mysterious characterall dressed in black, and thought it would
be fun for you guys to speculate on who it mightbe. Yeah, we got quite a few answers. We're
going to break down this week's honorable mentionsbefore revealing the no-prize winner. Our first

(04:54):
honorable mention goes to Alex Albro, who said,Hey guys, it's Alex. I think the mysterious
man in black on the Superman set is really justthe character of Neil Quinn, aka Ulythes, who
has some energy transference powers. Somethingabout the last son of Earth and it's a whole
big metaphor for Superman being the last sonof Krypton and they're gonna fight. And he's

(05:15):
just one of seemingly three enemies Superman'sgonna have to face in this film. Thanks. Bye.
Yeah, so Ulysses is a fairly recent characterin the Superman comics. He gets his powers
from the fourth dimension and he essentiallyhas the same powers as Superman. What makes
this answer possible is that he, like the characterthat was seen in the set photos, has a U on

(05:37):
his costume. Yeah, and it's a black costumein the comics too. So this could be it. I don't
know much about the character. I would be kindof surprised if they were to introduce a character
that obscure into the Superman film, but younever know. The guy is wearing a mask. It could
literally be anybody. And this is as good aguess as any. So great answer, Alex. Our next

(06:00):
honorable mention goes to Buster Barnes. Whosaid? Hi guys, Buster Barnes here. Hope you're
doing well. I think the villain in the blackoutfit is going to be called Ultraman, however
not the usual iteration that we expect. Instead,I think it's going to be more like Superman
from the Red Sun movie where he is a clone createdby Lex Luthor and or the government in which
he's going to be sent out to take down or potentiallyframe Superman. And then he is going to eventually

(06:24):
deteriorate into a bizarro-like villain forSuperman's fight. Take care, guys. Love the
show. Right. So Buster is saying that the Uprobably stands for Ultraman. If you've listened
to the podcast a few months ago, we did a duelepisode between Ultraman and Hyperion, so you'll
know all about him. Yeah, and if you've readthe Red Sun miniseries or watched the Red Sun

(06:45):
animated movie adaptation, you'll know thatthere is a character in that story that's kind
of like an amalgam of Ultraman and Bizarro.Basically a clone that Lex Luthor created to
go up against the Russian version of Superman.So of course the speculation is that the masked
figure with the U on his chest is an evil versionof Superman, which could make sense because

(07:06):
Lex Luthor is the one who created Superior Manin the comics, and he also created Bizarro
in the comics as well. And since Lex Luthoris in the movie, why not have him create an
evil Superman clone, who he would call Ultraman?Great answer Buster, our final honorable mention
goes to Jacob Foster, who said, What if it'sunknown soldier? I mean, He was based back

(07:30):
out in World War II, Creature Commandos wereback in World War II. James Gunn even said
Creature Commandos was the start of the DC,of his universe at least. Rick Clark Sr. is
in Creature Commandos, Rick Clark Sr. is inSuperman. I wanna say that it's a re-adaptation
kind of the Unknown Soldier, like just a littlebit of a costume change. The Unknown Soldier

(07:53):
is a character in DC Comics who was essentiallya World War II veteran who suffers from amnesia
and no longer remembers who he is. He does weara full face mask and is a master of disguise.
Of course all of the set photos that we've seenthis mysterious figure in has him associated
with the military, which could mean that yeah,maybe he's the Unknown Soldier. Just like a

(08:14):
modern take on the character. Yeah, I'm notsure I follow Jacob's line of reasoning that
just because Rick Flagg is in the creature commandosand this movie. That means that this guy could
be unknown soldier because he was also in WorldWar two with the creature commandos. But why
not? Sure. It could all work out that way. Wewant to give a quick shout out to Brandon Estregard
and Daniel Alonso, who also called in with theiranswers. Thank you guys so much for taking

(08:38):
the time to do that. Daniel, your suggestionthat it was Night Monkey is, I think, spot
on. But the winner of this week's no prize isHey what's up guys it's Miggy and I think the
guy in the stuff photos isn't Ultraman or Ulysseslike people are thinking because it's kind

(08:59):
of weird to have another reverse Superman andGunn has said that it's not a big spoiler that
he's been filming out in public so I think it'san Ultramarine core, a super obscure character
just another like military henchman type. Alsopretty excited about the terrifics in the first
look of Hawkgirl and Guy Gardner. Thanks guys.So the Ultramarine Corps was actually a super

(09:22):
team, not a specific character within DC Comicsthat was put together by General Wade Eiling.
Although I think Miggy's suggesting that insteadof being a ragtag team of C-list characters,
the Ultramarine Corps could be just genericsuper soldier types. And this figure dressed
in black is just one of those. Yeah, I couldtotally see that being the case. I don't think

(09:43):
the figure needs to be some superpowered individuel.I just think it needs to be an elite soldier
of sorts that maybe in this film was not puttogether by Wade Eiland, but maybe by Lois
Lane's father, Sam Lane in conjunction withLex Corp or something like that. Yeah, yeah,
it's possible. I don't think it's anyone specialwhen it comes down to it. I don't really want

(10:04):
it to be any kind of Superman knockoff characterbecause I really want to focus on Lex Luther
as the villain. And that's why Miggie gets thewin. So great answer, Miggy, you win this week's
No Prize. If you the listener want a shot atwinning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later
on in this episode when we will be asking anotherQuestion of the Week. And now that that's done,
onto the news.

(10:29):
Okay, so these past two weeks we have been fortunateenough to receive a ton of set photos from
the outdoor filming of the upcoming Supermanfilm directed by James Gunn. In our last episode
we talked about the first look of the full suitsfor Superman and Mr. Terrific. This week we
got our first looks at the suits for Guy Gardner,the Green Lantern played by Nathan Fillion

(10:52):
and Hawk Girl played by Isabella Merced. Nowright off the bat, pretty much everyone noticed
that both Hawkeye Girl and Guy Garner were wearinguniforms very similar to that worn by Mr. Terrific.
And it looks like these are uniforms worn bya super team sponsored by Maxwell Lord and
his business known as Lord Tech. Which is reallyinteresting. It definitely leans more towards

(11:16):
like a Justice League international team fromthe comics, which was sponsored by Maxwell
Lord. Now, I don't know if they're going tobe referred to as the Justice League in this
film or maybe the Terrifics. which was a teamfrom the comic books led by Mr. Terrific. But
I do think it's interesting that they're goingthis sort of corporate sponsored route. Well,
it provides a nice contrast for the type ofhero that Superman is. You know, Superman being

(11:41):
a guy who does what's right for the sake ofwhat's good and right. Right, yeah, he has
a sense of duty as compared to a corporate sponsoredteam, which may be doing it maybe somewhat
for the duty, but also maybe for, you know,the money and perks. Now a lot of people are
dishing out a lot of flack for these outfitsconsidering the fact that they're not entirely

(12:01):
comics accurate. Guy Garner definitely doesn'thave a lot of green on his costume and Hawkgirl
traditionally wears armor. Yeah, the CW didit better for her costume, gotta say. Maybe.
I do like her helmet. And Guy Garner's, youknow, bowl cut is definitely in keeping with
the ridiculousness of the character's look inthe comics. And while I do wish that both he

(12:22):
and Hawkgirl were... more comics accurate inregards to their looks. I also don't hate the
idea story wise of a team that wears the sameuniform, almost sort of like the X-Men in the
first X-Men movie, how they wore all black leather.This at least is a little bit more colorful
and it still has like their brand logo insigniason their uniforms. I mean, story reasoning

(12:45):
aside, I think the costume choices here weremade to the detriment of character recognition.
I mean, this is the first look that we're evergoing to get at the Green Lantern core within
James Gunn's new DCU. And I don't think it quiteservices Green Lantern well enough. Same thing
with Hawk Girl. I think you're going to runinto like a brand issue at that point almost,
because most people are going to associate thecharacters within this new universe with this

(13:08):
new look. Well, I mean, in regards to Guy Gardner'slook specifically, he wears a jacket in the
comics. So I think, you know, just a color swapon his pants and the jacket. would make him
fit right into the upcoming Lantern show. Ifall of them wore leather uniforms, I also wouldn't
hate that. It's kind of like Guardians of theGalaxy, like the Nova Corps in a way. I don't

(13:31):
think they need to be CG energy costumes likethey were in the Ryan Reynolds film. You mentioned
the X-Men earlier. I think that's a fair comparison.And we've seen what happens when you don't
put the characters in the proper costumes rightaway. And sometimes you have to wait 20 plus
years to finally see them in their comics accurateoutfit. Oh, you mean like Wolverine? Yeah.

(13:52):
Yeah, you know, that's a fair criticism. ButI also think that if this team is going up
against Superman in this movie, the team isprobably going to disband by the end of it.
And I think it's probably fair that they'llprobably have more comics accurate looks the
next time we see them on screen. That's justwishful thinking. Yeah. Of course, the one
character that we know is in this film thathas not been seen in the set photos, who is

(14:15):
also a member of the terrific in the comics.is Metamorpho, who we know is going to be played
by Anthony Carrigan. There was a guy in a bluemotion capture suit spotted on set, so that
may have been him. He might be an all CGI character,which would make sense for the character, since,
you know, he's made up of gases and mineralsand stuff like that. I don't know if that's

(14:36):
a motion capture suit or just like a blue screensuit to make the character invisible later
on. It could be a reference point. I have noidea how special effects work, but of all of
the characters to not be in uniform. he kindof makes the most sense. But yeah, that's really
it. I thought the looks were pretty interestingand I can't wait to see more official looks,
maybe something that includes Hawker Girls wingsaround Comic-Con, I imagine, which is just

(15:00):
in a few weeks. In other DC news, we got ourfirst 30 second teaser trailer for the sequel
to the animated film, Batman Ninja. This timeit's called Batman Ninja versus Yakuza League,
which looks like it's gonna be Jessica Cruz,the Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and
Wonder Woman so far. I would be really surprisedif Superman didn't make his way in there somehow.

(15:23):
But so far from what we've seen of these JusticeLeague characters in these feudal Japanese
designs, I cannot wait for this movie becauseit looks like it's gonna be really fun to watch.
Yeah, well, part of the appeal of the firstBatman Ninja movie was to see a bunch of Batman's
rogues gallery. reinterpreted in these feudalJapanese designs. And it's cool to see that
carried over to the Justice League for thisfilm. It appears that maybe Batman's actions

(15:47):
in the past influenced present day Japan becauseit looks like this movie is taking place in
modern Tokyo, although with a very heavy feudalJapanese approach. Yeah, which is kind of awesome.
I think that's a really cool setting and approachto a sequel. I love the looks for Green Lantern,
Aquaman and Wonder Woman. I think they lookreally cool. The one I don't love though is

(16:08):
the flash. The hat just doesn't make sense tome. You know, if you're running, the thing's
gonna fly off. But I'm really curious to seeSuperman and any other Justice Leagueers that
make an appearance. It does look like DamienWayne is going to be his sidekick for this
movie as Robin, and he was in the first movieas well. Although I do miss the lone wolf and
cub inspired haircut for him. Well, it's presentday Japan now, so you gotta modernize it. That's

(16:33):
fair. Another thing I love the design of isthe logo for this film. It's the word ninja
and the shape of the Batman logo. I want toget that tattooed on my face. I'm wondering
though, since Batman's going up against theYakuza League, does that mean that the Justice
League are evil? Yeah, I think that's a fairassumption here. They're organized crime. And

(16:54):
they're going to be turned good by the end,maybe? It's weird to see the characters as
villains. That's a good question. Yeah, maybehe has to go back in time. to fix whatever
got messed up in the past and the league followshim. I have no idea. We don't have a release
date for this film just yet. We just know thatit's coming out soon and I can't wait to learn

(17:15):
more about it. Again, hopefully during Comic-Con.I expect all of my answers to all of my questions
to be revealed at Comic-Con. That never happens.I know. I just realized now that I'm visiting
the official Batman Ninja website. You knowwhat they're going for with the Flash's hat?
They're going for a Jay Garrick's helmet homage.Oh, OK. I see. I was thinking Raiden for some

(17:38):
reason. I don't know what the lightning. No,because the hat definitely has wings on it.
You know, got you. Makes sense. I loved thefirst movie. I can't wait for this movie. I
love the concept. And that brings us to ourquestion of the week.
What other Marvel or DC character would youlike to see get a cultural reimagining for

(18:00):
a one-off special? Right, similar to Spider-ManIndia or like, I don't know, the upcoming Aztec
Batman, things like that. What culture, whathero? Describe your reimagining. Record your
answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on thered microphone button in the bottom right-hand
corner of the screen, which will prompt youto leave us a voicemail. Your message could
be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget toleave your name in case we include you on the

(18:23):
podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer andaward that person a dynamic duel note prize
that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answerbefore July 13th. In our final bit of DC news,
we got an official trailer for the upcomingKite Man Hell Yeah animated series. Of course,
this is a spin off of the Harley Quinn animatedseries, and a lot of characters are seemingly

(18:47):
making a return. for this one. Which makes mewonder why this couldn't just be a subplot
for the upcoming season of Harley Quinn, butI hope it's just as funny as the Harley Quinn
show. I mean, this is the series that no oneasked for, right? No one asked for a Kite Man
series. I don't know what they're doing. I knowthat we have to review this, but I'll say that
I'm not looking forward to it despite the factthat yeah, Harley Quinn is hilarious, Kite

(19:11):
Man the character is hilarious. I just thinkthere's no demand and nobody's gonna really
watch this in my opinion. Dude, no one askedfor Kite Man as a character to exist in the
comics to begin with. You're right, this shouldnot exist in any shape or form, but it does
and I'm kind of here for it. Because it lookslike they're really, you know, gonna bring
out the lovable loser trope that is Kite Man.It looks like he has really horrible luck,

(19:34):
his dad hates him, he's trying to run a barwith his new girlfriend, Golden Glider, who's
just killing everybody. I guess the conceptdoes lend itself to a situational comedy sitcom
of sorts. I don't want to sound like a haterbecause you look at a show like Modok, which
also nobody asks for, but I truly loved thatshow. So I'm hoping for something like that,

(19:54):
I guess. I do hope that this show is much moreepisodic than Harley Quinn. Let that have an
overarching narrative throughout the season,but let this one be more like Cheers. I think
that would be perfect. Absolutely. Yeah. Theshow is being released on July 18th. I'm hoping
that we could squeeze in a Kite Man duel aroundthat time. The executive producers were kicking

(20:15):
around the idea of pitting Stiltman againstKiteman, which I think is so perfect. Hopefully
we can get that in. Yeah, that'll be a lot offun. Once I heard the idea, I can't un-hear
it, and it definitely needs to happen.
So that's it for all the news this week, nowlet's move on to the main event, where we review

(20:38):
the 2009 animated film Green Lantern First Flight.

(20:59):
Green Lantern First Flight is a standalone animateddirect-to-video film released in 2009. It was
directed by Lauren Montgomery, a former storyboardartist for the Justice League Unlimited animated
series, who went on to direct some of DC's mostcelebrated animated films, including Wonder
Woman, Batman Year One, Superman Doomsday, JusticeLeague Doom, just to name a few. She's also

(21:24):
worked on projects for Marvel and Nickelodeon'sAvatar franchise, Basically, she's a badass
in the animation industry, so it should comeas no surprise that one of Green Lantern's
most badass films, live action or otherwise,would be one she directed. Namely, this movie.
Now since the movie is a decade and a half oldby this point, I'm guessing if you wanted to

(21:46):
see the movie by now, you would have. But here'syour warning that if you want to avoid spoilers,
I'd probably skip this review until you seethe film, which has awesome action, a stellar
voice cast, and really is a film made for fansof the source material. Now, First Flight was
released two years before the live action GreenLantern film that starred Ryan Reynolds, and

(22:10):
it's a shame they didn't take more inspirationfrom this film because while it admittedly
isn't the best origin story when it comes toHell Jordan, it does a surprisingly decent
job at explaining the cosmic lore behind theGreen Lantern stories and a phenomenal job.
with its villain. Sinestro in this film is handsdown the best villain in any Green Lantern

(22:34):
film to date, of which there aren't many, butyeah, this film set the standard right out
the gate with its corrupt law enforcer mentoringthe rookie training day-esque approach to the
story. Yeah, one of the best things that thismovie did with the origin was make it primarily
in space. The 2011 live action Green Lanternmovie had its main conflict back on Earth.

(22:55):
But I think the unique thing about Green Lanternis that he's one of DC's few cosmic heroes.
You know, you have the core, you have the newgods and a handful of others. But unlike Marvel's
cosmic side, DC doesn't have a whole lot ofpopular franchises set in outer space. That's
fair. Now, I would definitely agree with youthat the decision to keep the film in outer

(23:16):
space kind of helped the narrative in that youwere learning about the universe along with
the main character. as opposed to him beingon Earth and aliens having to learn about us.
It was kind of backwards for the way I thinka Green Lantern film should be. As I mentioned,
the film isn't a great origin story for itsmain character, Halt Jordan, who's very much

(23:38):
along for the ride and very reactionary in thefilm, in much the same way Ethan Hawke's character
was in Training Day. And for some reason, thatworks. The rookie thrown into the deep end
framing of the story helps, I think, with allof the lore and exposition that's thrown at
the audience. The film wastes no time, likezero. Hal Jordan is literally wearing the Green

(24:03):
Lantern suit less than four minutes into thefilm. It doesn't bother explaining Hal Jordan's
history or relationship or goals. We don't knowwhy he was chosen to wear the ring. The Earth
scenes are just prologue, essentially, to thestory's massive stakes. of who will control
the dominant power in the universe. The thingis though, that the film is only 77 minutes

(24:28):
long, almost 15 minutes shy of a standard 90minute film. Like 90 minutes is the minimum
length a film should be. And there was a lotof backstory for Hell that they could have
squeezed into that remaining time. So that kindof sucks, and it really makes it seem like
they knew the audience watching this film wouldbe fans of the comics and not- need all of

(24:51):
that extra information maybe? Though I'd arguethat's probably a lazy and dangerous approach
and it shows in this film's current Rotten Tomatoesscores as the audience score is fresh while
the critics score is rotten. Though who knowswith my review that may change. Yeah the movie
definitely does no favors for newcomers to thefranchise. You had mentioned that it seems

(25:13):
the filmmakers here knew that their audiencewould be fans of the character most likely,
but it also seems more like an admission thatcasual viewers aren't going to watch their
film. Yeah. Which is not a good thing. You know,especially for an origin story, you want things
to be accessible. Yeah, absolutely. And youknow, there are a lot of comics characters
with really dense lores, but a good writer canfix that in a way, because not everything needs

(25:38):
to be adapted. one for one from comics to thescreen because you have decades worth of history
to back you up in the comics, whereas you don'thave that when you're trying to reach an audience
for the first time. I could have easily donewith a good 15 minutes or more of this film
because I did enjoy it. The current runtime,I think signifies there was a budget issue

(26:00):
and maybe that's why they couldn't squeeze inmore of that pertinent character building.
Yeah, I was guessing the same thing. They probablydidn't have the money to do more story, which
is a shame. Now, I will admit that one of thereasons the film does a decent job with the
Green Lantern lore is because it wisely choseto ignore comic writer Jeff Johns' introduction
of the emotional electromagnetic spectrum andthe embodiments of the emotions within it such

(26:26):
as the entity of Parallax, who we were introducedto in the Green Lantern Rebirth comic storyline
a few years prior. Parallax, of course, wasthe villain in the live-action film and rewatching
this film All I could think about was how muchof a mistake that was. Yeah. Can I say my favorite
thing about this movie is the lack of emotionalspectrum. When you start talking about colors

(26:48):
as emotions, it all becomes just a little bittoo conceptual and maybe cheesy. I like their
approach of just saying this is the green energythat they were able to harness from the green
element and it's weak to the yellow element.And that's really all you need to know. I completely
agree. It's way too. convoluted. Even in thecomics, it's too much in my opinion. Yeah,

(27:09):
I mean it makes everything just too emotional,which sounds like a shitty thing to say because
it's not a bad thing to be emotional, but youreally paint your characters into a corner
and it's hard for them to be multifaceted andhave multiple emotions when you know they're
represented by things like anger for the redlanterns or avarice for the orange lanterns,

(27:30):
fear for the yellow lanterns. Everything isjust kind of pigeonholed character-wise. Yeah,
it makes the characters more one-dimensional.I completely agree with you. Going back to
Hal Jordan's lack of character development,the main reason I think it's easy to gloss
over that is the action. I think the animatedaction of this film is actually its main draw,

(27:51):
and anticipating what ingenious way Hal Jordanwas going to use his ring's power to get out
of various conflicts was really fun to watch,like in a MacGyver kind of way. With all the
prejudice the alien characters had, for thehuman Hal Jordan, it was satisfying to see
him outthink them in a way that it never reallywas for the live action film, at least for

(28:12):
me personally. Yeah, I mean Green Lantern'spower set is so visual, it's always fun to
watch. Absolutely. The guy can literally createanything, so what is he going to create next?
Let's find out. I mean, there is a severe lackof imagination among the Green Lantern Corps
in general. They kind of seem to keep theirconstructs limited to the six simple machines,
but it's still fun to watch that too. In termsof the animation, I tend to knock the Bruce

(28:36):
Timm style for its overuse, but this is amongthe best works in that style I would say, like
hands down. It almost, like almost, edges intokinetic anime style in moments when characters'
body structures become exaggerated, but I wouldn'tgo as far as to say this is anywhere close
to being as good as anime animation. Yeah, it'sa step up, I think, from a lot of what we got

(29:00):
in the DC animated movie universe. Even though,you know, that whole run of films was incredible,
the animation was slightly lacking during thatrun. Here, it was fantastic. Yeah, of course,
this film was not in that run. It wasn't a partof that. This, of course, was its own standalone
film. I think even Green Lanterns Emerald Nightsis only considered a quasi sequel, with only

(29:21):
some of the voice cast returning for that movie.I did mention that the voice cast here is stellar
and we see some pretty big names including MichaelMadsen of Reservoir Dogs fame as Killawog,
Kurtwood Smith from That 70s Show as KanjarRowe, and Trisha Helfer from Battlestar Galactica
as Budica. They spent way more money on thecasting budget for this film than they have

(29:45):
in recent DC animated fare and that's probablywhy they could only reach 77 minutes. But let's
talk about the two main characters. and theactors who voiced them in our character breakdown.
Now Hal Jordan was voiced by Christopher Maloney,who's most well known for playing Detective
Stabler on Law and Order SVU, but is also aknown face from other films such as 12 Monkeys

(30:07):
and Man of Steel, where he played Colonel Hardy.I still remember rumors that he was going to
be Hal Jordan when his casting was announcedfor Man of Steel way back when, because of
his work in this Green Lantern film. Now, myfavorite voice actor for Hal Jordan is actually
Nathan Fillion, but probably only because Maloneydoesn't have a whole lot to work with in this

(30:28):
film. Like I've said, Hal's a very reactionarycharacter. So a lot of his lines in the movie
are relegated to things like, OK, and what thehell? It's not the best writing. Yeah, he doesn't
get a lot of monologues or anything like that.Definitely not. The most he speaks is when
he's like talking to the guardians. or whenhe's talking to Budoka and Killawag in his

(30:51):
cell. Now regarding Hal's character arc, it'sclear from the opening scene that Hal is something
of a troublemaker who's probably too skilledto test flight simulators and he's pretty bored.
That of course all changes when he gains theGreen Lantern Ring and is whisked off across
the universe on an adventure with universalstakes. But that's pretty much it. Like he's

(31:13):
kind of the universe's luckiest guy. and thathe often just finds himself in the right place
at the right time, whether it's being chosenfor the ring or noticing invisible aliens in
a spaceport or even being near the central powerbattery at the end of the film. Yeah, I noticed
that a lot of the plot was driven by Hal justbeing lucky. Like, of course, he fell into

(31:34):
the sewer right before the bad guy fell intothe sewer. You know, right? Yeah. I just managed
to run into Kush. Yeah, it's again, not an exampleof the best writing. You don't want your character
to just be lucky. You want there to be reasonsfor that, typically. You shouldn't be able
to get away with something like that in screenwriting,but they kind of did in this film. Yeah, just

(31:56):
barely enough where the audience didn't questionit too much. I do think that this movie probably
deserved a sequel and that it set up reallywell why Hal Jordan would be regarded as one
of the best among the core. which is alwayskind of hard to believe considering how massive
the court is. You know, everyone's always talkingabout how great Hal Jordan is. But this movie

(32:16):
showed that, you know, he definitely has somethingunique going for him. Yeah, we may not know
why he's special, but the film does a good jobof establishing the fact that he is. I think
they definitely could have taken that in differentdirections for a sequel. Also special is Sinestro,
who in this film was voiced by Victor Garber,the Tony and Emmy award winning actor. known

(32:37):
for his work in films like Titanic and Argoand shows like Alias. He was Martin Stein in
the CW's Arrowverse shows, you know, one halfof Firestorm. The guy's just an amazing actor
and he was great as Sinestro, like flawlesslycapturing the characters cold cunning to boiling
rage. Sinestro is easily the most interestingcharacter in this film. You know, he's a bad

(33:01):
cop who's disdained for chaos and crime in theuniverse. which he attributes to a failure
in leadership on behalf of the Guardians, leadsto him abusing his power. He believes it's
better to be feared and respected rather thanbeing compassionate, and his extreme methods
have proven results that garner him influencewithin the core. His utilitarian philosophy,

(33:24):
that his means are justified by his end goalof instilling order in the universe, is comparable
to other villains like Thanos, or Ozymandiasfrom Watchmen. It's wrong, but it's easy to
see how good intentions could lead there. Andthe crazy thing is that if it wasn't for one
guy from one backwater planet, he would havebeen successful. Like he killed so many good

(33:50):
guys in this film, more than a lot of othervillains in a lot of other movies. Like you
mentioned, I would have loved to have seen adirect sequel to this film where Sinestro goes
on to create the Sinestro Corps. That sequelwill never happen, but I hope that Sinestro
is as good in the upcoming Lanterns televisionseries as he was in this film. For sure. Yeah,

(34:14):
he was fantastic in this movie. I was blownaway. His motivations were so clear. You could
totally see where he was coming from, wherehe truly believed that any action he took,
no matter how seemingly immoral or evil. wererationalized by the fact that he likely would
produce results. But as Hal Jordan shows, thereare multiple ways to achieve order in the universe,
and not all of them mean you have to be a dick.Or specifically a dictator, you know? Right.

(34:39):
Which is exactly what Sinestro wanted to be,and he wanted to amass power to essentially
control everyone and everything in the universe,taking away their freedoms. And that's sort
of what sets him apart from someone like Thanosor Ozymandias. They weren't really trying to
control people in the same way that Sinestrois, and I think that makes him a little bit

(35:00):
even more sinister, perhaps. For sure. I wasactually surprised by the body count in this
movie. Like, so many dead green lanterns. Thestakes were massive, and the movie definitely
didn't shy away from showing us that. Yeah,no. Like, we saw some popular lanterns go down,
like Tomar Ray, Boudicca, Green Man. Too many.Too many. Oh, I didn't know Charlie Day was

(35:22):
in this movie. What?
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Moving on to the story highlights, during anexercise in a flight simulator for aeronautics

(36:24):
company Ferris Air, Hell Jordan is abductedby the dying alien Aben Suur, a protector of
the universe known as a Green Lantern, whosespacecraft crash landed in the American desert.
His power ring chooses Hell to be Aben's successor,and after donning the ring, the spacecraft
explodes, destroying any evidence of it or thealien. Like you said, lightning quick. The

(36:48):
origin happened so fast in this movie, I wasactually kind of confused that I maybe skipped
over some important establishing scene or something.Yeah, actually I thought the same thing. It's
been a while since I'd last seen this film.So yeah, I rewound it and watched it a couple
of times actually. Now, one thing they did inthis film that was brilliant was have the spacecraft
explode and destroy the alien body, destroyingall evidence, essentially, because then you

(37:13):
don't even need to worry about that. Like whatthey did in the Green Lantern live action film.
It's like, oh, all of a sudden we have thisalien cadaver that we need to, you know, run
tests on and stuff like that. Get that out ofthe way. Get into space. Does that mean the
Evans or ship had some kind of self-destructsequence built into it or something like that?
I guess I don't even know why the ship exploded.Oh, yeah, that's fair. The reasoning is because

(37:37):
we need to move the story along. All right.We need to get to the opening credits. That
doesn't seem very efficient in terms of GreenLantern detective work when one of the core
members goes down. You would think that thering itself would at least serve as a black
box sort of log for that type of situation,but seems that's not the case. Oh, that's true.

(37:59):
I didn't even think about that. It should. Itprobably would in the comics, but I guess not
for this film. Now after returning the simulatorback to Ferris Air Base, Hal Jordan informs
his love interest and supervisor, Carol Ferris,that he'll be taking a week off of work, just
before he's ambushed and interrogated by fourother alien members of the Green Lantern Corps,

(38:20):
who questioned what happened to Abbasur andinform Hal that they'll be taking him to their
homeworld, Oa, at the center of the universe,for approval from their superiors. beings known
as the Guardians. The Guardians initially expressdisdain at the idea of an Earthling bearing
a Green Lantern power ring, but after Hal standsup for himself against the Guardians, a senior

(38:43):
Green Lantern named Sinestro offers to trainand test Hal to see if he's worthy of the ring.
Sinestro takes Hal to the central power batterythat energizes their rings so that Hal can
download all of the known information of UniversalSector 1215. a process that Hal surprisingly
survives. The two travel to Kadmindo, a planetwithin Sector 1215, where Sinestro believes

(39:07):
they can find Kutch. The alien Sinestro believesis responsible for Abin Sur's death. When Sinestro
tortures Kutch's love interest, Labela, forinformation, Hal tries to stop him just before
Kutch attacks the Green Lanterns, then attemptsto flee.

(39:28):
but upon delivering him to Sinestro, HAL hasphysically reprimanded for his earlier defiance,
learning of Sinestro's uncompromising disdainfor the crime and chaos in the universe, and
that the Guardians have been inadequate in preventing.Other Green Lanterns arrive, and they take
Kutch back to Oa for interrogation. Anotherthing that the script kind of skips over is

(39:51):
why Kutch was a lead for the Corps. They mentionhis name kind of out of the blue, and all of
a sudden we're following this guy. Well, somehowSinestro knew that Kutch was the one who killed
Abin Sur. We never learned how he learned thatinformation, but possibly he learned it from
Kanjar Rowe, which begs the question, why didn'ta Sinestro just go straight to Kanjar Rowe?

(40:13):
That's a great question. And you would thinkthat maybe Hal Jordan would have questions
about what they were doing and why. Possibly.You know, Hal Jordan is not a detective on
Earth, so maybe he wouldn't have thought ofthat. That's the only explanation I could think
of. The moon ball scene where Sinestro was torturingLabella was hard to watch, I found. Yeah, because
of the context that this moon ball was a drug.So the analog to Earthbound Drugs was like

(40:40):
watching him make her inject herself with heroinrepeatedly or something like that. Right. Yeah,
that's crazy. This is actually the scene thatmade me think of Training Day specifically,
you know, just the whole drug tie in. And Iwas like, oh man, this is kind of brilliant.
Yeah. Now on Oa, Hal is befriended by Budicadespite his discrimination from other lanterns.

(41:01):
Budica explains the history of the Green LanternCorps and how it's currently being threatened
by the emergence of the Yellow Element, an energysource recently stolen by an alien smuggler
named Kanjar Rho that rivals the Green Elementwithin the Central Power Battery. Kutch, Hal
learns, fatally wounded Abin Sur when Abin Surwent undercover to find the Yellow Element.

(41:25):
just before Abin crash landed on Earth. Aftertorturing and killing Kutch for information,
Sinestro debriefs the core as to Kanjar Rosewhereabouts in preparation for a mission to
get him, just before being scolded by the Guardiansfor his extreme measures. The scene between
Budica and Hal is actually pretty crucial Iwould say for the movie because there's a lot

(41:48):
of exposition there. and they do it in a prettyefficient way through essentially a mind reading
of each other. Yeah, it was the exchange ofinformation through the rings, which is a pretty
cool concept. This used so much foreshadow howSinistra uses his own ring to read the dying
mind of Kenjaro later in the film. Yeah, butit doesn't explain how he was able to reanimate

(42:09):
Kenjaro's body. Like, I didn't know the GreenLantern ring could bring back the dead. Well,
he was saying that he was reconnecting his deadsynapses in his brain. Something like that.
That's bullshit. It's bullshit. I agree. Whena team of lanterns arrive at the Cadian space
terminal to find Kanjaro, Hel is assigned towatch the outer perimeter. Kanjaro, meanwhile,

(42:33):
learns the lanterns are looking for him andmeets with Sinestro telepathically, revealing
that the two are secretly working together toturn the yellow element into a weapon. Though
Sinestro tries to focus the lantern's attentionaway from Kanjaro, so that he could escape,
Hal notices suspicious activity on the loadingdock area and discovers Kanjar Rho and his

(42:55):
soldiers. A battle and chase ensue, but thanksto Hal's ingenuity and competence, he manages
to reach Kanjar before the others, only to beknocked unconscious. When Sinestro arrives
second, he kills Kanjar knowing Hal would getthe blame. That action scene that happens through
the space warp tunnel is so damn cool. I reallyliked how that all played out. It had a lot

(43:19):
of momentum. Yeah, all the action scenes inthis had a lot of momentum and again, a lot
of stakes because you actually see lanternsfall during the battle. So it's like, oh, shit.
You know, what's going to happen to these charactersthat we've kind of come to know. And the way
that Held Jordan manages to succeed where theothers don't. Again, one of the highlights
of watching this film, like him using that grappleto latch onto the spaceship as it emerged from

(43:44):
that wormhole thing. It's like, why didn't theothers think of that? Because that was brilliant.
Exactly. I also really liked the whole plotof Sinestro framing Hal Jordan for murder.
Again, it's another tie to the Training Dayfilm. If you guys haven't seen Training Day,
watch that movie. I think that would be a perfectsetup for a Green Lantern film. And I really

(44:05):
hope that's used as inspiration or basis forthe upcoming HBO Max Lantern show. Back on
Oa, Hel is put on trial for the death of Kanjarand stripped of his power rink and placed in
custody for deportation back to Earth. Confidingin his fellow lanterns Budica and Kilowog that
he suspects Sinestro was responsible for killingKanjar and stealing his energy rod, they take

(44:29):
a detour to the morgue where Hel's suspicionsare confirmed as they find Sinestro using Kanjar's
energy rod to telepathically deduce that theyellow element is with the weaponers on the
planet. Quard. When Killawag tries to arrestSinestro, Budica reveals herself to be in league
with Sinestro and knocks Killawag out. As Sinestroleaves Oa for Quard, Budica attempts to kill

(44:54):
Hal only for Killawag to awaken. Hal managesto outsmart Budica who accidentally kills herself
in an explosion from Kandar's energy rod. Budica'sbetrayal totally caught me by surprise. I did
not see that coming. It was a legitimate twist.Yeah, and kudos to the animators for making
all of her like previous worrisome glances havelike this double meaning when you watch the

(45:15):
film for the second time. Like she's worriedHal is catching on, not that she's worried
about Hal in general. Her death scene was hardcore.It was violent. I was like, what rating is
this? Holy shit. Yeah, it's like, why isn'tthe blood blue? When Sinistro arrives on cord,
the weaponers reveal that they have made a secondpower battery using the yellow element. and

(45:38):
gift him with a yellow ring to control it beforedeparting back to their home dimension. When
a squad of green lanterns arrive on Kord, havinglearned of Sinestro's whereabouts, Sinestro
kills them, sending their rings back to Oa.Sinestro arrives on Oa soon after with his
power battery and decimates the planet alongwith any lantern that tries to stop him. When

(46:01):
the yellow power battery overloads the greenone, lanterns across the universe are with
many of them dying in space. As the Guardiansprepare to surrender to Sinestro, HAL manages
to harness the green element directly whilewithin the destroyed central power battery.
Full of green energy, HAL battles Sinestro,managing to destroy the yellow power battery

(46:25):
with two moons of Oa in the process. Using upthe last of his energy to blast Sinestro to
the surface of Oa from space,
destroy Sinestro's reign before flying up torescue Hal from his fall. Is the movie implying
that green energy is not necessarily weak toyellow energy if there's a sufficient quantity

(46:48):
of the green energy? For some reason Hal wasable to withstand the yellow attacks. Was it
because he had a whole lot of green energy?I think so. That's convenient is all I'll say.
But I guess it makes sense. I mean, why wouldn'tit? Hal was charged directly from the green
element, whereas other green lanterns, you know,they're not as close to that power source,

(47:10):
so they wouldn't have had as much energy tobattle Sinestra with. Right. Hal was like glowing
with so much green energy. The way I kind ofchose to think of it is, yes, ice is weak to
fire. But if you have a whole lot of ice, it'sgoing to be harder for the fire to defeat the
ice, to put it in Pokemon terms, I guess. Yeah.One thing I thought about was the scene prior

(47:36):
where Sinistro forces Hal Jordan to put hisfist into the power battery. It's almost like
a proximity to the green element made it moreeffective or more powerful. And for some reason,
Hal Jordan was able to absorb that energy ina way that other aliens had not been able to
or even died trying to attempt that. Yeah, myassumption is that no other alien had attempted

(47:59):
to access the green element directly. Right,yeah exactly. I did think it was really badass
when he took the two moons and used it to crushthe yellow central power battery. That was
a feat unlike any other. That was the most badassthing I think I've ever seen a Green Lantern
do. That was awesome. In the final scene ofthe film, the Guardians recognized their discrimination

(48:21):
against Hal was unwarranted, and they hold aceremony to honor him and the fallen lanterns.
After leading the core in the oath of the GreenLanterns, Hell flies into space to return to
Earth. That's the end of the film. No, we neversaw the oath recited previously, right? No,
it wasn't used as a mechanism to charge thering in this film. It was simply their pledge,

(48:45):
sort of like the Pledge of Allegiance, whichworks for me, because I always thought the
oath was kind of a silly way to charge yourring. Like just hold it up to the lantern,
you're good. That's true. I think in additionto several... establishing scenes in the beginning
of this movie, it would have been nice to havean ending scene having him return to Earth
and see how the experience changed him and hisrelationship somewhat. Absolutely, yeah. The

(49:09):
film should have been longer. It was dense andthey could have spread that out over a little
bit more time pretty easily, you would think.Yeah. Overall, the film was dense, but with
fun action and cosmic lore, It's unapologeticallyintended for fans of the source material, though
I would say it struggles as an effective origintale. The voice cast was phenomenal, the animation

(49:35):
was great, but ultimately I would say the filmis inaccessible to probably most audience members.
And because of that, I'm giving this 3.5 outof 5 stars. Still a fresh rating on Rotten
Tomatoes, though. Yeah, I mean the movie hasits faults, especially with story and character
development, but I think that the pros outweighthe cons, especially in terms of spectacle,

(49:58):
you know, what you come to see a Green Lanternmovie for, the action and stuff, you know?
And there was plenty of it and I would definitelyrecommend the movie to Green Lantern fans,
absolutely. I will say though that I didn'tlike it quite as much as Green Lantern Beware
My Power or Green Lantern Emerald Nights, butit goes to show that the character has some
solid animated movies under his belt. If not,you know, the live action movie. Yeah, I definitely

(50:20):
hope they use this movie and probably EmeraldNights, which I also really liked as a basis
for the upcoming series. Beware, my power isalso good, though I would like to see the show
focus more on Green Lanterns, whereas beware,my power focuses, you know, on a whole bunch
of different alien races like the Raniens, theThanagarians. That may be important for a show
set out in outer space, but I'm not sure ifLanterns is going to do that. It better if

(50:45):
it knows what's good for it. I agree. I agree.But that does it for this review, AJ9K, help
us close out. Thanks for listening to Dynamicduel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.com
and follow us on Instagram at dynamicduelpodcast.You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com

(51:06):
slash dynamicduel and joining a tier that worksfor you or by rating and reviewing Dynamic
duel on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser,or on our website. Don't forget to listen to
the other shows in the DynaMic podcast network,including Max Destruction, Senjo World, and
Console Combat. In our next episode, as we mentionedearlier, we're going to find out who'd win

(51:28):
in a fight between Atrocitus, the Red Lantern,versus Juggernaut, the X-Men villain. It's
the Red Power Ring versus the Crimson Bandsof Scytorek. Yeah, of course, that is in lead
up to our review of Deadpool and Wolverine,since Juggernaut was a major player in the
second Deadpool movie. So look forward to thatnext week. That does it for this episode. We

(51:49):
want to give a big thanks to our executive producers.Ken Johnson, John Sturawski, Zachary Hepburn,
Dustin Belcombe, Mickey Montagnon, Brandon Essargard,Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatin, Austin Wasylowski,
AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, AdamSpies, Andrew Schunk, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis,
and Joseph Kirsting for helping make this podcastpossible. And we'll talk to you guys next week.

(52:12):
Up up and away, true believers. In plainestgrey, in pale taupe, No simulation is outside
my scope. Let those who just can't seem to cope,Beware my power. because I am dope.