"Green Lantern: Emerald Knight": Learning from the sages, paying tribute to the predecessors

Freda 2022-06-24 17:51:42

Since Warner Bros. launched the "DC Universe Original Animated Movies" series in 2007 and made its first hit with "The Death of Superman", 2011's "Green Lantern: Emerald Knight" is the 11th work in this series, and also Following "Green Lantern: The First Flight" (for personal film reviews, see "Green Lantern: The First Flight": The animation is just a joke, and I look forward to the new live-action version ) The second film featuring "Green Lantern" as the protagonist. As a viewer who loves superhero movies, I often watch some Marvel or DC animated movies. Although their quality varies, it is quite beneficial for the worldview setting of the entire superhero universe, including the supplementation of character characters and experiences.

If "Green Lantern: First Flight" is about how Hal Jordan became Green Lantern, then "Green Lantern: Emerald Knight" is more like a comprehensive description of the important experiences of several major Green Lanterns. Works that popularize the combat effectiveness and values ​​of the Green Lantern Corps. From this point of view, this film is similar to the previous "Batman: Gotham Knight", except that the latter used six stories from different production teams to collage to create a horizontal view. The full-blown Batman (for a personal review, see "Batman: Gotham Knight: The Multifaceted Bruce Wayne "), the visual style of this film is more unified, and the story is integrated into a coherent whole.

The background of the main line of "Green Lantern: Emerald Knight" is that the anti-matter overlord Karona tries to destroy all life including the star Oa, the center of the universe and the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, so the guardians of the universe assembled all the Green Lanterns to fight against it. Among the many Green Lanterns, the new Aretha has no combat experience, and as a senior, Hal Jordan and others told her a few stories about the Green Lantern Corps in order to encourage her.

The protagonist of the first story is Evra, one of the first four Green Lanterns in history. He was originally an ordinary scribe under the Guardians of the Universe, and became Green Lantern after being selected by the Lantern Ring. The four Green Lanterns, including Evra, hurriedly embarked on the path of maintaining the peace without training. In the brutal battle, the four men were out of reach, and even one of the Green Lanterns was killed, making them question the power of the Lantern Ring. At this time, Evra, the weakest, insisted not to retreat. With the support of his strong will, he realized the ability to materialize physical weapons and passed it on to generations of younger generations.

The protagonist of the second story is the rookie instructor Kirovog. When Kirovog was an apprentice himself, he met Deegan, the most severe instructor in the history of the Green Lantern Corps. Deegan never had a good word for his students, and often asked them to conduct survival training in the dangerous sea of ​​magma and sand, but Kirovog did not understand Deegan's painstaking efforts at the time, and even contradicted. Later in a battle, Deegan sacrificed himself to protect the safety of the cadets. Witnessing this situation, Kirovog abandoned his prejudice against the instructor, expressed the highest respect to him, and applied his strict teaching style to his students.

The third story is about the female Green Lantern Laila. Laila became the Green Lantern when her hometown was devastated by foreign invasion. After the Green Lantern who originally guarded the place died in battle, Lantern chose Laila as the heir and released energy to repel the invaders. Years later, Laila's father re-emerged as the leader of the tribe, and launched a brutal revenge on the former invaders, and Laila had to face her father in order to quell the war. The father, who was extreme and vindictive, refused to listen to Laila's persuasion, and had no choice but to use force to solve it. In the end, Laila won, and her father had come to his senses, retaining a little dignity for himself by committing suicide. One more thing, this hand-to-hand battle between father and daughter is one of the few highlights of this film, and the action design and rhythm are very good.

The protagonist of the fourth story is Mogo, the most powerful and peculiar Green Lantern. Why he is peculiar, because he is not a humanoid creature, but a planet (similar to the self-aware planet Egg in Marvel). Due to his large size and special size, he rarely participates in Green Lantern Corps rallies, so he is known as "Mogo who is not good at socializing". Despite this, he has a heart of justice and fraternity, and is full of wisdom and strength. Once in the universe there was a warrior named Bulvang, arrogant and arrogant, with the goal of defeating all the strong. When he learned about the powerful Green Lantern Mogo, he immediately went to the planet where Mogo lived to provoke him. However, Bolfanger did not find Mogo for several months, and when he was exhausted and discouraged, the entire planet suddenly burst into a huge burst of energy and engulfed it, and he didn't know that Mogo was the planet itself until he died.

The last story is relatively short and is about Abin Shue, one of the greatest Green Lanterns in history, aka Hal Jordan's ex. The story is told by another well-known Green Lantern, Sinestro, who is a close friend of Abin Sue, and together they fight and defeat the villain Artohitas. In the story, Sinesto mentioned "fate", which also implied that he was exiled by the Green Lantern Corps in the future, turned to seek the power of the Yellow Lantern, and formed his own Yellow Lantern Corps.

While telling anecdotes, the main story also came to the decisive moment between the Green Lantern Corps and Karona. Facing opponents with huge antimatter bodies, the Green Lanterns were powerless to fight back and lost many of their teammates. At this time, Aretha, who was still a newcomer, had an idea. With her knowledge of physics, she proposed that since Karona is made of antimatter, she could use the same huge Oa star to hit Karona, which can cancel the two phases. However, due to the disparity in power, gathering all the Green Lantern powers still cannot push Oa to Karona. At the moment of crisis, Mogo, who doesn't like to socialize, appeared, and then of course he was at ease. Not only that, Mogo also provided land to build a temporary base for the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps who lost their headquarters.

If "Guardians of the Galaxy" is an opportunity for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to expand from Earth to outer space, then "Green Lantern" has similar functions to DC, and the entire Green Lantern Corps has a large number of people, and the story is also very imaginative. It may even include all the Seven Lantern Corps in the future. However, the problem with DC at this stage is that the development of superhero movies is still not well coordinated. The quality of the movies is often good and bad, and the styles are not the same. Personally, I think that it is not suitable to put the story of the Green Lantern Corps on the screen before planning a relatively stable and orderly system, at least the Green Lantern Hal Jordan on Earth should be smoothed out first, otherwise it will be even worse. A mess. If the comics can't be edited, you can start a reboot and start all over again, but the movie universe can't. Once the audience is disgusted, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have a chance to turn over. I'm still not optimistic about the "Green Lantern Corps" tentatively scheduled for 2020, and there is no progress in this project now, and there may be a possibility of delay or even miscarriage.

View more about Green Lantern: Emerald Knights reviews

Extended Reading

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights quotes

  • Arisia: [about Mogo] He might not socialize, but he sure knows how make an entrance.

  • Sinestro: It appears you fulfilled the prophecy of Oa's destruction. Not only a hero, but some might say an agent of destiny.

    Kilowog: You did good out there, rookie.

    Arisia: Does this mean I get to skip boot camp?

    Kilowog: Not a chance, poozer.