Visitors Review

OleFr-Skj (2012-05-26 11:30)

In brightest day, in blackest night...

The new Green Lantern: The Animated series, brought to life byuberscribe Bruce Timm, definitely has the goods.It has good writing, a decent premise and animation, great voice actingand good character portrayal.The show's CGI animation is actually not that bad, it grew on me. HalJordan's character seems a bit off here, to be honest. Instead of beingstiff and serious, he's pretty much a space cowboy. It does feel a bitoff, but I'm getting used to it.All in all, the show has great writing and a strong premise. I reallyenjoy the show and will be glad to see it run at the very least acouple more seasons.

wicked_child (2012-05-25 15:12)

Poor Execution and Poor Representation

Based on the 1-hour premier, the Green Lantern universe is poorlyrepresented in this series. Sectors outside the 3600. Green Lanternsusing ships. As obvious an attempt to make toys for the series asewoks. Green Lanterns unable to create complex constructs. The need forcomputers. All these things should be possible with the rings. Thelimit is imagination not power or complexity. The premise of the ringsis not respected. The limited power rings makes their abilitiesconfusing.I would excuse most of these complaints if the execution of the serieswas better. Hal's ineptitude with his ring makes him a poor hero. He ishis own worst enemy as usual. As an established hero, Hal doesn'tappear to be a stumbling new hero. He appears to be a cockyinsubordinate fool, who will stumble into victory rather than using hisintelligence or imagination.This series should not last. It is yet another incarnation of GreenLantern that contradicts all other versions. Although a freshinterpretation can be good, this interpretation seems to enhance thenegatives and reduce the positives.

jhi2 (2012-05-24 18:31)

Poor show

I am sorry I had high hopes for this show but my expectations were notmet. First off the Green Lanterns are not weak against red, they areweak against yellow. This is fundamental in the Green Lantern universe.You can change the enemies but how you can change that without givingsome explanation. The Red Lantern Corps, really, is that the best enemyyou can come up with? The Green Lanterns would win hands down. I repeatthe only weakness a Green Lantern has is YELLOW! The guardians in thisseries are petty and cruel. Hal, what can I say about Hal? I am notsure but this is not Hal. There are just too many changes in thisversion of the show for me.Let talk a few minutes about the graphics or lack thereof. The look isso 1990's. I was hoping for high end graphics with a lot of texture andwhat did I get? I got this. For a computer animated show, the graphicsSUCK! With today's high end systems one would expect to see an almostreal looking show with spectacular effects. Instead we get this trash.Please DC, redo this series. Please don't destroy this Hero for me.

alanrayford (2012-05-24 14:49)

A most unimpressive shade of green.

If you're a fan of animation or grew up in the nineties, you'reprobably familiar with the name Bruce Timm. He played a pivotal role inthe emergence of complex and nuanced animation on television with hitslike Batman the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series andJustice League. Well after five years away from the boob tube producinganimated DTV's, Green Lantern the Animated Series (GLAS) marks hisreturn to the small screen. Sadly, it would appear his time in the DTVmarket has knocked him off his game.First and foremost, I have to bring up the visuals to GLAS. They're notappealing. I've seen cutscenes on old PS2 games better looking thanthis. The backgrounds are devoid of textures, reducing mountainsidesand cityscapes to an assortment of flat and dull shapes. The lack oftextures in the background also extends to the characters, giving thema rather pronounced, plastic-like quality. Speaking of the characters,in hand drawn animation, the exaggerated physique approach that'sindicative of Bruce Timm is surprisingly effective. But, the strengthof Timm's style becomes a glaring weakness the second it's rendered in3-D by CGI without the use of cell shading. This is especially true forthe character model of Hal Jordan, which looks like a stock characterfrom the background of an old Pixar film. His chest and arms areunbelievably massive. His chin is extremely prominent. By comparison,his waist is implausibly thin. Devoid of anything resembling textureand impossibly proportioned, Jordan looks like the bastardizedoffspring of a pro wrestler and a primate.Many will say lackluster visuals don't matter if the writings spot on.Sadly, the writing of GLAS is hardly in a position to balance thingsout. Hal Jordan is taken from being a headstrong, but still loyallantern into near treasonous territory. The Guardians tell him to standdown, he laughs at the order. They're questioning his tactics and hecuts them off. They tell him he is not to intervene, under anycircumstances, and he pulls the intergalactic equivalent of GTA andhauls across the cosmos to…intervene. This doesn't feel like the HalJordan of the comics or even the depiction in the movie. Worse was thatKilowog, the Guardian's right hand man, was right beside him. Thisdidn't ring true to decades of characterization. Thankfully, it wouldappear the rest of the GLC will be spared this treatment.This is because, according to this pilot episode, the series willprimarily take place in an extremely remote sector of space the Corpcan't get to in any reasonable amount of time. So the expanded GreenLantern Corp will most likely not be making an appearance. So don'texpect to see Tomar Re, Boodika, Gnort, or even Katma Tui. Also, don'texpect to see Jordan return home to establish he does have a life and aday job and a girlfriend. This effort only fills half the canvas and isakin to Superman without Clark Kent.The conflict in GLAS is provided by the Red Lantern Corps, led byAtrocitus. In the comics, the Red Lanterns are savage, near mindlessbruisers with a penchant for spewing blood. Here, they're basicallytreated as evil counterparts to the GLC. If that's what GLAS wanted,why didn't it go for the Sinestro Corps? This would've made things morepersonal for Jordan and the rest of the Corp as it would've been themvs. the former AAA lantern of their ranks. But instead of a morefitting adversary, we get villains which, while new to the medium, havelargely and understandably been neutered.I'd been looking forward to GLAS since before the live action filmdebuted and bombed. But now that I've seen the pilot, I'm not angry oreven disappointed. I'm worried. On one hand, there's the future of thisseries. On the other hand, there is Bruce Timm.As previously stated, from 1992 through 2006, he played a key part inraising the bar for animation on television. Yet, here's he's given usa show about Green Lantern which features boring, flat and preposterousvisuals; characters which don't feel true; a setting which eliminatesmuch of what's enabled this property to survive for over fifty years;and a villain that's been twisted around to fit the standards ofchildren's television as opposed to a more suitable adversary. The onlyaspect of GLAS which can't be challenged was the acting. But this isanimation, not Terms of Endearment. It would appear Timm, like FrankMiller, Chris Claremont, John Landis, David Chapelle and so many othertruly talented people, may have run out of juice.I do hope he's as dissatisfied with this pilot as I am and, if it trulyis indicative of the rest of the series proper, is able to retool it asmuch as possible. I don't care if the series premiere is delayed by amonth, a season or even a year. I know Timm can do better by thisproperty, if for no other reason than Justice League TAS, GreenLantern: First Flight and Emerald Knights. These treatments were somuch more engaging than this one is. Then again, maybe they're theproblem. Hal Jordan and Kilowog stranded in a remote section of spaceand cut off from the Corp, while facing a dire threat, would make for adamn fine DTV or two episode arc. But I just don't see how this storycoupled with this presentation will hold up under the stress of anongoing series. One can only hope this sneak peek was a test run andnot the final product—fingers crossed. If this is the case and thingsaren't as final as they'd seem, I will heavily revise this review andthe score.