The setup for Green Lantern: The Animated Series is pretty simple. In the furthest regions of space, Green Lanterns are being killed. While the Guardians don't want to do anything about it (foreshadowing some sort of dark secret of theirs), maverick hotshot Hal Jordan (Josh Keaton) and gruff tough-guy Kilowog (Kevin Michael Richardson) steal an experimental spacecraft to investigate. What they find: the Red Lantern Corps.
It seems there's a whole 'nother color of Lanterns, and the Red Lanterns' rings are powered by rage -- and Atrocitus (Jonathan Adams), their leader, wants revenge against the Green Lantern Corps. So with Hal and Kilowog's ship conveniently damaged (it can do everything but get them back home), the two Green Lanterns must work alone against the threat of the Red Lanterns. Well, not quite alone: Razer (Jason Spisak) is a Red Lantern who feels guilty about what he's done and joins the good guys; and Ava (Grey DeLisle) is the ship's artificial intelligence that wants to be a Green Lantern -- and builds herself a sexy robotic body.
While Green Lantern: The Animated Series isn't as bad as the recent live-action movie (faint praise indeed), it's also not that impressive. The cgi is adequate but not thrilling, giving us ring-generated constructs and alien species that don't thrill. And with the exception of Razer's conversion, most of the battles end in a draw: the Green Lanterns don't capture the Reds, and the Red Lanterns don't kill the Greens. The series does service to DC fans by skipping over Hal's origins, and the workings of the power rings are left vague: They're no longer vulnerable to yellow, but they need to be recharged whenever the plot dictates it. Green Lantern: The Animated Series is alright: not likely to turn off fans of Hal Jordan, but not likely to excite them either.Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch
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