Directors: Christopher Berkeley, Lauren Montgomery, Jay Oliva
Stars: Nathan Fillion, Jason Isaacs, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Rollins, Arnold Vosloo
When the Green Lanterns are forced to evacuate Oa due to the emergence of a deadly foe, Krona, Hal Jordan tells his new protege stories about famed Lanterns, spanning the whole history of the corps.
I’ve read a few Green Lantern comics but I’ve always been more Marvel than DC so there’s a lot of the mythology of the DC heroes that I don’t know. As a result I enjoyed Emerald Knights a lot since it gave me an insight into a piece of the DC Universe that I’d never explored. I liked how it spanned the history of the corps, showing how they first came into being and then highlighting some of the best Lanterns who had worn the rings in the intervening years. Sometimes it felt jarring to cut back to the impending terror, as I wondered whether there really would have been enough time to tell those stories, but it was necessary I suppose.
Krona was terrified, and the way in which he dealt with the Lanterns provided a great deal of tension and I have to admit I was on the edge of my seat a number of times. I liked how the Lanterns worked together, and how we saw a number of uses for the rings throughout the era. The animation was excellent, capturing a number of different scenes. The anthology format is something that I wish was used more, and while sometimes the framing story can seem like a loose framework this one’s framing story was exciting as well, and the film ended strongly. I’m surprised that this is one of the lowest-rated of the DC animated movies on IMDB because I really enjoyed it. I suppose some people are a little disappointed that it doesn’t focus on Hal Jordan, but the Green Lanterns are so much bigger than one man and I’m glad they took the opportunity to explore them in Emerald Knights.
