8.1/10
95%
83%
71%
81%
Lanterns is DC Studios latest effort to capitalise on their extensive comic universe in the way that Marvel has been able to do. DC’s film and TV output has been a bit hit-and-miss over the years and I can’t say I’ve watched a lot of their it.
I did enjoy Stargirl (although I only watched 2 of the 3 seasons as they took it off Prime) and for some reason I only watched the first episode of 2019s Watchmen (something I must rectify) so I’m not really familiar with DC characters outside the usual suspects of Superman and Batman.
I will, however, own up to watching (and enjoying) 2011’s Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds which was a fun, if slightly silly, superhero movie.
So I am going into Lanterns with only the most basic of knowledge when it comes to the story and characters and thankfully (and surprisingly) that wasn’t much of a problem.
What Happens In The Pilot?
We start off in 1996 with 3 young boys watching TV, on the screen is Hal Jordan who it’s revealed is the “Green Lantern”, a protector of Earth. The boys are obviously not supposed to be watching television and one of them is sent to act as lookout and soon shouts a warning that someone is coming so the kids quickly turn off the TV and stand to attention just as a man dressed in army fatigues walks in.
The man, the boys father, turns to the kid that was so avidly watching the TV and asks what the mans name was “Hal something”, the boy replies and is led out of the house to the garage where an apple is placed on his head, his father asks him “Are you afraid?” echoing a phrase Green Lantern Hal said on television. The boy replies “No”, the father aims his gun and shoots the apple.
Fast forward to 2016. We’re not explicitly told the apple boy is now the muscular man working out but we can infer it. He’s being picked up by someone, and wouldn’t you know it — it’s Hal!
Hal is far from a heroic figure: he’s dishevelled, unshaven and hungover and he’s also in a bit of a mood and not ready to take any crap from his trainee, John Stewart. The two have a bit of back-and-forth about how slowly John thinks his training is going and the fact he’s not been allowed to use Hal’s magic Lantern ring. Hal takes his ring off, puts it on the dashboard and then jumps out of the car leaving John to figure out how to save himself as the vehicle careens off a cliff!
So from that I guess it’s safe to assume Hal is a bit of a dick!
John manages to save himself and is walking to a taco stand to meet up with Hal when an “Halogram” of Hal from 1996 appears and tells John to give a message to 2016 Hal “There’s hail in Rushville, Nebraska”. When John catches up to the real Hal and conveys the message, Hal immediately flies off leaving John to make his own way there.
On arriving, he finds there’s been a mass shooting at a football game and Hal is convinced that there’s something extra-terrestrial going on.
Hal and John must join forces with the smart but world-weary Sherriff Kerry to find out what happened at the football game and whether there’s anything otherworldly going on.
DC Extended Universe
Don’t Cross The Sherriff!
As I said, I didn’t really know a great deal about Green Lantern going in to the series and the show does a good job of dropping in bits of lore when needed in a way that fits with the flow of the story.
It doesn’t seem too condescending or heavy handed, and I don’t think it will annoy those who are familiar with the character’s backgrounds.
Because of this I was able to keep up with what was going on, what Hal/Green Lantern’s powers are, the importance of the ring and Earth’s place in the wider galaxy.
What wasn’t really explained was John’s seemingly abusive relationship with his father as he’s being apparently groomed from an early age (for reasons unknown) to become a Green Lantern.
I’m sure we’ll get to John’s backstory as the season progresses but the ferocity of the apple scene at the beginning of the film left me with questions I couldn’t shake which did take me out of the rest of the story somewhat.
The acting from all involved is superb but the standout for me has to be Kelly Macdonald as Sherriff Kerry Kane. Her character isn’t going to take crap from anyone — which is no mean feat given that her father-in-law is the town’s rich guy (played by the excellent Garret Dillahunt) and is part of some weird anti-alien militia/cult thing.
A Slow Loss Of Agency
The pilot is beautifully shot and happily, even though there are some scenes at night, these are well lit and you can see what’s going on — a novelty when it comes to the superhero genre!
The dialogue is also snappy and witty and allows us to get to know the character’s personalities quickly and without a lot of that dreaded exposition.
What I did struggle with somewhat was the pace of the editing, there were some scenes that went on for too long (the bar fight scene for example) and this meant, to me at least, when we finally got to the main plot point of the episode it was crammed in to the last 15 minutes and felt a little rushed.
As an example, I felt that we could have had a bit more time in the police station with the Sherriff, John and Hal discussing what happened at the football game and why Hal was so desperate to question the suspect.
Instead it was sort of left that the only reason Hal was allowed near the suspect was due to the influence of Sherriff Kerry’s father-in-law which robbed her of some of her agency because of course a man has to make the “big decisions”.
The way her character has been written, I’m sure if Hal had been able to properly articulate his concerns over what happened at the football match and its aftermath she would have see his point of view, especially if the safety of the town was at risk.
I get the feeling that the plot felt a bit slow is that they were concentrating on moving all of the pieces in place for the subsequent episodes when things will start ramping up, which given the episode’s ending (which I won’t reveal), looks like it is going to be extremely high stakes.
Lanterns is shaping up to be more of a detective show with superhero elements rather than a straight superhero adventure so if you’re looking for capes and laser beams this episode might not be for you, but if you’re looking for something that’s a bit more introspective on what it means to be a superhero then this episode of Lanterns will certainly scratch that itch.
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