Written by John Semper And Ernie Altbacker
Directed by Jeff Wamester
John Stewart: "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware my power ... Green Lantern's light."
I had started the Tomorrowverse but then had dropped it but now I'm back at it, considering that it's ending this year. So far we've had Superman and Batman, not to mention The Flash and the Justice Society. Time to focus on the space side of DC in this animated movie universe.
It's where of course the Guardians come in and specifically the Lanterns. Specifically John Stewart (Aldis Hodge), who was coping with his former military days as a civilian before being drafted into a war off world. Yup, whether he liked it or not, John Stewart was destined to be a Green Lantern.
Largely thanks to Ganthet (Jason J. Lewis) passing Hal Jordan's (Nolan North) ring to John with Jordan being presumed dead. John struggled to get the ring to remove itself from his finger and it wasn't long before he clashed with Vixen (Keesha Sharp), Martian Manhunter (Ike Amadi) and Green Arrow (Jimmi Simpson). Of course much bigger problems were ahead.
Being paired with Green Arrow (who gave good advice in absence of other Lanterns), John soon realised that a war was brewing between Thanagar and Rann as a brief truce between them had ended and it wasn't long before both Shayera Hol/Hawkgirl (Jamie Gray Hyder) and Adam Strange (Brian Bloom) were forced to put their differences to one side and work together to save both their worlds going the same way as Oa did.
As for the baddies of the piece, at first there was the use of Sinestro (Rick D. Wasserman) and his band of Yellow Lanterns and then there was the trigger happy Sardath (Simon Templeman). Both looked like they were going to be the main threat of the movie until John took out Sinestro and Hal killed Sardath on the spot. Yeah, about Hal.
Halfway through the movie (and to Green Arrow's delight), it turned out that Hal was alive but somewhat more relaxed about killing. Then it was revealed that Hal got taken over by Parallax, killed his fellow Lanterns, took their rings and made Sinestro into his acolyte. I have mixed feelings on this development.
On one hand, Hal/Parallax made for an impressive final act villain who did get a very poignant defeat at the hand of his best friend while another character made a heroic sacrifice to prevent world destruction. On the other hand, I don't like Hal being made into a villain to boost John or John replacing him in general when both can co-exist. Saying that, the movie was John's from start to finish and he's a likable lead, so it does work.
- Aldis Hodge went on to play Hawkman in Black Adam a few months after this movie's release.
- The Trinity and The Flash are mentioned but surprisingly don't appear at all in the movie. We also missed Wonder Woman going from Justice Society in World War 2 to Justice League in the present day.
- John's had relationships with both Vixen and Hawkgirl in other media. He did seem to warm to the latter as the movie progressed and she with him too.
- Chronology: I'm guessing it's been a while since Batman: The Long Halloween two parter.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power made for a solid debut into the Lanterns side of things for the Tomorrowverse. Regardless of my feelings about Hal's overall depiction, it was a good outing for John and a nice use of other characters too. For the most part, I really liked this one.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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