This direct to video animated film is perhaps the best Green Lantern movie.
Unlike most of the direct to video DC animated movies, instead of telling one story, this is an anthology film. The connecting story has the Green Lantern Corps about to fight against the powerful anti-matter entity Krona. When new recruit Arisia Rrab is nervous and admits she doesn't feel worthy of being a Green Lantern, Hal Jordon tells her the story of Avra, one of the first four Green Lanterns and how he doubted his abilities as well. After this story, the two run into drill sergeant Kilowog and this leads to the story of Kilowog's trainer. After this story they run into Green Lantern Laira and Hal Jordon tells the story of her first mission. After this story the Green Lantern Mogo is mentioned, leading Hal Jordon to tell the story of Mogo. As the battle starts Arisia Rrab is told a story of former Green Lantern Abin Sur.
By virtue of this film's format as a collection of stories about various Green Lanterns, it is able to accomplish what no other Green Lantern movie has been able to. That is to create a feeling of the film taking place in a massive universe. The scale of this movie is larger than life. By exploring so many different facets of this universe, the worldbuilding here is phenomenal. Like in the best sci-fi movies, the universe shown here feels completely real to its audience. After watching this, you will want to watch and read more Green Lantern stories to explore this world even further. At the same time, giving focus on so different many characters, helps us appreciate the Green Lantern Corps as a group of individuals as well as a powerful team. You see how each member brings something different to the table and how each individual is important to the strength of the Corps.
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Besides just this each of the stories are very effective in their own right. Some of these stories are fun, some add to the lore of the Green Lanterns, and some are quite emotional. Yet each one does exactly what it sets out to do. My favorite of these stories is Laira's story, which mixes a real emotional story with great action. Speaking of great action this whole movie is full of fantastic action scenes. These scenes are larger than life and quite exciting. The connecting story is just as strong as the shorter stories, especially with how much of the threat the villain is.
The segments The First Lantern and Abin Sur were directed by Christopher Berkeley. Berkeley has worked as a storyboard artist on many of these DC direct to video animated movies as well as some of the direct to video Scooby-Doo films. As a director he worked on such TV series as Godzilla the Series, Jackie Chan Adventures, The Batman and Ben 10: Omniverse. He also directed the direct to video movie, Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword (2009) and co-directed Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham (2023).
The First Lantern segment is written by Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. Michael Green is a prolific screenwriter. He has written for such movies as Green Lantern (2011), Logan (2017), Alien: Covenant (2017), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Call of the Wild (2020), Jungle Cruise (2021), Death on the Nile (2022) and A Haunting in Venice (2023). Marc Guggenheim has written for many DC comics TV shows including Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Vixen, Supergirl and Justice League Action. He was also a writer on the feature film, Green Lantern (2011).
The Abin Sur segment was written by prolific and influential comic book writer Geoff Johns.
The Kilowog segment and the connecting story were directed by Lauren Montgomery, one of my favorite DC animation directors. Lauren has worked as a storyboard artist on most of these DC Comics direct to video movies (and some of the Marvel ones as well) as well as such DC TV shows as Justice League Unlimited, Legion of Superheroes, Young Justice and Batman: Brave and the Bold. She may be the best director of these direct to video movies, having directed such films as Superman: Doomsday (2007), Wonder Woman (2009), Green Lantern: First Flight (2009), Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010), Batman: Year One (2011) and Justice League: Doom (2012).
The Kilowog segment was written by Peter Tomasi, a prolific comic book editor and writer, who began working at DC in 1993.
The connecting story was written by Geoff Johns and Alan Burnett. Alan Burnett was a very prolific and influential animation writer and producer who worked on such animated TV shows as The Smurfs, Duck Tales, Batman: The Animated Series, Freakazoid, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Ozzie and Drix, Krypto the Superdog and The Batman as well as many of the direct to video animated DC and Scooby-Doo movies.
The segments Mogo Doesn't Socialize and Laria were directed by Jay Oliva. He directed many of the direct to video DC and Marvel movies as well as episodes of the great animated TV series Young Justice. He also worked as a storyboard artist on many superhero films, both animated and live action. This even includes such popular movies as Ant-Man (2015), Deadpool (2016) and Wonder Woman (2017).
The Mogo Doesn't Socialize segment was written by comic book writer Dave Gibbons. Comic book writer Eddie Berganza wrote the Laria segment.
This is one of my favorite direct to video animated DC movies.
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