Green Lantern: Beware My Power

• Directed by Jeff Wamester
• July 22, 2022 (SDCC) / July 26, 2022

Voice Cast

• John Stewart/Green Lantern-Aldis Hodge
• Green Arrow-Jimmi Simpson
• Martian Manhunter-Ike Amadi
• Adam Strange-Brian Bloom
• Shayera Hol-Jamie Gray Hyder
• Lyssa Drak, Banth Dar-Mara Junot
• Ganthet, Captain Kantus-Jason J. Lewis
• Power Ring Voice, Rannian Commander-Sunil Malhotra
• Hal Jordan/Green Lantern/Parallax-Nolan North
• Vixen-Keesha Sharp
• Sinestro-Rick D. Wasserman
• Sardath, Computer Voice-Simon Templeman

A Marine vet with PTSD is chosen as the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps following the apparent death of Hal Jordan and he must investigate who is really behind the cause of a Rannian-Thanagarian war.

For an animated feature Green Lantern: Beware My Power is a truly epic film with more than just great action. It touches on things like hate and envy and being held hostage by the demons of one’s past. This all happens in an edge of your seat exciting space opera film steeped in the lore of DC Comics Green Lantern universe.

The story focuses this time on Green Lantern John “Not from The Daily Show” Stewart. Stewart starts out as a reluctant recipient of his ring. At the beginning his goal is simply to get rid of it before finally embracing his role as the newest Green Lantern. Stewart is a former soldier who suffers from PTSD and general guilt about everything that he’s had to do to just survive. In order to become a Lantern (from a psychological perspective) he must come to terms with his past.

While this certainly doesn’t talk down to the audience and aims for maturity, it generally shies away from excessive gore. You see plenty of blood (most of it alien so it’s green or blue) and plenty of killing. And I dare say I believe there might be even a profanity or two in this film. The point of this is how difficult it can be to end a conflict when both sides have dug and are driven by hate and that gets driven home by those visuals. You understand why the sides feel what they feel.

This is exemplified in Shayera Hol who has difficulty seeing beyond her anger more often than not when she is presented with evidence that not all is as it may seem or that Adam Strange is an ally and not a foe. And anger blinding others to ending the conflict is repeated several times in this film. While not the most deft of narratives, it does a fine job of examing the issues it tackles.

Our cast of characters have to solve a bit of a mystery as it becomes clear that someone is behind the continuing conflict between the Rannian and Thanagarian races. They keep stoking the mutual hate and mistrust for their own ends. It’s not a sophisticated mystery. Who is ultimately behind the film’s evil plot becomes obvious before the big reveal but there are quite a few clues and a few twists and turns along the way that it makes you want them to tell you what you already know.

The Yellow Lanterns-Sinestro specifically-are featured prominently in the story, but they do a poor job of explaining the differences between the Green and the Yellow Lanterns. If you’re relatively unfamiliar with the Green Lantern lore you would be forgiven to think they’re just two different colored power rings. Beyond Green Power being vulnerable to Yellow Power you don’t get much else. For the context of the story it doesn’t matter too much but it also creates an issue where the villains and heroes are not all that ideologically opposed. If they had taken a few minutes out to discuss the differences it would’ve upped to the game a little bit here. It doesn’t harm the movie but it’s a definite misfire for not using something that could have made this a little more special than it already is.

Despite that flaw in the explaining of the two Lanterns we do get nicely crafted characters. They’re not interchangeable for the most part anyway. The only weakness in the characterization though comes in the friendship between Hal Jordan and Green Arrow. Again understanding the depth of their friendship is something fans of the source material would know better than a casual viewer of this film. Not a complete weakness but again an issue I have since Green Arrow calls Hal his best friend towards the end in a rather significant moment.

As per usual (though not always) the animation is fantastic. It is smooth and flowing and the characters are good to look at. And the expressions communicate as much if not more than the dialogue does. The visuals create a grounded, realistic Earth as well as a beautiful space opera aesthetic when the story moves to the stars.

Green Lantern: Beware My Power is yet another great installment of the DC animated universe. It’s fun and exciting and just a well-done story from top to bottom and start to finish. For fans of the DC animated films this is most certainly something to check out!