CD REVIEW - GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT


Green Lantern: First Flight
Music by Robert J. Kral
La-La Land Records LLLCD 1106 (US)
20 Tracks 61:22 mins

I'm not all that familiar with the DC Comics character The Green Lantern, but seems he's some kind of intergalactic peacekeeper. The recent DC Universe animated feature presented his origin and first assignment which, whilst short on character development, certainly came up trumps in the action stakes.
Australian composer Robert J. Kral, most famous for his music to Buffy spin-off Angel, has, with Christopher Drake (check out his fabulous score for Superman/Batman Public Enemies on digital download from Amazon), become DC's composer of choice, having previously provided the music for Superman/Doomsday and also worked on Batman: Gotham Knight. Of the two, I must admit to preferring Drake's music, which he at least does his best to give an orchestral sound to, unlike Kral whose synth scores work well enough on this film, but less so on CD. Still, Green Lantern's outer space setting allows Kral to get away with his more synthetic sound than on earlier DC efforts. In fact, certain shadings remind me of the kind of thing composers were doing for sci-fi shows of the '80s; of Vangelis' Blade Runner, and even, bringing things right up to date, Zimmer and Howard's Batman scores.
Kral's score for Green Lantern features a suitably propulsive and heroic main theme, which gets the album under way in the "Main Title" and which often surfaces in variations throughout the score, along with the sinister and menacing power of Sinestro's theme; being of course particularly effective within Kral's action writing, of which there is plenty, in cues like "Going After Cuch;" "Bugs in the Baggage;" "Teleport Pursuit;" the sinister power of "Brutal Attack;" "The Corps Fights Sinestro;" "The Corps Falls;" "Asteroid Battle;" and "Ring Against Ring."
In addition to all the action material, Kral gives "Labella's Club" beat-driven source music; "The Way I heard It,"for the most part, a gently meandering feel; suitable sadness for "Relinquishing the Ring, and the latter stages of "The Corps Falls."
Peace is restored with the penultimate track, "The Green Lantern Pledge," with the main theme soaring triumphantly at its conclusion and leading into the "Closing Credits," where Kral reprises elements of his score, before bringing matters to a suitably heroic conclusion.
Regular visitors to the blog will know that I'm not a great lover of synthesized scores, but the composer has obviously given his all in the service of the film, and it's fair to say that it's certainly one of the more entertaining of its kind.
The CD comes with a colourful accompanying booklet, featuring stills from the film, a brief synopsis of the plot, and a note from composer Kral.
Go to www.lalalandrecords.com/GreenLantern.html for samples, and to order your copy of the album, but hurry as this is a limited edition of just 1500 units.